Graysville Academy grew out of a group of Seventh-day Adventists organized as a church on Sept. 8, 1888, who recognized the need to train young people so the church's work in the South could expand. A school began on Feb 20, 1892 above J.W. Clouse's store in the village of Graysville with G.W. Colcord as principal, and after this land was donated, an administration building was erected in 1893 and the school was named Graysville Academy. The school was later known as Southern Industrial School and Southern Training School. After the girls' dormitory burned in 1915 and a larger campus was needed, the school moved near Ooltewah, Tenn., where the site was named Collegedale, and the institution there, Southern Junior College, later became Southern College of Seventh-day Adventists. After the 1915 fire, the Board of Trustees transferred the title to the local church, and a school continued here again under the name Graysville Academy. On June 1, 1931, Graysville Academy was leased to L.A. Jacobs, long connected with the school, and operated as a boarding school, but because of economic conditions the dormitories closed in Feb. 1939. The last academy building was demolished in 1974, and after the boarding school closed, the Graysville Seventh-day Adventist Church continued operating a day school for local patrons. Many students of Graysville Academy and Southern Training School served the Lord in many countries of the world.