Brian Grisham Studios's Vision: Art that Tells a story
The Wonderland Hotel was built in 1912 in the former logging area around Elkmont between Gatlinburg and Townsend, Tennessee. It became a popular resort in the 1920s. Soon after, the land was sold for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. After 80 years, it closed in 1992 and was demolished by neglect per NPS policy. The artist stayed there as a child and often visited this structure that still haunts him. It is depicted here as it appeared just after its abandonment.
This drawing is of a now-razed one-room schoolhouse on Charlotte Pike in west Nashville. Gower School was one of many "Rosenwald Schools," and, if not razed for commercial development, would have been part of a nationwide National Park planned by the US Department of the Interior. The artist was originally unaware of its significance beyond its need for preservation. Upon learning of the project from his preservationist daughter Neale, the real story of this and the following image unfolded.
