Located in the Big Cataloochee community in western North Carolina, Beech Grove School is the only surviving schoolhouse from the three that originally served the valley.
Built in 1901 to replace an older log building, it remained in use until the Great Smoky Mountains National Park opened in 1940.
Its existence didn’t come easy though, and only after the original schoolhouse burned down. A story told by Hattie Caldwell Davis states that the Cataloochee school was too small to accommodate the quickly growing community. Hiram and George Caldwell, along with Steve Woody, traveled to Waynesville to ask for a new school house. Haywood County officials denied the request, stating there weren’t enough taxes paid to warrant the expenditure.
On the way home, the three men drank a bottle of whiskey, stewing in defeat. After reaching the bottom of the bottle they formulated a drunken plan to burn down the school. When they returned to the Valley, they removed all of the furniture and desks, and then torched it.
Classes were moved into the old Caldwell cabin the next day. The three men returned to Waynesville to submit a new request for a school building, given that state law required mandatory attendance, strong arming officials to build Beech Grove School.
“School began at 8 a.m. and let out at 4 p.m. with two recesses and a lunch hour. Children usually ate in family groups, the older ones being in charge of the little ones. The lunch bucket was usually jammed with sweet potatoes, cornbread, beans, applesauce, biscuits, ham, and a jar or milk. Subject matter included reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic, geography, and grammar. Friday was parents’ day. They came in the afternoon to see what the children had accomplished that week. Spelling bees, recitations and singing were both a test and an outlet for the pupils’ pride.”
The desks and chalkboards remain, although the teacher’s handwriting and arithmetic lessons have long been graffiti’d over by not so intelligent tourists.
The old school is as insulated by primitive timber as it is open fields, a babbling creek, and unbothered bulls and cows. It’s truly a stunning setting.
