Historic Maryville

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Historic Maryville

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This page features historical pictures, documents, other ephemera pertaining to Maryville, Tennessee which was founded on July 11, 1795.

10/24/2026

This postcard shows the Bank of Blount County around the time its building was completed in 1915. A current renovation has exposed the original bank building’s columns, bringing part of downtown Maryville’s architectural history back into view. Their reappearance offers an opportunity to explore the history of the building, its site, and the people and businesses associated with it.

The present structure stands on the former courthouse square, where three successive courthouse buildings once stood. The last burned on July 28, 1906, and its replacement was constructed off Court Street on the current courthouse campus.

The Bank of Blount County opened in 1893 under its first president, Dr. John Wilkinson Cates (1833–1916). Initially, it occupied the easternmost portion of the Greer Building, a brick complex near the center of today’s West Broadway parking lot beside Bluetick Tavern.

The building seen today developed in two stages. In 1909, Elmer Briton Waller (1859–1913), a mathematics professor at Maryville College, and Andrew Gamble (1862–1910), a local attorney and former owner of Montvale Springs, constructed the Gamble-Waller complex on the former courthouse property. Their complex forms the two-thirds of the present structure farthest from the corner of Cusick Street and Broadway Avenue. The two men had previously constructed a building in 1899 at the location now occupied by Brackins.

In 1915, under bank president William Lee Russell (1859–1922), the Bank of Blount County built its new home beside the Gamble-Waller complex. Designed by the Baumann Brothers of Knoxville, the bank occupied the corner of Cusick Street and Broadway Avenue, then known as Main Street. It forms the remaining one-third of the present structure.

In addition to banking, the building housed businesses and civic activities. The City of Maryville maintained its offices there from 1918 to 1948, and the Farmer’s Store sold groceries in the building in 1919. Grandview Cemetery was organized there in 1922. During the Great Depression, the Bank of Blount County merged with the Bank of Maryville in 1932, and the combined institution continued under the Bank of Maryville name.

Irma Gamble (1902–1959), daughter of Andrew Gamble, died from an accidental fall in 1959. She had no children, and in 1960 her heirs sold the Gamble-Waller complex to the Bank of Maryville. This purchase gave the bank room to expand into the adjoining property.

In 1963, the bank sold the western portion of the complex to Robert S. Goddard (1897–1978), who had managed Badgett’s Department Store at that location since 1920. The bank retained the eastern portion, formerly occupied by the Cloth Shop, renovating and expanding into that space in 1964.

The Bank of Maryville reacquired the western portion of the Gamble-Waller Building in 1973 for further expansion. It also sought to purchase the neighboring building now occupied by Brooke Nix. Its owner, Ira W. Peery (1884–1978), former owner of Peery’s Mill and Peery’s Feed Store, declined to sell. In 1983, First Tennessee Bank, now known as First Horizon, acquired the Bank of Maryville.

In 2016, Blount Memorial Hospital purchased the building from First Tennessee Bank and relocated its financial center there, beginning a new chapter in the property’s history.

Drew Miles and Stefan Wilson purchased the structure in 2025. Today, it houses Allevia Technology, law offices, and other businesses, continuing a long tradition of commerce and professional service in downtown Maryville.

09/18/2026

Toole Family and Cottage History at 212 East Harper Avenue

The Toole family’s ties to Maryville reach back to the town’s early history. John Toole (1756–1791), who served in the 3rd Pennsylvania Regiment of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, lived at Toole’s Bend in Knox County, which bears his name. He married Ruth Rankin (1758–1824), and their children included Polly, William, Matthew, Eleanor, James, and John. Ruth later married Benjamin Pride (1759–1817). Among their children was Samuel Pride (1799–1863), who became Maryville’s first mayor.

William Toole (1791–1860), a son of John and Ruth, operated a tannery on the property now occupied by the Blount County Health Department and lived on the town lot where the Roost is located. William’s son, James Marion Toole (1819–1885), became a local merchant. An ardent Confederate sympathizer, James was driven out of town and eventually settled in Dallas, Texas. Polly Toole, a woman enslaved by James, saved irreplaceable county records from likely destruction during the Civil War. The county government later awarded her a small pension in recognition of her actions.

James’s son, George Augustine Toole (1848–1923), also became a downtown Maryville merchant. One of his grocery stores stood on the lot now occupied by Brooke Nix. In 1906, he built a brick storehouse adjoining the western wall of the Kizer Black building.

In 1887, George purchased the residence of Mary Sigourney (Towne) Wallace (1823–1893), widow of General William Wallace (1794–1864). In 1911, the federal government acquired the Broadway Avenue frontage of George’s property, then known as Main Street, where the residence stood. The house was moved to the rear of the lot in 1916 to make way for a spacious post office, completed in 1917.

Also in 1916, George built a cottage as an investment on the rear portion of the property, adjoining his relocated residence. In 1926, his heirs sold both buildings to the Maryville Public Library, the predecessor of today’s Blount County Public Library. The library occupied the former Toole residence. According to library minutes, rental income from the cottage helped pay the debt incurred in purchasing the downtown property.

By 1931, the library needed larger quarters. With financial assistance from Dora (Reagan) Harper, widow of A. K. Harper, a new building—the A. K. Harper Memorial Library—was constructed on Church Street. That building is now occupied by Dandy Lions.

After the library vacated the Toole residence, the City of Maryville acquired the property and continued renting the cottage. In 1939, the city sold the cottage to Nolia (Norton) Peery (1884–1973), wife of Ira W. Peery. Ira and his brother Wynn, known locally as the Peery Brothers, operated Peery’s Feed Store at the corner of Harper Avenue and Cusick Street, in the building now known as Davis Lofts. They also operated a mill on Little River in Walland.

The cottage’s long association with barbering began in 1938, when Ben Martin (1901–1976), his son Ray T. Martin (1920–2011), and fellow barbers Lee Pinyan and Fred Borden opened a shop there. According to Ray, his father had been cutting hair downtown since 1927. Ray recalled that customers arriving from Cades Cove, Walland, and Townsend sometimes kept the shop busy until after midnight. Ben continued cutting hair until his death and, at times, also lived above the shop.

Ray, a World War II veteran who fought in the Battle of the Bulge, was also a musician. He played steel guitar for Patsy Montana, credited as the first woman in country music to sell a million records. He was reportedly the first student of Tommy Covington, the well-known Maryville multi-instrumentalist and radio personality. Ray’s memories of downtown extended to his childhood, when Harper Avenue was still an alley, before the city widened it.

In 1994, Frank B. Bird (1917–2010), a World War II veteran and prominent local attorney, purchased the Toole cottage. Ray continued leasing the barber shop from Bird until January 2005, when he closed what was then downtown Maryville’s last barber shop.

Later that year, Bird sold the cottage to Leanne Moe McQueen, who operated her pottery shop, Studio 212, there until 2017. She then relocated to a larger building at 934 East Broadway Avenue to accommodate her community art classes. Her handcrafted dinnerware, marketed as McQueen Pottery, has been featured at Blackberry Farm.

From an investment cottage to a source of library income, a family residence, a barber shop, and a pottery studio, the Toole cottage has served many purposes throughout its history. As downtown Maryville continues to evolve, this modest building remains a tangible link to the people and enterprises that shaped the city.

by Mark Bennett

08/21/2026

This photograph was taken on August 3, 1923, in New Providence Church Cemetery during a ceremony dedicating the bronze standards placed at the grave of Jesse Wallace (1767–1854). Wallace served in the Continental Line during the Revolutionary War and later became an attorney. Members of the Mary Blount Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution attended the ceremony.

From left to right are Maj. William A. McTeer, William S. Wallace, James W. Post, John A. Wallace, and William E. Parham.

Maj. William Anderson McTeer (1843–1925) represented the Society of the Sons of the Revolution and served as master of ceremonies. During the Civil War, McTeer enlisted as a private in Company A of the 3rd Tennessee Cavalry Regiment in the Union Army. He later wrote a history of New Providence Presbyterian Church, published in 1921.

William Sumner Wallace (1869–1937) was a Maryville businessman who owned a farm near the intersection of Montvale and Farris roads. He was raised on the farm of his father, Capt. Theophilus Fletcher Wallace (1841–1923), located off Blockhouse Road. During the Civil War, Capt. Wallace served in the 2nd Tennessee Cavalry Regiment in the Union Army. William Sumner Wallace’s great-great-grandfather, John Wallace (1750–1793), was killed at the Battle of Hightower—sometimes called the Battle of Etowah Cliffs—during the Cherokee–American wars near present-day Rome, Georgia.

James William Post (1860–1929) was a great-grandson of Jesse Wallace. His father, Dr. John Calvin Post (1803–1873), married Martha Thompson, a daughter of Rebekah (Wallace) Thompson (1789-1845) and William H. Thompson. Martha was raised in the Thompson-Brown House, which stands across Lamar Alexander Parkway from what is now Prisma Health Blount Memorial Hospital. The historic residence is now occupied by the Cades Cove Preservation Association. Post managed the Morton Butler Land and Timber Company, which conducted operations in the Great Smoky Mountains.

John Ashley "Johnny" Wallace (1878–1967), a son of Joshua Landon Wallace (1842–1908) and Nancy M. (Butler) Wallace (1855–1887), lived off U.S. Highway 411 on part of a farm that his paternal grandfather, John Wallace (1803–1863), purchased from John Fruit Hannah (1797–1868) in 1837. He was a second cousin of William Sumner Wallace. Initially a farmer, Wallace became a real estate developer when U.S. Highway 411—then known locally as New Niles Ferry Road—was constructed around 1930.

Wallace’s daughter Muriel (Wallace) Huddleston McCulloch operated Travelers Restaurant (currently Dairy Queen is on lot), which flourished during the 1950s and 1960s and introduced Kentucky Fried Chicken to Blount County. In 1960, part of Wallace’s farm was developed as Wallace Hill Golf Course. His son-in-law Robert Homer “Pete” Hitch (1909–1980) managed the course. Hitch was married to Wallace’s other daughter, Kathleen Wallace (1909–2002), affectionately known as “Mama Hitch.” In 1990, Mama Hitch sold the golf course to developers who created the Royal Oaks community. The golf course at Royal Oaks closed in 2018.

William Edmund Parham (1860–1946) was a manufacturer, educator, banker, public official, and, most notably, a historian. He came to Maryville from Knoxville in December 1865, shortly after the Civil War. He attended Maryville College and played on the college’s first baseball team.

In 1877, Parham entered business with his father, William Thomas Parham (1833–1922), who operated a woolen mill near the present-day Los Amigos Restaurant. The mill property also encompassed the present site of the Blount County Public Library on what was sometimes called Parham Hill. Parham helped incorporate the People’s Telephone Company and also worked for ALCOA.

He represented Blount County in the Tennessee Senate from 1909 to 1910 and authored the first compulsory school law enacted by the Tennessee General Assembly. He also served as a Blount County justice of the peace, a position now known as county commissioner. Above all, Parham was a dedicated historian. He wrote numerous newspaper columns under the pen name “Tab” and compiled genealogical information on many Blount County families. At the time of his death, he was described as the “Map of Maryville.”

07/31/2026

Did You Know?

Johnson & Johnson, founded in New Brunswick, New Jersey, in 1886, became widely known during the Spanish–American War for producing sterile surgical dressings and other wound-care products that helped save the lives of wounded soldiers. The company later became closely associated with one of the world’s most recognizable trademarks—the Band-Aid brand.

One of the company’s founders, Robert Wood Johnson (1845–1910), married Evangeline Brewster Armstrong (1865–1919) in Maryville on June 27, 1892. Their wedding took place at “Twin Oaks,” the residence of the bride’s maternal uncle and aunt, Charles N. Simmons and Jane (Gifford) Simmons (1834–1927), both natives of New York. The residence, pictured below, stood at the eastern corner of Simmons Street—named for the family—and West Lamar Alexander Parkway.

The family also maintained a professional connection to Johnson & Johnson. Jane Simmons’s son, Dr. Bert Gifford Simmons (1857–1927), worked as a chemist for the company. He also constructed several bungalow-style houses in the Lord Street and Simmons Street area of Maryville.

The Simmons family also owned the downtown Maryville building that now houses Quality Financial Concepts, a business owned and operated by Doug and Teresa Horn. During the family’s ownership, the property was known as the Simmons Building. From 1914 to 1919, it housed one of Maryville’s earliest motion-picture theaters, the Dreamland Theatre. The Dreamland was succeeded by the Princess Theatre, which operated there from 1919 into the 1920s. Emery’s Five & Dime moved into the building in 1930, and local attorney Russell R. Kramer (1888–1966) purchased the property in 1945. Kramer’s son, Roy Foster Kramer (1929-2025), later served as commissioner of the Southeastern Conference in collegiate athletics.

07/11/2026

These are the actual words, in the original handwriting, taken directly from the act book of the Territory South of the River Ohio that established the town of Maryville on July 11, 1795. The original act book is preserved at the Tennessee State Library and Archives.

Happy Birthday, Maryville 🎉🎉

07/10/2026

Due to a high chance of rain tomorrow, the downtown Maryville walking tour will be replaced with an indoor presentation on downtown Maryville by Mark Bennett at Two Doors Down, located at 118 E Broadway Avenue. The presentation will begin one hour later than originally scheduled, at 11:00 a.m.

07/08/2026

In the event of inclement weather on Saturday, July 11, the downtown Maryville walking tour will be replaced with an indoor presentation on downtown Maryville by Mark Bennett at Two Doors Down, located at 118 E Broadway Avenue. The presentation will begin one hour later than originally scheduled, at 11:00 a.m.

07/03/2026

🇺🇸 America 250🇺🇸

Revolutionary War soldier, John Craig (1764–1852), and other early settlers who also served in the war, including John Duncan and Joseph Tedford, came to what is now Maryville by way of the Great Indian War and Trading Path, chiefly from Augusta and Rockbridge counties in Virginia. In the summer of 1785 or 1786, they settled on the bluff overlooking Pistol Creek, where the Blount Partnership is currently located. According to local tradition, they built four cabins near the present corner of Washington Street and Sevierville Road, formerly East Main Street. As tensions increased, the settlers enclosed the square for protection from Native American attacks. The spring necessary for their survival, pictured below, sat at the foot of the bluff.

Governor William Blount (1749–1800), for whom Blount County was later named, visited the fort in April 1793 and found approximately 280 men, women, and children living in small huts under deplorable conditions. Tradition holds that the fort encompassed about two acres within 15-foot palisade walls. A long stable was constructed within the enclosure to shelter livestock. A two-foot-wide walk was also built along the inside of the wall, about five feet below the top, allowing visibility from all sides.

Charles C. W. Norwood (1794–1888) later recalled the palisades and remembered being inside the fort before it was removed. Some structures associated with the fort remained there until the late 1800s. Norwood’s grandson, Reymond Patton (1880–1952), later dismantled one of the cabins and reused its materials in a barn that stood near the corner of Church Street and Norwood Street, not far from his grandfather’s residence.

New Providence Presbyterian Church was founded in the fort in 1786 by Archibald Scott. At least two weddings also took place within its confines: John Duncan (1752–1836) married Margaret “Peggy” Alexander Duncan (1762–1847) in 1788, and Joseph Tedford (1763–1825) married Mary “Polly” McNutt Tedford in 1793.

John Duncan’s farm was located on both sides of present-day Court Street and included the areas later known as Duncan Drive, Creekwood Addition, Jarvis Park, and other land near Vulcan Materials. Joseph Tedford later settled on a farm located on both sides of Old Niles Ferry Road, between Best Street and Sandy Springs Road, in the vicinity of present-day Foothills Elementary School and Montgomery Ridge Intermediate School.

In 1795, Craig received permission from the Blount County Quarterly Court to build a mill, which was located on what is now the south side of the Broadway viaduct near the Church Street extension. He also donated 50 acres of land to the Maryville commissioners for the establishment of the county seat. The new town was named Maryville in honor of Mary Grainger Blount (1761–1802), wife of Governor William Blount. Revolutionary War soldier and surveyor John Wilkinson (1763–1829) laid out the property into 120 lots in 1795 and resurveyed it in 1819. The original town extended from Cates Street to Norwood Street and from Pistol Creek, near the present Greenbelt, to former Craig Street, which ran behind the present location of Vienna Coffee House. The proceeds from the sale of these lots were used to help fund the construction of the county courthouse. Craig later relocated to Limestone, Alabama.

06/19/2026

To commemorate Juneteenth, the painting shown below depicts William Bennett Scott Sr. (1821–1885). The work by Amy Campbell was based on a photographic likeness of his grandson, Charles Warner Cansler (1871–1953), son of Laura Ann Scott Cansler.

William B. Scott Sr. was a pioneering African American newspaper publisher, businessman, civic leader, and advocate for education in Reconstruction-era East Tennessee. In 1865, while living in Nashville, Scott helped establish The Colored Tennessean, recognized as Tennessee’s first African American newspaper. In 1867, he moved his printing operation to Maryville, where he published the first issue of the Maryville Republican. For approximately ten years, with only brief exceptions, it was the only newspaper published in Blount County. His newspaper press stood on the eastern portion of the present Raven Steakhouse and Lounge property in downtown Maryville.

Scott had previously worked as a saddle and harness maker and continued to be associated with the leather trade. His public service was equally significant. In 1869, he was elected mayor of Maryville, making him the city’s first African American mayor. He also remained politically active beyond Maryville, including speaking in support of the 1876 Democratic ticket in the hope of encouraging closer political cooperation between Black and white citizens.

Among Scott’s most lasting contributions was his role in the founding of the Freedman’s Normal Institute in Maryville, one of the first schools for African Americans in East Tennessee. The school served the community for nearly three decades and became an important institution in the educational history of Blount County.

06/16/2026

A parade heading west on Main St. (now Broadway Ave.) about 1910. The photograph was colorized and animated by AI.

Address

404 West Broadway
Maryville, TN
37801

Website

https://www.maryvillegov.com/archivist.html

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