IF YOU GO* What: Harmony Expo open house.* When: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday.* Where: Harmony Expo, 2208 Main St., Altamont, Tenn.* Admission: Free.* Phone: 800-211-4441 or 931-692-3529.* E-mail: jparr@blomand.net.
An open house at Harmony Expo in Altamont, Tenn., this weekend offers “green family-friendly fun,” according to organizers.
Visitors to the free event, which marks the 20th anniversary of the founding of Harmony Expo, can tour green cabins and homes created by inventor Jerral Parris, picnic on the extensive grounds, take a trail hike to Piney Creek and view a “drive-through art exhibit” as well as an art-and-innovations exhibit in the Expo building.
Attendees also can see a spring garden watered by a cistern and examine food-preservation methods. Children and dogs on leashes are welcome.
Parris moved to Altamont from Mobile, Ala., after a successful career as a contractor because he wanted to explore his ideas for sustainable housing in a rural setting. In the early 1990s, he built two small subdivisions using renewable, indigenous materials, proving that “substantial, low-cost homes could be built from material discarded in the neighborhood,” he said.
“The USDA awarded a grant to have this technology certified and published, and the Harmony Expo Museum houses examples of these efforts,” he said. “I have been living in the biggest experiment for the last 15 years.”
One of Parris’ goals is to disseminate some of the ideas and inventions he’s found useful in Harmony Village, such as the “mighty stud” of two hardwood slabs, and his technique for building strong foundations with the “crusher” byproducts from quarries.
“I’d like to see every county in Tennessee have a ‘frontier community’ where a builder can use these material to build low-cost homes,” he said. “Here at Harmony we consider ourselves to be stewards of the land and its resources.”
The art exhibits will feature Parris’ paintings and sculptures, some displayed in the Harmony Expo Museum, which also houses the prototypes of several of his inventions, including a saw made from automobile parts called “the racin’ slick saw mill.”
The visit can include a guided tour of the Harmony Virgin Forest, which is the highlight for many nature lovers. “We believe the biggest hemlock tree in North America dwells in our forest,” Parris said.