Site of the Rhea Central High School

During the Scopes Trial of 1925, Rhea Central High School in Dayton, Tennessee, found itself at the heart of a national controversy that would shape the discourse on education and science in America. It was within its classrooms that John T. Scopes, a young substitute teacher and football, basketball, and baseball coach, was accused of violating the Butler Act by teaching evolution—an act that ignited the infamous legal battle.

Opened in 1907, the school became an unintended epicenter of the Scopes Trial, drawing reporters, scholars, and spectators eager to witness a defining moment in American history. In 1930, the abandoned high school found new purpose as the home of William Jennings Bryan University, which held classes there until relocating to its hilltop campus in 1935. Though the original building was later demolished, its site lies approximately 60 meters behind the present-day Tennessee Department of Human Services and the Rhea Community Center. Notably, the tennis court where John T. Scopes was famously summoned to Robinson’s Drugstore on May 5, 1925, once stood just behind the school, while the football field where his teams competed stretched east of the building.

Beyond the courtroom spectacle, Rhea Central High represented the larger debate over academic freedom and the role of science in education, a discussion that continues to resonate nearly a century later. Though the original building is gone, its legacy endures as a crucial piece of the Scopes Trial’s enduring impact on American history and the ongoing dialogue between faith and reason.