BMH commemorates 100 years at home in the Swannanoa Valley
Annual Fall Festival and Centennial Celebration Concert welcome generations of alumni and community
Fred McCormick
The Valley Echo
October 11, 2023
Black Mountain Home for Children President Jimmy Harmon will welcome alumni and community members to the campus, Oct. 14, for the home’s annual Fall Festival and Centennial Celebration Concert. Photo by Fred McCormick
One hundred years ago, Asheville Presbytery Superintendent Reverend Robert Perry Smith needed a long-term home to address a dire need he observed on his travels around the mountains of Western N.C. The “Shepherd of the Hills,” as he came to be known in the scattered rural areas, would require much more space to provide care for a growing number of orphaned children from the region.
A native of Spartanburg, S.C., raised in an impoverished family after his father’s death in the Civil War, Smith was sympathetic to the plight of children he encountered as he visited small isolated mountain communities when his ministry set its sights on a 135-acre parcel of land with sweeping views of the Swannanoa Valley. There, what was then known as the Mountain Orphanage constructed a “modern fire-proof building” made of brick, and a century later, it remains perched high atop a knoll, as the ministry dutifully continues its work.
Known today as the Black Mountain Home, the nonprofit organization will host its annual Fall Festival, from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 14, while welcoming generations of alumni and the surrounding community. The culmination of the festivities will begin at 3 p.m., with the BMH Centennial Celebration Concert, featuring Shane & Shane and Willie and Korie Robertson of “Duck Dynasty”
The home Smith founded was already providing care for at least 75 residents by the time it arrived in Black Mountain, having outgrown its original location within a small cabin in Haywood County, and a later site in Henderson County. The needs have only increased in the years since, with BMH providing services for 175 children and youth in 2022, according to President Jimmy Harmon.
“We provide a family-like setting for abused, abandoned and neglected children from 18 counties around WNC,” he said. “We have a continuum of care from birth through college.”
BMH, he added, has long endeavored to provide a safe and fulfilling home environment for residents who have been placed there by the state.
“Our kids come from unfortunate circumstances, through no fault of their own,” Harmon said. “People are shaped by their experiences, and we work with children who have experienced trauma. A lot of people believe in second chances, but here, we believe we’re giving these kids a first chance at life.”
Reverend Dr. Robert Perry Smith established the Mountain Orphanage in a small cabin in Haywood County in 1904. The home, which operates today as Black Mountain Home, is celebrating its 100th year in the Swannanoa Valley. Photo courtesy of BMH
‘That’s how families work’
Two things have endured throughout the 119-year history of BMH: the home’s commitment to Christian values and its dedication to the population it serves.
“We’re all messy people, broken in some way, even if you don’t come from extreme neglect or abuse,” Harmon said. “The core of who we are is our Christian faith, and we welcome people from wherever they are and wrap our arms around them with love. That’s the spirit of BMH.”
In the simplest terms, he added, “we treat each child the way we would want our children or grandchildren to be treated.”
Some children come to the home for a short period of time, while others grow up there, but all of them arrive during one of the most difficult moments of their lives. Most residents have experienced unstable home lives or unhealthy family environments.
Four cottages around the vast BMH campus are home to 33 children, ranging in age from 5 to 17, while three of those homes are staffed by alternating married parent couples. The program, according to Harmon, models a healthy family dynamic and strengthens a stable support system.
“We think this is important because so many of our children come to us from non-traditional homes, and this shows them a parental role,” Harmon said. “Our house parents each work one week and are alternate with another designated house parent couple, so there is consistency. They see the good times and the bad, and they see how to work through those. We just show them what parenting looks like.”
The home’s transitional living program provides a residence for unhoused teenagers who are seeking to develop a higher capacity for responsibility, while across the road, the Ray Campbell Independent Living Village offers stable housing for up to 32 young adults and three staff members. That program, introduced in 2008, has demonstrated remarkable success, according to Harmon.
“Around 20,000 young adults age out of the U.S. foster care system every year, and as low as 2% receive a bachelor’s degree,” he said. “Only 56% of all children in the foster care system earn a high school diploma or G.E.D..”
Teenagers in the BMH independent living program have graduated, most of them from neighboring Owen, at a rate of 89%.
“That’s actually higher than the average nuclear family, which actually goes back to our staff and the fact that we create expectations for them,” Harmon said.
Last year, according to the home, high school students in the home maintained a collective 3.06% grade point average.
“Our younger kids see these buildings every day from on their way home from school and it reminds them that this is all attainable,” Harmon said. “A lot of kids get behind a semester every time they’re moved in a placement, and here we have kids who have been in multiple placements. But, the stability and staff support here really allow them to get caught up, and excel.”
A statue portraying the “Shepherd of the Hills,” as Robert Perry Smith was known around rural WNC, is located near the entrance of Black Mountain Home. The nonprofit organization will celebrate a century in the Swannanoa Valley, Oct. 14, with its annual Fall Festival and Centennial Celebration Concert. Photo by Fred McCormick
Creating a safety net for a better community
What the home offered its residents a century ago represented stability and the ability to learn skills to live successful lives, but making a living in 2023 requires continuing education. For some young BMH residents that will include college, but for others it will require vocational training or an apprenticeship program.
In 2017 the home signed a long-term lease with the state to acquire the former Swannanoa 4-H Camp, which was the oldest such facility until it closed in 2013. The property is now home to the Shepherd of the Hills Retreat Center.
The remodeled facility hosts conferences and events, and operates on a donation-based system, which allows BMH to raise funds, but its services represent a broader impact for the youth.
“What it really allows us to do is to operate our culinary arts, outdoor leadership and recreation and hospitality and housekeeping programs,” Harmon said. “We have certified instructors who get our youth hands-on training, and when we host retreats, they cater those. This gives them skills so when they transition out of our care they can earn a living wage.”
Those programs also help fill a vital role in a surrounding community that relies on thriving hospitality, culinary and outdoor recreation industries.
“We use the Hotel Institute of America curriculum for our hospitality program, which is the same that the major chains use, and we have a certified for mechanic who leads our mechanic and automotive program,” he said. “Dan Windmiller is our recreation coordinator, but also a masters-level instructor outdoor leadership recreation, so we have a really qualified people leading these programs and setting our kids up for success.”
Generations of WNC youth have grown up at Black Mountain Home, including the former residents pictured in this undated photograph. Photo courtesy of BMH
Coming home to Black Mountain for 100 years
Harmon believes the BMH is one of the most beautiful places in the Swannanoa Valley, and with panoramic views of multiple mountain chains, well-manicured farm land and century-old brick buildings around him, it’s difficult to disagree.
However, it is far more than the scenery that keeps generations of former residents returning every year for the Alumni Reunion and Breakfast, as well as the Fall Festival that follows.
“It’s home,” Harmon said. “Our kids don’t ‘age out,’ just like our own children don’t age out of our lives. We find ways to keep supporting them when they need. For our youth who go away to college, we keep a room in the independent living complex for them. They come home and have Thanksgiving dinner with us, and there are presents for them under the tree at Christmas.”
Those bonds often run deep, as people of all ages come back to visit their old home.
“We just had a gentleman who grew up in the home in the 1950s and 1960s who recently passed away,” Harmon said. “His family reached out and asked if they could have his memorial service at Shepherd of the Hills. His ‘forever family’ of former house parents, former residents and current youth, really wrapped their arms around his family, and I think that’s one of the things that makes this place different.”
The overwhelming support from donors, volunteers and neighbors like Grove Stone & Sand and its parent company, Hedrick Industries, has contributed significantly to the success of BMH, according the president.
“Last year, 2,618 people volunteered here, and those hours totaled around 35,000,” Harmon said. “That’s a valuation of around $1.5 million, and we could not achieve the standard of excellence we have here without the people and community who help us.”
The Fall Festival and Centennial Celebration Concert represent an opportunity to thank the community, as BMH prepares to host the largest on-campus event in the home’s history.
Admission to the Fall Festival, which will include a classic car show, a performance by Ridin’ on Faith Ministries, hayrides, games and inflatable jump houses for children, is free. BMH will also host cottage tours, offering a “behind the scenes look at what God is doing in the lives of our children.”
“This festival is always a chance to welcome this community to our campus and spend a nice fall day having a good time,” Harmon said. “We’ll have live music throughout the day, a silent auction, a pumpkin patch and food trucks, so there is plenty to do.”
The festival will be followed by the Centennial Celebration Concert, which has sold more than 1,000 tickets so far, according to Harmon. Ranging in price from $30 for general admission to $150 for VIP, tickets are available at eventbrite.com. The event will feature a live performance by Texas-based contemporary worship band, Shane & Shane and include catered barbecue meals.
“We thought Shane & Shane was a great fit for our ministry,” Harmon said. “They have a big following, and anyone familiar with contemporary Christian music is familiar with them. This is the first concert we’ve ever hosted, so we’re looking forward to it.”
The guest speakers, he added, “have a heart for what we do.”.
“The Robertsons have fostered and adopted children, and they really have a heart for children,” Harmon said. “God has called us to help orphans and widows, and that’s pretty specific in his word. Considering everything Willie and Korie have accomplished in their careers, they didn’t have to open their doors to children who needed them. Foster parenting is tough, and seeing them bring children into their home and being a mom and dad for someone who really needs it says a lot about their character and integrity.”
While the original structure built on the property still stands, Reverend Smith likely wouldn’t recognize much more of the ministry he established in the Swannanoa Valley.
“He went out into the hills and hollows of WNC, and in his travels, he saw a need to help children and fill in some of the gaps to create a place that started as a log cabin,” Harmon said. “So much has happened in this world, and so much has changed, but Dr. Smith would definitely recognize the heart of this ministry remained the same. I think he would see we’re still treating every child like they were our own children or grandchildren, and it’s still all about helping these kids.”