Arrowmont--a Touch of Class in Gatlinburg

The visitor can immediately sense that there is something suspicious about the Arrowcraft Shop, which stands like an island of serenity at 576 Parkway. First of all, it actually has grass out front. Second, when customers step into the shop, their senses are not assaulted with the usual riot of Gatlinburg gewgaws. Finally, the place seems more like a museum than a retail establishment, with displays of pottery, weavings, jewelry, and handmade paper.

The items for sale here come from the Southern Highlands Craft Guild, an Asheville-based organization whose purpose is, in its own words: "bringing together the crafts and craftspeople of the Southern Highlands for the benefit of shared resources, education, marketing and conservation." In short, the items for sale in the Arrowcraft Shop are very high quality, a marked contrast to the T-shirts and other frippery that so characterizes this town.

The shop is the tip of a craft iceberg called Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, which had its origin in the settlement school movement. In the early years of the 20th century, public education in the most remote areas of Tennessee was virtually nonexistent. To fill this need, various religious and other organizations took it on themselves to build and support "settlement schools" in backwoods communities. Though somewhat patronizing--the organizers of such schools wanted to reform the mountain people from their backward ways--the hearts of these do-gooders were in the right place.

Pi Beta Phi, the first national secret college society of women to be modeled after the Greek-letter fraternities of men, established a school in Gatlinburg in 1910 that stressed better health, education, and instruction in the manual arts. As life got better for mountain people, Pi Beta Phi gave up the health-care and education aspects of the settlement and shifted the focus from manual arts to a crafts school. The symbol of the fraternity is an arrow, so they named it Arrowmont. In addition to the Parkway property for Arrowcraft Shop, the school has a 70-acre campus in Gatlinburg.

Over the years, this school began offering summer courses to visitors from all over the world. Courses last from one to two weeks and are designed for all levels of ability. They include subjects such as woodworking, drawing and painting, clay, fiber, and photography. The school offers housing and financial assistance to those who need it.

Visitors are welcome at Arrowmont. The school has five galleries that are open to the public Monday-Saturday 8:30-4:30 p.m. Admission is free. Parking--a rare commodity hereabouts--is available on the campus, which you reach from a driveway between traffic lights number 3 and 4. Tours of the campus can be arranged by calling the school.

The idle mind wonders why the Arrowmont people don't sell their land for what would no doubt be hundreds of millions of dollars and flee a town that has become the antithesis of patience and craftsmanship. In one sense, however, the mission of Pi Beta Phi of reforming the backward is still going on--and in Gatlinburg more necessary than ever before.