History

The birth of St. Mary Church in Gatlinburg began on Easter Sunday, 1935, with the celebration of Holy Mass. Three years later, Dr. and Mrs. John Conroy of Knoxville donated a log cabin located atop a steep hillside on North Parkway, which became Gatlinburg's first Catholic Church. The 64 steps that led up the hill to St. Mary's Chapel served as a penitential pilgrimage to the handful of local parishioners and visitors who gathered there.

Following the dedication of the Great Smoky Mountains national park by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on Labor Day 1940, Gatlinburg was no longer an unknown valley of English and Scotch-Irish settlers.

As many as 200 Catholic would climb the steps to the log cabin chapel on the hill, which seated only 40 persons. In 1950 the chapel became a mission of Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Alcoa, Tennessee under the guidance of its pastor, the late Rev. Paul W. Clunan.

The late Bishop William L.  Adrian of Nashville dedicated the present Gothic-Design stone church to our Blessed Lady on November 26, 1953. The rectory was added in 1969, when St. Mary became a. canonically established parish covering all of Sevier County. Less than 10 years later a new wing provided classrooms, parish hall and 125 additional seats.

From its humble beginnings with a dozen parishioners in 1938, St. Mary has grown and has been instrumental in the establishment of two additional parishes within Sevier County. The contributions of visitors and parishioners have helped earn this small church a reputation for generosity that is known throughout East Tennessee and beyond.

St. Mary is now in the process of building a new Family Life Center including class rooms for the growing CCD program as well as much needed office space.