A Smoky Mountains town grew around a school founded with $15,000 of church money
In 1910 a survey ranked Sevier County as the part of Tennessee most in need of schools. A Methodist minister answered with a nearly free school in the Smokies, and the town that grew around it, Pittman Center, is also known as the birthplace of Dolly Parton.
The valley, Emert's Cove, follows the Middle Fork of the Little Pigeon River along the edge of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It was a Cherokee hunting ground until the 1785 Treaty of Dumplin Creek ceded the area to the State of Franklin. Among the first settlers was Frederick Emert, son of German immigrants and a Continental Army veteran, who arrived with his family between 1785 and 1793; in 2000 residents built the Emert's Cove Covered Bridge in his memory.
Dr. John Burnett visited the Smokies in 1919 and pictured a large school that would charge almost no tuition. The Methodist Episcopal Church endorsed the idea, and with help from Reverend Eli Pittman of Elmira, New York, he raised $15,000. In 1920 he bought a 135-acre farm just above the point where Webb Creek meets the river, and late that year the Pittman Community Center opened its doors to 100 pupils.
It expanded to 1,500 acres, 15 buildings and 240 students on a yearly budget of $9,000, complete with a store, post office and small hospital. Students handled all the upkeep, and the school paid its way by canning tomatoes and growing apples. The county bought it in 1955 and merged it with a Gatlinburg high school in 1963. Its home economics building survives as the town hall and joined the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.
The community incorporated in 1974 and now covers 6 square miles, with 454 residents at the 2020 census. Tourism carries its economy, since an entrance to the national park lies within its limits, and its road signs stand out with gold lettering on an olive green background. Parton was born in a one-room cabin nearby.
Source: Pittman Center, Tennessee
