Community News

Partnership honors Mills River community center founders and river protector Jere Brittain

Jere Brittain stands next to a new plaque honoring his work to protect Mills River. [KEVYN CARTER-LONG/Hendersonville Lightning]

By Amy B. McCraw, Published: July 10, 2026

The community around South Mills River Road decades ago needed a place for young people to dance and families to gather for birthdays, wedding receptions and other special events.

Mills River Baptist Church stood nearby and happy to help, but the church didn’t have room for what the community needed. So, neighbors donated their land, money and time to build the North and South Mills River Community Center on a hill just off the roadway.
The small, block building today houses the non-profit water quality organization the Mills River Partnership. But when the center was built, probably sometime in the 1950s, the building served as a spot for family and community events. For a time in the 1970s, it also became the headquarters of the Upper French Broad Defense Association, a group dedicated to fighting a TVA plan to build dams along the Mills River.
The community again came together at the center this week for a reception and the unveiling of two plaques to honor the families involved in building the center and Jere Brittain, the man who led the effort to stop the TVA in the 70s.
“As staff for the partnership and a regular inhabitant of the building, I want to personally thank you for partnering with us and giving us the opportunity to look after the building in this phase of its existence,” Maria Wise, the partnership’s executive director, said Wednesday as she unveiled the two plaques located on an outside wall near the center’s front door. “I can’t imagine a better location from which to look after the river than here in the heart of the watershed.”
Brittain and members of the Moore and Ingle families, whose relatives were also involved in building the center, attended the reception and stood with Wise as the plaques were uncovered.
They said they were honored to be recognized.
“I’m honored to be a part of it. We go back a longways,” Brittain, 91, said. “I couldn’t be more pleased.”
The center was a natural location for the headquarters of the defense association that formed in the 70s after the TVA announced plans to build 14 dams and reservoirs in the area, he said.
The plan “would have eliminated this community and several others,” Brittain said. “This is where we met since we were the most threatened. This was the headquarters. It was kind of a David and Goliath situation.”
The new plaque at the center honors Brittain as the primary founder and first president of the Upper French Broad Defense Association that campaigned against the TVA plans in Mills River and other mountain communities. It calls him a voice for the river and a heart for the community.
“He stood among the 1970s ‘dam fighters’ to protect the Mills River from TVA dam development preserving the watershed, farmland and the rural community that depended on them,” according to them plaque.
The plaque also recognizes Brittain as the founder of the Mills River Partnership.
Brittain’s son, Phil, was among the 30 or so people, many with ties to founders of the community center, who attended the reception.
“It’s nice to see the community club serving a good purpose,” he said.
The younger Brittain continued in his father’s footsteps in the 1990s when he and others successfully fought against plans for Asheville to build a dam for a watershed along the Mills River.
“I was a kid when the TVA stuff was going on, and I knew it could be done,” he said.
The other plaque at the community center recognizes the commitment of the Moore, Brittain and Ingle families who worked with others to build the community center.
“With foresight, determination and a deep love for the Mills River community, the Moore, Ingle and Brittain families led the effort to establish a gathering place dedicated to fellowship, recreation, education and service,” the plaque says. “Their vision created more than a building- it created a cornerstone of community life where neighbors connect, traditions are celebrated and future generations are inspired.”
The plaque also praises the leadership of the people who worked to make the center a reality.
James Moore, who came to the reception to represent the Moore family, said his grandfather, Marion Moore, gave the land where the community center was built.
He said he also appreciated the work the partnership did in the community after Hurricane Helene caused damage along the Mills River.
“They helped me when the flood came,” he said.
Eddie Ingle said he came to the reception because his father, Robert, and mother, Margaret, worked along with many others in the community to build and raise funds for the building.
“There were a whole lot more people involved than just us,” he said.
Ingle said his mother was involved in organizing bake sales to support the project and his father worked to build the structure with other men in the community.
“Everybody when I was growing up was a carpenter,” he said. “It was done completely by local folks.”
His parents and their neighbors saw a need for a community building because the church did not have a kitchen or space enough for covered dish meals, birthday parties, wedding receptions or other events in the community.
Young people at the time also wanted to a place to square-dance and that was not possible at the church, he said.
“A lot of people didn’t have room for celebrations at home. So, they had them down here,” he said.
While some at the reception said the community center was built in the late 1940s, Joanne Brittain, who is Jere’s wife and Ingle’s sister, said the center was built sometime after she and Jere were married in 1954.
The couple got married at the church but held their wedding reception at their parent’s house, she said.
Regardless of when the building was built, Joanne said she was overwhelmed by the recognition the partnership showed to her husband and the families who came together to create center.
“This is wonderful,” she said.
For more information about the Mills River Partnership, visit https://www.millsriverwater.org/