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The DuBose Conference Center, formally known as the DuBose Memorial Church Training School, is a historic site and former conference center associated with the Episcopal Church at Fairmont and College Streets in
Monteagle, Tennessee Monteagle is a town in Franklin, Grundy, and Marion counties in the U.S. state of Tennessee, in the Cumberland Plateau region of the southeastern part of the state. The population was 1,238 at the 2000 census – 804 of the town's 1,238 re ...
. It was historically an Episcopal Church training and conference center. On April 29, 2023, the conference center permanently ceased operations when the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee deconsecrated the property. The mission of DuBose Conference Center was to "offer hospitality, programming, and sacred space to groups of all faiths and backgrounds for education, creativity, and renewal."


History of DuBose Conference Center


1921 to 1944: DuBose Memorial Church Training School

In 1921, Reverend William Stirling Claiborne (1877-1933) and Dr. Mercer P. Logan founded the DuBose Memorial Church Training School on the former site of  Fairmount College. Its curriculum emphasized practical rather than scholarly teaching, including such courses as “The Bible in English,” “Church History,” and “The Contents and Use of the Book of Common Prayer.” In addition to living at DuBose, many of them with established families, they raised vegetables and cattle to help maintain the school and its buildings. The center's main building, Claiborne Hall, was rebuilt in 1924 after a large fire burned the school's original frame building.


1950s to 2023: DuBose Conference Center

In the early 1950s, the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee (which at that time encompassed the
Episcopal Diocese of West Tennessee The Episcopal Diocese of West Tennessee is the diocese of the Episcopal Church that geographically coincides with the political region known as the Grand Division of West Tennessee. The geographic range of the Diocese of West Tennessee was orig ...
, the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee (sometimes referred to as "the Episcopal Diocese of Middle Tennessee"), and the Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee) purchased the buildings and grounds of the old Church Training School and reopened as the DuBose Conference Center. In 1953
Camp Gailor-Maxon
an Episcopal youth camp established in the 1920s, moved from its earlier venues to find a permanent home as an in-house program at DuBose. The Diocese began capital improvements to the school, including the construction of four new cabins and a swimming pool. In 1958, a new outdoor pavilion was constructed to accommodate the growin
Laymen’s Conference of the Episcopal Churchmen of Tennessee
The Diocese of Tennessee built Bishop's Hall, a hotel-style lodging facility, in 1973 and expanded the “Stack Room” in the Pell Library Building to create the Large Chapel. In 1975 Camp Gailor-Maxon constructed the outdoor chapel and campfire area. Four cabins for housing youth and camp groups were also constructed. DuBose Conference Center was added to the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
in 1980. In the early 1990s a decision was made to reconfigure the board to include several “at large” members who would represent constituent user groups of the center; and to actively pursue increased utilization by other denominations and secular groups to improve business results. In 2009, the conference center elected to transition to a 501(c)3 Nonprofit organization but still affiliated with the three Tennessee Episcopal Dioceses and was run by a 21-member Board of Directors. Another in-house program
Winterfest
was established in 2006 for high school aged Episcopalians throughout the state of Tennessee. In 2016 an on-site farm-to-table garden was established. This laid the foundation for the creation of a third in-house program in 2019
Healthy Roots
which focuses on health and wellness outreach and serves the nearby South Cumberland Plateau communities of Grundy County, Franklin County, and Marion County.


Closure of DuBose Conference Center

On April 29, 2023, the conference center permanently ceased operations when the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee deconsecrated the property. Reasons cited included decreased demand for camp and conference facilities, with the additional challenges that DuBose faced during the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
.


DuBose Conference Center Namesake

DuBose Conference Center was named after
William Porcher DuBose William Porcher DuBose (April 11, 1836 – August 18, 1918) was an American priest, author, and theologian in the Episcopal Church in the United States. After service in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War, in which he beca ...
, an American priest, author, and theologian in
The Episcopal Church The Episcopal Church (TEC), also known as the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America (PECUSA), is a member of the worldwide Anglican Communion, based in the United States. It is a mainline Protestant denomination and is ...
in the United States who married Mrs. Louise Yerger, headmistress at Fairmount College and served as the school's Chaplain. It was during this period of DuBose's life, while caring for the little chapel in Monteagle and serving at Fairmount, that Dr. DuBose wrote some of his greatest literature. After his retirement in 1908, he wrote a number of books which established him as a "major New Testament theologian" from his study in Monteagle. He remained at the School until this death in 1918.A Brief History of the Church of the Holy Comforter Monteagle Tennessee. By Warren Leigh Starrett, Jr., Edited by James David Jones. Link to Document Scan from Grundy County Historical Archives: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/59c69c542278e73c826f3226/t/5a5ac62253450afad282efe9/1515898406410/A+Brief+History+of+the+Church+of+the+Holy+Comforter.pdf


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dubose Memorial Church Training School Convention centers in Tennessee Churches in Tennessee Properties of religious function on the National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee School buildings completed in 1924 Buildings and structures in Grundy County, Tennessee Episcopal Church in Tennessee Monteagle, Tennessee National Register of Historic Places in Grundy County, Tennessee 1924 establishments in Tennessee