The
Great Indian Warpath (which was used to build the route
US-411) was long used by the
indigenous peoples of the area. A
Cherokee village known as "Elajay" was situated at the confluence of Ellejoy Creek (named after the village) and the
Little River. Its site was near the modern
Heritage High School. Ensign
Henry Timberlake passed through the village in 1762 while returning from
his expedition to the
Overhill villages to the west. He reported that it had been abandoned. In 1785,
Revolutionary War veteran John Craig built a wooden palisade enclosing cabins at what is known as Fort Craig (or Craig's Station) in present-day Maryville. Such stations were built throughout the
frontier to defend settlers against attacks from the Cherokee. For example, "on April 11, 1793, when settlers believed Indian attacks were imminent, 280 men, women, and children gathered in small huts at John Craig's station on Nine Mile Creek." Craig donated next to his fort for the founding of a new town. Incorporated as a city on July 11, 1795, the settlement was named in honor of Mary Grainger Blount, wife of the territorial governor
William Blount. Blount County was named after him. The family of
Sam Houston moved to Maryville from
Virginia in 1808, when Houston was 15. His older brothers put him to work as a clerk in a store they established in town, but he ran away. Houston lived for a few years with the Cherokee at
Hiwassee Island, on the
Hiwassee River, where he became fluent in their language and appreciative of their culture. After his return to Maryville about 1811, Houston started a one-room schoolhouse. He signed up for the army during the
War of 1812 and rose rapidly in rank, beginning his military and political career. The schoolhouse still stands just off US-411 near the community of Wildwood. Maryville was a center of
abolitionist activity throughout the early 19th-century; it was generated mostly by the
Society of Friends, which had a relatively large presence in Blount County. They were supported by anti-slavery advocates such as
Isaac L. Anderson, the founder of
Maryville College. When Tennessee voted on the Ordinance of
Secession in 1861, only 19 percent of Blount Countians voted in favor of seceding from the
Union. Although staunchly pro-Union throughout the
Civil War, Maryville was not liberated by federal troops until May 1864. In August of that year, a
Confederate cavalry raid, under the command of General
Joseph Wheeler, attacked the courthouse where the Union troops had taken shelter. To try to dislodge the federal soldiers, Confederates set fire to several buildings, including a store where the city's records were being kept. Polly Tool, an
African-American slave, rescued most of the records. She was honored by a statue in the Blount County courthouse. In the
Reconstruction Era Maryville became a hub of
Radical Republican activity for East Tennessee. Its local
Union League provided a lively forum for political discussion, and the
Freedmen's Normal Institute was established on the present-day site of Maryville High School. The city elected
William Bennett Scott Sr., the country's second African-American mayor, in 1869. Maryville is home to one of 24
Alcoa Care-free Homes built in the United States in 1957–1958. In the 1970s, after several department stores and other retailers moved from the downtown area to Alcoa's Midland shopping center, the city spent $10 million on a renewal project called "Now Town". Traffic was re-routed, facades were placed on old buildings,
slums were cleared, and the
Bicentennial Greenbelt Park was created. The project failed to attract business back to the downtown locations; instead retailers moved to the new
Foothills Mall a few years later. The downtown area remained in decline until the 2000s, when the city agreed to reverse many of the "Now Town" changes. U.S. Senator
Lamar Alexander was born in Maryville in 1940. Alexander served as
Governor of Tennessee from 1979 to 1987 and
Secretary of Education (1991–1993) under President
George H. W. Bush. He ran unsuccessful campaigns for president in 1996 and 2000, both times announcing his candidacy for the
Republican Party from his hometown of Maryville. In 2002, he was elected to the U.S. Senate, succeeding
Fred Thompson. On July 2, 2015, a
CSX freight train carrying hazardous materials
went off of its tracks. Over 5,000 citizens were displaced from their homes within a two-mile (three kilometer) radius. ==Geography==