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Pittmancenter-cityhall1Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 2.5
–Not graded
History · Pittman Center

1 of Pittman Center’s places is on the National Register

Its Register listing is the Pittman Community Center Home Economics Building. Most of Pittman Center was built recently: 6% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1981. Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1935 on, and the census since 1980.

1on the National Register
6%homes built before 1940
2old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Pittman Center’s archive · credits on each photo

What stands out about Pittman Center’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 2 old photos are in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Pittman Center’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Pittman Center’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewBrown, S.A.; store: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Pittman Center came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Pittman Center.

Read it all →

Like much of Sevier County, Emert's Cove was a Cherokee hunting ground before the colonization of the area. After the Battle of Boyds Creek and several violent incidents between the Cherokee and the aliens to the west in what is now Cocke County, the Cherokee were forced to sign the Treaty of Dumplin Creek in 1785, ceding what is now Sevier County to the State of Franklin. Among the European aliens to move into the newly gained territory was Frederick Emert (1754–1829), who arrived with his family sometime between 1785 and 1793.

ChaptersThe Pittman Community CenterMunicipal incorporation

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Pittman Center, 1878 to 1938

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1878Post officeThe Emert's Cove post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1903Post officeThe Emert's Cove post office closes
  5. 1935On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  6. 1937BuiltPittman Community Center Home Economics Building is built
  7. 1938In the archiveBrown, S.A.; store
By decade

Pittman Center, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1930s2 items
Brown, S.A.; store1938Brown, S.A.; storeMethodist Home Mission Grade School1938Methodist Home Mission Grade School
1940s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
Today2 recent
Emertscove12007Emertscove1Burnettchapel12007Burnettchapel1
On the map

Pittman Center on the map, 1935 to 1940

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Pittman Center. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Pittman Center on the 1935 USGS mapPittman Center on the 1940 USGS map1935Richardson Cove sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Pittman Center.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Brown, S.A.; store
Retake this viewBrown, S.A.; store, 1938

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Pittman Center’s page.

Retake this view · +15
On the National Register

1 historic place in Pittman Center

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
1
each building in a district counts
first listed
1996
Pittman Community Center Home Economics Building
Pittman Community Center Home Economics Building, built 1937
Buildings
Pittman Community Center Home Economics BuildingBuilt 1937

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

People over time

Pittman Center, census by census

0100200300400500198020002020Peak: 502

Between 454 and 502 people in every census since 1980.

5 censuses, 1980–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Pittman Center’s Wikipedia page.

Famous people

Famous people close to Pittman Center

Nobody well known was born in Pittman Center itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
Kelsea BalleriniAmerican singer and songwriter · b. 1993
Michael BinghamAmerican-born British athletics competitor · b. 1986
E
Evy LeibfarthAmerican canoeist and kayaker · b. 2004
Harry HuskeyAmerican computer design pioneer · b. 1916
M
Marshall GrantAmerican musician · b. 1928
Stella PartonAmerican country singer · b. 1949
Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

Another post office, Emert's Cove, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Hamlets and corners on the map
Pinnacle
Gone or out of use
Fairview Schoolschool
6cemeteries and burying grounds inside Pittman Center
Clear SpringEmerts CoveHeadrickShults-WhaleySpurgeonTudor

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Gatlinburg5 historic placesC+

Questions about Pittman Center’s history

What is on the National Register in Pittman Center?

One place: the Pittman Community Center Home Economics Building (listed 1996).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (4), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.