Forestry Division

About forestry service, 37825, New Tazewell, TN, US, Tennessee

Sharps Chapel is an unincorporated community in southwestern Union County, Tennessee, along the northern shore of Norris Lake. == History == American Revolutionary War veteran Henry Sharp settled in the area on a 700-acre (280 ha) land grant. According to another source, the community's namesake may be Peter Sharp, the son of Henry Sharp. A post office was established in the area in 1866 and has operated continuously since that time. Initially the post office was called "Clinch River," but in 1869, the name was changed to Sharps Chapel. Sharps Chapel is assigned zip code 37866. During the construction of Norris Dam in the 1930s, the community was the site of a Civilian Conservation Corps camp, housing workers for the dam project and the development of the nearby Norris Dam State Park. The Bait Ousley house in Sharps Chapel has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places since 1978. This brick Federal style house was built by Jacob Sharp, a son of Henry Sharp, in 1835. The house was sold to Jacob Ousley in 1874 and remained in his family for 132 years, but it was unoccupied for almost 30 years beginning in the 1970s, and was considered to be a haunted house.