Establishment of the settlement school In the early 20th century, reports of widespread poverty and lack of education in Southern Appalachia gained the attention of religious and philanthropic organizations. Inspired by the
settlement house movement that began in the previous century, these organizations established "settlement schools" in remote mountain communities to provide free education. In June 1910, former Pi Beta Phi Grand President Emma Harper Turner spoke at the fraternity's national convention and suggested the fraternity establish such a school as a memorial for its 50th anniversary. The fraternity's National Alumnae Association authorized the school on June 30, and fraternity leaders initiated an extensive study to locate a mountain community that would most benefit from a new school. The U.S. Commissioner of Education suggested they establish such a school in Tennessee, and the
Tennessee Department of Education identified Sevier County as having the fewest schools. An East Tennessee teacher, Mabel Moore, pointed the Pi Beta Phis to Gatlinburg— then a tiny mountain hamlet at the edge of the
Great Smoky Mountains— as the community most in need of a new school. In 1910, Pi Beta Phi Grand President
May Lansfield Keller made the trek from
Sevierville to Gatlinburg over what she called "the worst road in Tennessee" and verified that Gatlinburg was the best choice for the fraternity's first philanthropy.
Nashville native Martha Hill was chosen as the school's first teacher, and classes began February 20, 1912, in an abandoned schoolhouse at the confluence of Baskins Creek and the
Little Pigeon River. When the locals showed little enthusiasm for the purchase, Pi Beta Phi threatened to close the school. A last minute effort led by Andrew Huff, Steve Whaley, and Isaac Maples raised the necessary funds, however, and Ogle transferred the deed on the evening of the deadline set by Pi Beta Phi. As the mountain children were fond of running through the forest barefooted,
hookworm was a common parasite, and teacher Mary Pollard spent much of her 1913–1916 tenure trying to eradicate it. The Pi Beta Phis built a new six-room schoolhouse in 1914, and in 1916 added a new ten-room teacher's cottage. During the
1918 flu pandemic, Head Resident Evelyn Bishop made numerous house calls in Gatlinburg and the vicinity that endeared the school to the local population. In 1920, Pi Beta Phi dispatched
Canadian-born nurse Phyllis Higinbotham (who had previously worked at the
Henry Street Settlement and
Hindman Settlement School) to Gatlinburg to oversee the settlement school's health care needs. In 1920, Pi Beta Phi installed Gatlinburg's first electric generator to provide power to the school. The following year, the school installed the town's first telephone in the Head Resident's office. Around the same time, Pi Beta Phi teachers began teaching classes in the impoverished
Sugarlands community south of Gatlinburg. A small
hydroelectric dam was built in 1924 to replace the 1920 generator, and the school began publishing Gatlinburg's first newspaper,
The Gatlinburg News, in 1925. In 1924, the Pi Beta Phis organized Gatlinburg's first agriculture co-op and later organized the town's first Chamber of Commerce. The Settlement School's influence helped Gatlinburg maximize the benefits of the tourist boom that came in the 1930s, and helped keep much of the profits from the tourism industry in local hands. A number of the Settlement School's students went on to play important roles in the development of Gatlinburg and the vicinity in the subsequent decades, among them Bruce Whaley (Riverside Hotel), Dick Whaley (Greystone Inn), Jack Huff (
LeConte Lodge), and Charles Earl Ogle (the Mountain Mall and various other ventures). In 1943, Sevier County assumed control of the Pi Beta Phi schools, and built a new school for elementary school students in 1950. Pi Beta Phi High School was consolidated with the high school at nearby
Pittman Center in 1963 to form
Gatlinburg-Pittman High School. Pi Beta Phi Elementary School, located immediately south of the Arrowmont campus, still serves Gatlinburg's
kindergarten through 8th grade students (the current school building was built in the 1960s).
Arrowcraft in 1933 The American Arts and Crafts Revival, which began in the 19th century, helped create a market for traditional handicrafts that settlement house workers seized upon as a means of income for urban immigrants. In the early 20th century, the settlement school movement opened the same markets to the residents of Southern Appalachia. Noting the success of other settlement schools in marketing the region's crafts, Phi Beta Phi Settlement School Head Resident Caroline McKnight Hughes began purchasing handmade baskets and coverlets to sell to the fraternity's alumnae clubs. While Hughes easily found buyers for the items she purchased, she struggled with lack of cooperation from the locals, who didn't fully understand the demand for their products, and often ignored shipment deadlines and refused to sell items on credit. In 1925, weaving instructor Winogene Redding joined the settlement school's staff, and began teaching traditional weaving. By 1926, 30 families were weaving for the school, and had successfully adapted to Redding's strict factory-like regimen of quality and deadlines. In 1927, teachers Harmo Taylor and Lois Rogers opened the Arrowcraft Shop on the settlement school's campus, which acted as both a showroom for passing tourists and a distribution center for shipments (the shop was named after Pi Beta Phi's primary symbol, the arrow). Representatives from Arrowcraft helped establish the
Southern Highland Craft Guild in 1929, which gave local artisans greater access to national markets. The Guild presently operates the Arrowcraft Store, which was built in 1940. In 1968, Pi Beta Phi disbanded the Settlement School Committee and established a Board of Governors for the new crafts school. The following year, the name "Arrowmont" was chosen, and Summer Crafts Workshop director Marian Heard was selected as head of
the new school. In June 1970, Arrowmont dedicated its new Emma Harper Turner Building, which provides offices, classrooms, and studio space (the building's architect, Hubert Bebb, earned an Award of Merit from the
American Institute of Architects for his design). ==Arrowmont today==