Cottontown, TN

Cottontown is a Sumner and Robertson County census-designated place along State Route 25, northwest of Gallatin. The 2020 census counted 370 residents. A post office serves the community, and the road links farms, homes, churches, and small businesses across the two-county line. Cottontown sits within the Cumberland River region, close enough to Gallatin and the Nashville area for commuting but still organized around old country roads and family properties. The post office remains a daily landmark.

The community takes its name from Thomas Cotton, a Revolutionary War veteran who received land and established a settlement here in the 1790s. Cottontown's older landscape still includes the Cotton family story, the Bridal House log cabin, and connections to Castalian Springs, where a Mississippian mound center and mineral springs preserve a much older history. The place has no municipal downtown in the usual sense; its character comes from the road, the post office, historic homes, and the broad rural stretch between Sumner and Robertson counties.