How Jim Gerding changed the face of Gatlinburg forever … with pancakes, architecture and civic involvement
The swallows are called Capistrano. The Manatee find their way home from the wide ocean to the springs of Florida’s Gulf Coast. The people of the Smoky Mountains? They respond to the siren call of Myrtle Beach.
And The Hoosiers? They come to the Smoky Mountains. As a fellow Hoosier turned Volunteer, I’ve known about the vacation pipeline from Indiana to the Smokies for as long as I’ve been alive. Therefore, when I first researched the history of the Pancake Pantry, I wasn’t shocked to find a pair of fellow Hoosiers at the start of a mountain dynasty.
This week the Hoosier Jim Gerding shuffled off his mortal coil and joined his beloved wife of 62 years – amongst the heavenly host. We couldn’t let Jim’s passing go without an appreciation for the work he did.
About Jim Gerding
It is hard to be more Hoosier than Jim Gerding. Born in Ft. Wayne, he attended school at Indiana University. After a three-year stint in the military, he found a job working in Columbus. He married June in 1953 following what has to be one of the world’s more successful blind dates. Over the next few years, they followed the Hoosier code, vacationing in Gatlinburg. And that is how they found inspiration in the form of flapjacks.
The Pancake Pantry story
Jim and June arrived in Gatlinburg in 1960 in a rusty Ford with sons aged 3 years and 8 months old respectively. Did Jim have restaurant experience? Reader, he did not. He did have an MBA from IU and had been an assistant to the president of a starch company. But the couple launched an institution that would start a revolution. The Pancake Pantry was Tennessee’s first pancake specialty restaurant. It’s success spawned dozens of others over the years. If you have been to a pancake house in the mountains, you can surely thank Jim and June.
Within five years, the Hoosiers purchased the land and building which they then redesigned. In 1975, they gave it the European look with slate roof, gables and large windows that remain today. Nearly 65 years later, the restaurant remains as strong as ever, delivering delicious breakfast and lunch foods to demanding crowds.
The Gerding legacy
Jim’s legacy, however, isn’t limited to blintzes, crepes and hoecakes. The face of Gatlinburg and its reputation as a charming tourist village might be completely different if it wasn’t for Jim and his partner.
Jim teamed with Dave Dych Sr. – the owner of the Ole Smoky Candy Kitchen – to create what would become the European-style Village Shops in 1969. With the Shops, the Kitchen and the Pantry, the entrance to Gatlinburg’s strip was given a cohesive feel. It exuded class, charm and taste. It was a vision of a mountain village that had not existed in the area before that time. Even if other business owners didn’t play along, it gave Gatlinburg a style that other tourist locations lacked.
Of course, Jim’s legacy is much larger than a pancake restaurant and a collection of shops. He was a civic leader, serving key roles on several boards that made a difference in the community. For instance, as president of the Sevier County Hospital Board, he helped ensure its survival and growth. He was an avid fisherman, traveler and reader. The Hoosier also became a season ticket holder and avid tailgater for the Tennessee Vols.
Jim was a veteran. He was also a philanthropist, civic leader and businessman. And he was a beloved husband and a family man. It’s hard to imagine getting much more out of 96 years on this Earth than Jim Gerding. We thank him for his contribution to his adopted hometown and offer our sincere condolences to his family, friends and loved ones.
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