Located in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, Arrowmont is the remaining legacy of the Pi Beta Phi Settlement School. The Pi Beta Phi Women’s Fraternity established it in 1912 (after an enthusiastic endorsement in 1910) and with emphasis on education, manual arts instruction, and health care. The sorority focused the manual arts program on the revival of traditional crafts, such as spinning, furniture making, weaving, and basketry, in order to stimulate the local economy. In 1926 the Arrowcraft Shop was opened to sell the crafts.
In 1965 Sevier County assumed full responsibility for the educational component, and the clinic operated by Pi Beta Phi closed.
In 1945 the Crafts and Interior Design Department of the College of Home Economics joined with Pi Beta Phi to offer a summer craft workshop for which the university offered academic credit. The university supplied equipment and instructors; the Pi Beta Phi Sorority supplied their campus. In June craft books and equipment from UT arrived by an 18-wheeler. In September everything went back to the university. The first director of the program was Elsa Ulbricht, who had managed the Milwaukee Handicraft Project for the WPA. Professor Marian Heard was
codirector in 1946 and served as director from 1947 until her retirement in 1977. The summer institute attracted students and instructors from around the world.
In 1969 Pi Beta Phi changed the name of the school to Arrowmont, and within a year, Pi Beta Phi had completed a new 38,200-square-foot, $650,000 facility into which Arrowmont moved. The facility contains galleries, workshops, and libraries, while dormitories house students, instructors, and artists in residence. In 1979 Professor Sandra Blain, a nationally known potter, became director. Upon her retirement, the directorship ceased to be held by a UT faculty member. In 1994 the Southern Highlands Handicraft Guild assumed operation of the Arrowcraft Shop, which now markets products from all over the southern Appalachian region.