Graham Center Celebrates 20th Anniversary

SWANNANOA, N.C. (AP) – When evangelist Billy Graham held his first training seminars at the secluded spot in the western North Carolina mountains now known as The Cove, the accommodations were Spartan at best.

"At first, we had no food service, no lodging, no transportation," executive director Scott Holmquist told the Asheville Citizen-Times. "We would cater food from Three Little Pigs (barbecue restaurant). It was a wonderful, humble beginning."

Twenty years later, the Billy Graham Training Center at The Cove has become a major operation and part of the world-renowned pastor's ministry. There are dozens of employees and volunteers, a chapel and visitors center, the training center, an administration building, two inns and a lodge.

About 10,000 people visit each year for Cove-sponsored training and events, while another 10,000 come from churches that rent space. The site – which celebrated its 20th anniversary with an open house on Saturday – is also visited by about 26,000 tourists annually.

"All the religious assemblies bring substantial numbers of people to this area and often into the mountain region for the first time, which often leads to return visits," said Marla Tambellini, assistant vice president of the Asheville Convention & Visitors Bureau. "They get to know the area and that in turn creates good word of mouth."

It didn't start that way. Graham was criticized after he bought a 1,500-acre tract of land along the newly built Interstate 40, just east of Asheville and not far from his home in Montreat.

"Newspapers and other media started asking, 'Why does an evangelist need that much land? What is he going to do, build Billyland up there?"' recalls Will Graham, Billy's grandson and the assistant director of The Cove.

Graham ended up selling the land to the Ben Lippen School, a Bible college, only to have his Billy Graham Evangelistic Association buy it back in 1986. Graham and his wife, Ruth, who died last year, were intimately involved in the details of what would become The Cove – down to the decor of the chapel to the size of its steeple.

"They put up a dinky little steeple, and she said, 'I want something that points to God,"' Will Graham said. "She wanted something you could see from the interstate."

The stone chapel opened in 1989, a year after the first training classes were held. The booming Asheville area fuels persistent rumors The Cove will be sold, but Holmquist said it will remain as is – with no major expansions planned – so The Cove will always be a serene venue for Bible fellowship and training.

"Our responsibility as a ministry is to remove distractions and provide the tools for people to hear God better," Holmquist said. "Our goal is to be a place of transformation."

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