Shelbyville City

Bedford County, Tennessee

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Shelbyville City Hall is located at 201 North Spring Street, Shelbyville, TN 37160.
Phone: 931‑684‑2691.

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Photo: Winston Evans House, circa 1900, located at 306 East Franklin Street. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. Photographed by user:Skye Marthaler (own work), 2014, [cc‑3.0] via Wikimedia Commons, accessed August, 2021.

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Shelbyville, located along the east bank of the Duck River, was designated the county seat of Bedford County in 1810. Clement Cannon donated 100 acres of land to be used as needed for future buildings to be used for conducting the business and courts of the county. A public square was laid out and a small frame courthouse was built there by 1811. A subsequent brick courthouse was destroyed by fired in 1863 along with a large portion of county records. The current courthouse was built ca. 1873. Shelbyville remained loyal to the Union during the Civil War, and earned for itself the nickname, "Little Boston."

Neighborhoods

James Deery was Shelbyville's first merchant, He opened a general merchandise store here in 1809. Clement Cannon built a mill on Duck River about 1815.

Early merchants included Benjamin Strickler, John Eaken, John and Spencer Eakin, Peter Donnelly, Hugh Wardlow, Robert Stephenson, among others. [1]

1. A History of Tennessee from the Earliest Times to the Present ... during 1886 and 1887, Goodspeed Publishing Company, Nashville, 1887.