Dispatches from the Smokies

When artist and photographer Louis E. Jones arrived in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, in the 1920s, he became the first artist to reside permanently in the remote mountain village and earn a living from his craft. He spent three decades capturing the beauty of the Smokies and the spirit of its people in photographs, impressionistic-style paintings, etchings, and drawings.

Though a talented painter, Jones made much of his livelihood from his photographic postcards, purchased primarily by tourists for souvenirs and as an economical means of communicating. His Great Smoky Mountains Series of postcards, some which are featured here, consists of at least 40 black-and-white images.

A native of Pennsylvania, Jones studied at Bucknell University and Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts. In 1910, he and his wife, Emma, moved to Woodstock, New York, where he studied at the Art Students League and settled into life as an artist and businessman. 

His work didn’t become legendary, but his Cliff Dwellers Gallery—perched on a hill overlooking the main street in Gatlinburg—did. Designed and built by Jones in 1933, Cliff Dwellers served as a residence, studio, and gift shop. The building, like nothing Gatlinburg residents had ever seen, was crafted of wood and stone and featured gabled roofs, exposed beams, decorative moldings, and balconies—architectural details similar to buildings at Woodstock’s Byrdcliffe Arts Colony. 

Two employees purchased Cliff Dwellers when Jones retired in 1955, but it was local artist Jim Gray and his son Chris who eventually became torchbearers for Cliff Dwellers. When the iconic building was set to be razed, Gray purchased the building, had it dismantled and moved—in four separate sections which took five weeks—to the Arts and Crafts Community east of Gatlinburg. The Grays later sold Cliff Dwellers, and it became a cooperative art gallery showcasing the works of area artists. Today it stands as the longest operating gift shop in Gatlinburg. 

Another Gatlinburg landmark—the Little Cathedral of the Smokies, or First United Methodist Church—owes much to Louis and Emma Jones. The couple donated land behind Cliff Dwellers for the church, and Jones directed all aspects of its design and construction.  

Except for the Museum of East Tennessee History in Knoxville, a private collector in New York, and a handful of people around Gatlinburg, Jones has largely been forgotten. He and Emma had no children to perpetuate their memory. Occasionally, his works show up at auctions. Case Antiques in Knoxville holds the record for a Jones painting: $12,500 for a large, untitled mountain landscape. One of his Smoky Mountains postcards recently sold for $38 on eBay. Jones customarily signed his work LEJ, or L.E. Jones, and often included a copyright.

Jones died in 1958 at age 80. “He was a prince of a man,” said church historian Peggy Smith. In 1945, when he and his wife joined the church and donated the land, Jones said, “If we don’t leave the world a little better off than when we found it, we have failed.”