The Folk Art Center, located on the Blue Ridge Parkway, is convenient to Asheville and many wonderful places for visitors to go. This is the story of how it got started 100 years ago.

The story of the country's first craft shop began in the rural mountain settlement of Brittain's Cove, twelve miles north of Asheville, North Carolina. The year was 1895. An ambitious young Presbyterian missionary named Frances Goodrich was supervising the cove's Dulah Springs Day School.

In those days, family farms began to decrease as the lure of industrialization led many away to mines, logging industries and Piedmont mill towns. Fractured by this shift, mountain communities were no longer-as self-sustaining. Where money was scarce, schools, churches and medical facilities were also scarce or substandard.

In addition to teaching the school children Miss Goodrich conducted regular "sewing and chatting" sessions with the school mothers. It was during one of these meetings that a neighbor woman modestly presented Frances Goodrich with a 40-year-old bed coverlet, hand-woven by a relative. The art-educated schoolteacher realized it was an antique of rare beauty in an era when textile mills were rapidly replacing the slower, more complex methods of weaving. The coverlet also spurred ideas for relieving economic hardship for these women. When she sent the coverlet to her northern friends, their reaction convinced her that if the women of Brittain 's Cove could produce some homespun weaving, there would be a mail order market for it. The "Double Bowknot "coverelet inspired her handicraft revival work during the last year of her life.

There were no outlets for commerce in her new surroundings besides an old log structure known as "Allen's Old Stand." Years earlier, Mr. Allen had built a lodging for drovers leading herds of livestock through the mountains from Tennessee to South Carolina. "Allen's Stand "was out of use, but the name remained, and Goodrich adopted both the name and the logs from the building to start her new weaving Industry- try in 1902. Allen stand Cottage Industries sold directly to passers-by at the cottage, but the bulk of the business was from mail order brochures distributed through the Presbyterian mission. The growing inventory included such practical items as baskets, quilts, wooden furniture, brooms, and even made-to-order hooked rugs.

In just a few years, the inspired Goodrich raised enough money through the mission for a day school, church and a post office in Allanstand, while her business thrived along the Little Laurel. The church, school and post office are now obsolete, but the hamlet still bears the name "Allanstand. "The original buildings remain along Rt. 208 beside a marker commemorating Allanstand Craft Shop's first home.

The construction of a new road between South Carolina and Tennessee permanently changed Allanstand, both the town and the shop. No one traveled the old road anymore in 1908, Goodrich opened a sales room in Asheville. The weaving cabin was still used and the original shop still operated a few more years. Fifty miles away, in the cultural hub of Western North Carolina, Asheville's 14,000 residents and untold visitors offered a stream of interest in Allanstand Cottage Industries. The work of like-minded people who recognized the value of these hand-crafted traditions culminated into a craft revival movement all across the Southern Mountains. The movement got its start through outreach programs of social service organizations. To re-awaken the craft heritage in the mountains, handicraft education centers were established Rather than offering unusable knowledge taught by outsiders, the handicraft lessons involved the passed- down wisdom of the community elders. As it developed through the 1920s, Frances Goodrich and the quality of crafts produced

Allanstand was a leading influence in craft revival movement. Most revival leaders were loosely associated through the Conference of the Southern Mountain Workers, a group comprised of service organizations. During a 1928 annual meeting of the conference the idea of a distinct organization of handicraft industries was discussed Craft revival leaders decided to further develop ideas at a meeting at Penland two days after Christmas. At Penland, ideas and principles toward a handicraft guild were proposed in an open. discussion of hopes, fears and practical concerns. Frances Goodrich was one of the eleven attendants who spoke freely in the friendship of their common aspirations. It was long remembered as a "mountain top" experience.

The Southern Mountain Handicraft Guild (later changed to Southern Highland Handicraft Guild in 1933) held three more meetings from 1929-1930. A constitution with by-laws was adopted and a mission was set. The mission stressed conservation, development and education of handicrafts, and standards of quality. The guild was comprised of 30 education centers, including Allanstand Industries.

The gift of service

Early in 1931 Miss Goodrich recognized this guild as the kind of organization Allanstand was meant to serve. After turning down numerous enticements to sell the shop for private commercial ventures, the time seemed ripe to place it in the hands of this newly formed guild Frances Goodrich was now sixty-five years old and able to retire to watch younger hands take up the service she started That same year she published Motam Homezo, a chronicle of her career with colorful stories and lots of old mountain dialect in the telling. The book also contained detailed explanations of weaving and the Craft Revile. (Republished in 1989, it is now available with an insightful introduction by lan Davidson, current director of the John C.. Campbell Folk School.)

The guild grew, and in growing, created change. What began as the impulse of women of means to help other women soon reached a broader scope. In 1932, the skilled craftsmen of the Cherokee Indian cooperative also joined the Guild. Sharing display space with coverlets, ladder-back chairs and other "colonial" style crafts, the distinctive native pottery, basketry, bows and arrows were popularly received. Talented wood crafters, blacksmiths, jewelers and glass blowers took their place in Guild member- ship as these arts, too, became threatened with extinction by mass production. By the mid-forties, the Guild had nearly 150 members, most of whom showcased their work through Allanstand Craft Shop.

In 1948 the Guild sponsored its first Craftsman's Fair in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. A spirit of celebration joined members from the nine-state mountainous region to exhibit their work The public was invited into the world of hand-craftsmanship through lively demonstrations, exhibits, and a dash of mountain showmanship. The Craft Fairs of the Southern Highlands have since become a semi-annual tradition, held in July and October at the Asheville Civic Center.

By the 1960s, many of the guild's 200+ crafts people became inspired by the freedom of expression found in the modem art forms around them. A new generation of craftspeople began "taking liberties "with traditional forms, often employing non-traditional materials and exploring craft traditions from other cultures.

By the 1970s the Guild's membership had doubled in a decade, and with the growing number of Guild projects, the time had come for a permanent "Center" for handicrafts. The idea of a craft center on the Blue Ridge Parkway had been discussed ever since the conception of the 472-mile scenic highway in the 1930s. Sixteen acres of land adjoining the Parkway near Asheville was reserved for a new facility. The new "Folk Art Center" would cost over two million dollars. Funds were jointly raised by the Guild, the National Park Service and other donors. The building was constructed of native materials in a design that reflected "environmental harmony."

The 30 founding members of the Guild has increased to nearly 700 members today. The education centers, originally designed to train people for a supplemental income, have witnessed the evolution of the full time, professional crafts person. Mountaineers who worked in the early production centers were more willing to give up their independence in favor of the business-like organization provided by people like Frances Goodrich. Today's crafts person is often highly educated in his craft supporting a livelihood with his/her own craft business. After a half century on College Street, Allanstand moved from downtown Nashville in 1981 to a new home on the Parkway at the Folk Art Center. Once again joined with the Guild's head-quarters, Allanstand is now in the surroundings of a fine craft gallery, public demon- stations, a craft library and a full schedule of classes. Over 350,000 visitors each year enjoy the shop that has served mountain craftspeople for a century.

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