The Crossnore School

Celebrating 96 years of miracles!

          Crossnore School is located in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of Avery County, North Carolina in the tiny hamlet of the town of Crossnore.  The school was founded in 1913 by Dr. Mary Martin Sloop to help educate underprivileged mountain children living in poverty. 

Dr. Sloop grew up near Davidson College where here father was a professor.  When Dr. Mary Martin Sloop and her husband, Dr. Eustace Sloop, came to the mountains it was for the purpose of providing “doctoring” as they called it then.  She soon discovered a new passion and that was providing an education for impoverished mountain children.  She waged her own crusade against child marriages and moonshining as told in her ever popular memoir, Miracle in the Hills. 

The school was created as boarding school for the poorest children in the North Carolina mountains.  Dr. Sloop believed “the best way to help children rise above their circumstances is to provide them a fine education.”  The school continues today with that same passion and strong emphasis on education and is known as one of the finest Residential Education Programs in the nation.    

We serve 250 abused, abandoned and neglected children in our residential program annually. The children range in age currently from 3 to 19 years old.  Our special niche is keeping sibling groups together that might otherwise be separated in the traditional foster care system.  We served 23 family groups last fiscal year!  We also provide care for local children in our birth to age five daycare center and after-school program.  A number of community students also attend the K-12 charter school on campus.

The school is licensed as an adoption placing program and works tirelessly to find forever families for children and youth who have languished in the foster care system.

          The residential program is licensed through the NC Department of Health and Human Services and is nationally accredited through COA (Council on Accreditation for Children and Family Services).  The K-12 school is chartered by the North Carolina Board of Education and is accredited by SACS (the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools).

          Crossnore is a private, non-profit children’s home and school with 501(c)3 status. We are not affiliated with any particular denomination.  We are supported by individuals, companies and foundations that care about North Carolina’s hurting children. 

PLACES TO VISIT ON THE CROSSNORE CAMPUS

A rich part of Crossnore’s history is producing some of its own income from various entities.  The thrift shop operation, Blair Fraley Sales Store, is the largest and most unique in all of western North Carolina.  DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) ship goods to the store from all over the country.  Several retail businesses send new items as they make way for new and seasonal merchandise.  Summer residents send entire rooms of beautiful furniture when they redecorate their homes.  Many items are used annually on campus and what cannot be used directly in cottages or by the students is sold in the thrift store.

Crossnore Weavers: A Working Museum began in 1920 from Dr. Sloop’s passion for preserving the Appalachian Mountain art of hand weaving.  In addition to historical preservation, Dr. Sloop began the Homespun House to help local women earn additional income to help support their families and to produce a product that could be sold across the country to support the school.  Local ladies and several Crossnore students continue to produce marvelous hand woven goods for the home as well as lovely and modern wearables. 

The Crossnore Fine Arts Gallery on campus was created to help artists help Crossnore Children.  The gallery features fine art ranging from porcelains by the Cravens to egg tempera paintings by master artist Daniel Ambrose to sketches by master fresco artists Benjamin Long IV. 

Miracle Grounds Coffee Shop is the working vocational classroom for students to learn marketable business and work skills.  The coffees are all purchased through fair trade agreements and help the children not only in the village where the beans were grown but also in the village of Crossnore where the coffee is brewed.  In addition to world class coffees, Miracle Grounds serves an assortment of items for breakfast including ham biscuits and bagels and a great lunch including roast beef and grilled cheese sandwiches.  Hand-dipped ice cream is a summer favorite.

Thousands of visitors journey to the school each summer and autumn to see the fresco in Sloop Chapel entitled, Suffer the Little Children.  Painted in the summer of 2006 by master fresco artist, Benjamin F. Long, IV, the fresco brings to life the scripture from Mark 10:14.

For history buffs, five buildings and structures on the Crossnore campus have recently been named a Historic District by the National Registry of Historic Places.  These include the Sloop Chapel, the Edwin Guy Guest House (newly restored and originally served as a hospital), the Homespun House (houses Crossnore Weavers and the Crossnore Fine Arts Gallery), the Cooper Building and the bell tower.