Lebanon is a town with the best kept secret in Mid
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8/23/2007
It is largely developed with quiet suburban neighborhoods on the out-skirts and some beautiful Victorian and bungalow housing stock of significance as you move towards the center of Town. It is blessed with the only operating commuter rail route into downtown Nashville; a recent occurrence that makes Lebanon and other towns along the thirty mile rail corridor significantly more convenient and attractive as a place to live. It is also on the convenient side of town to the Nashville International Airport as you need only take a 25 minute commute down I-40 to Donelson Pike where the airport is located.
The best kept secret, in my opinion is that Lebanon is the Home of Cumberland University and the Cumberland University Bulldogs athletic teams. Sports crazed trivia nuts may recall that Cumberland University's football team disbanded after suffering the worst loss in college football history to Georgia Tech in 1916. The score was 222-0. Cumberland also left posterity one of its most memorable football plays. A Cumberland kickoff returner fumbled, probably from sheer weariness. He yelled to a teammate, "Pick up the ball!" Replied his teammate, "Pick it up yourself! You dropped it!"
But I transgress. The reason this is such a best kept secret is that Cumberland has since re-organized their athletic and began fielding football teams again. They are also perennial contenders for the national championship in baseball in their division each year. The secret though is that Lebanon is a college town waiting to blossom (or experience a re-blossoming given the university's storied history). Given The University's presence, it is beginning to re-impose its influence on the City of Lebanon with various cultural, civic, and educational opportunities that one might expect in a typical college town. You are beginning to see some businesses pop up that either cater to or show support for Cumberland University.
The beautiful part is that you are still convenient to larger markets and cultural outlets in Nashville (30 miles away), as well as, the agrarian landscape that many people move to Middle Tennessee for; hay bales, beef cattle, barns and the like. Add to this the existence of a small liberal arts University without near the traffic and congestion of Murfreesboro, a much larger college town in Middle Tennessee. Finally, Mt. Juliet is another suburb in Wilson County is growing by leaps and bounds. Mt Juliet is closer into Nashville, and that proximit
Tom | Lebanon, TN