Dorland Institute

DORLAND INSTITUTE

"At the state line, as one goes up the gorge of the French Broad River from Tennessee, is Hot Springs and its Dorland Institute. Dr. Dorland established the institution in 1887 in his old age, and it stands as a pledge of the providential approval of his life of devotion to his Master. In 1893, the Women's Board [of Home Missions] assumed the work. The plant has grown to be an excellent one. The girls dormitory stands in the town of Hot Springs. It is three stories high and well built, containing rooms for sixty girls and the teaching force. Two miles away is the Institute farm, 'The Willows' where is the boys' dormitory with accommodations for fifty students. Close to the girls dormitory stands the school-building of eight classrooms where the boys and girls study and recite together; and practice cottages in which the girls in rotation are instructed in house- keeping and home-making. This is the only secondary co-educational school in the mountains carried on by the Women's Board. Incidentally it may be added that in its eighteen year existence it has been remarkably successful in establishing Christian homes. The social life of the young people is under the faculty's close supervision, for they regard it fully as much a duty to teach young people right social habits as it is to teach arithmetic or history. So eager were the young men for the privileges of the Institute that before a dormitory was provided for them, they occupied a tobacco barn that was lent them for use as a dormitory. On 'The Willows' farm, one of the best in Madison County, the young men find opportunities for practical farm work; they also do the housework. Dorland Memorial Church in the town near the Institute buildings is a church home for all students. The average annual enrollment for the decade closing in 1911 was two hundred and twenty pupils. For eighteen years, Miss Julia E. Phillips has been principal, and during that time has impressed her character on the institute and upon literally thousands that have attended it." ( 1914, Wilson, p. 135)