School History

    In 1912, Pi Beta Phi, a national college sorority, founded a small one-room school at the junction of Baskins Creek and the Little Pigeon River, near where the Arrowmont Craft Shop now stands. This school, though simple in its beginnings, was an attempt to give the proud mountain people of this area something better than the three-month school that had been available. The new school opened with an attendance of 13 children and closed with 33. The community, which the school served, numbered 500-600 people, a majority of whom were children. At that time, Gatlinburg, the center of this community, was a hamlet of a dozen houses, a blacksmith shop, a Baptist church, and the little schoolhouse.

    The new school quickly outgrew its quarters. In 1913, Pi Beta Phi, with the help of local citizens, purchased a larger tract of land in Gatlinburg, and a new school was opened in 1914. By the end of the
year, over 134 pupils were in attendance at the Pi Beta Phi Settlement School.

    During the 1940's, the county gradually took over the administration of the school, constructing a new building for the elementary grades in 1949-50. In 1963, high school classes were moved to Gatlinburg-Pittman. Then, between 1966 and 1968, the present facilities were built or remodeled. By 1966, the fraternity had withdrawn its financial support for the school; however, it deeded the land on which the new school was built to Sevier County and issued a long-term lease for the playground at one dollar a year.

    Negotiations with the fraternity were successfully concluded to extend the lease far into the future, ensuring the place, both literally and figuratively, of Pi Beta Phi Elementary School in the heart of Gatlinburg for many years to come.