Rocky Mount State Historic Site
house in Tennessee, United States of America
Rocky Mount, in Piney Flats, Tennessee, also known as the Cobb-Massengill House, was the first territorial capital of the Southwest Territory.
The property of William Cobb, the original residence at Rocky Mount served as the territorial capital from 1790 to 1792. Dendroarchaeological investigations at the site by the University of Tennessee revealed that the present dwelling dates to the late 1820s.
The property is owned by the State of Tennessee and has been operated by the Rocky Mount Historical Association, a non-profit organization in partnership with the Tennessee Historical Commission, since 1962. The property is a living museum that recreates the year 1791, when American Founding Father William Blount was in residence as governor. It is next to the DeVault-Massengill House.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Rocky Mount State Historic Site” as house in Tennessee, United States of America. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as house in Tennessee, United States of America. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7355849. Authority coordinates are 36.406, -82.337. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1790, 1792, 1962 and 1791.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
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Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Rocky Mount State Historic Site”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Rocky Mount State Historic Site primary sources, Rocky Mount State Historic Site archive and Rocky research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Rocky Mount State Historic Site” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.