LYNCHBURG, Tenn. — There are very few objects more fundamentally Southern than a cast iron skillet. It holds heat like a grudge and improves with age. It moves from stove to oven to campfire without complaint. It outlasts the person who seasoned it and gets passed down to the next generation, carrying decades of cornbread and bacon and Sunday mornings in its pores. It is, in the truest sense, an heirloom.
Which makes it fitting that this Thursday evening, the Lynchburg Lodge Cast Iron store is inviting you to make one your own — literally. The Lynchburg Lodge store is hosting a skillet painting class on March 20 at 5:30 p.m. at Prince’s Parlor located at 22 Short Street on the Lynchburg Square. Tickets are $50 and include the skillet, all painting supplies, and a single scoop of ice cream. Only 30 spots are available, and the featured design for March 20 is a Dolly Parton skillet.
Dolly and cast iron. Two Tennessee originals, both made to last.
A Tennessee Brand That Never Left Home
The Lodge Cast Iron story begins in 1877, when a young man named Joseph Lodge made his way on foot through a half-dozen states and ended up, almost by accident, in the small Tennessee River town of South Pittsburg. He liked what he found. He built a house there — still inhabited by Lodge descendants today — and in 1896, he founded the Blacklock Foundry, named after his friend and minister.
When fire destroyed the foundry in 1910, the Lodge family didn’t leave. They rebuilt a few blocks away, renamed the operation Lodge Manufacturing Company, and kept going. Through World War I, the Great Depression — when they made cast iron garden gnomes to keep workers employed — World War II, the rise of aluminum and stainless steel, and every other headwind that might have driven a lesser company to cheaper pastures, Lodge stayed in South Pittsburg. Today, more than 125 years later, it remains family-owned, still operating in its Tennessee hometown, still the oldest cast iron cookware manufacturer in the United States.
In 2002, Lodge became the first American manufacturer to pre-season its cast iron at the factory — an innovation that ignited a national cast iron renaissance and set the industry standard that every competitor now follows. In 2017, they opened a second foundry in South Pittsburg, increasing production capacity by 75 percent. The tagline painted on the yellow gas pumps outside the Lynchburg store says it plainly: Made in Tennessee. Loved around the world.
Right Here on Mechanic Street
Lodge opened its Lynchburg location in May 2024, settling into a building with its own chapter of local history — the renovated Cashion Brothers Texaco gas station on Mechanic Street, which dates to the 1940s and has also served over the years as a coffee roaster, a Chamber welcome center, and an Indian Motorcycle gift shop. Lodge repainted the old Texaco pumps their signature yellow. It felt like the right fit from the start: two Tennessee brands built in the 1800s, both making small-town products the whole world wants.
The Lynchburg store carries the full Lodge line — classic seasoned cast iron, enameled cookware, carbon steel, grilling and camp gear, accessories, and pantry items — along with exclusive merchandise made specifically for the Lynchburg location. It is one of only four Lodge retail stores in the state, alongside the flagship in South Pittsburg, Pigeon Forge, and Sevierville.
The Class: Dolly, Paint, and Ice Cream
Thursday’s skillet painting class is the first in a series of three the Lynchburg store is hosting this year, each featuring a different design. No experience is needed — just good vibes, which the store will happily match. Supplies are provided. The skillet is yours to keep. And there is ice cream.
The March 20 class features the Dolly Parton skillet, which is exactly as delightful as it sounds. Lodge’s collaboration with Dolly — another Tennessee original who built a global reputation without ever abandoning her roots — produced a cookware collection inspired by her upbringing. Just like Lodge, just like Jack Daniel’s, just like Lynchburg itself: made here, loved everywhere.
Two additional classes follow later in the year: a sugar skull skillet on May 1 and an American Road Trip state skillet on June 26, both at 5:30 p.m. at Prince’s Parlor. All three are $50 per ticket with a limit of 30 participants per class.
To sign up, stop by the Lynchburg Lodge Factory Store or call 423-777-6980. Spots for Thursday’s class are going fast.•
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