Taken by the woods: The mystery of Maryville’s lost greenhouse

By Madeline Yalove \ Nov. 3, 2026

Deep in the Maryville College woods lie concrete ruins long lost to the world around them. One portion is slanted and the other is built into the ground, making its purpose unclear. Buried in debris and nearly invisible, the structure lay dormant for decades until it was stumbled upon one winter day.

Robert Kennedy (‘71) and Edwin Best Jr. (‘68) were tipped off to the structure’s location by a friend of Kennedy’s who came across it during a walk in the woods. 

“He asked me if I knew what it was,” Kennedy said, “because he knew I worked in the archives. I had never heard of it.”

Even Best was unaware of the structure’s existence. “[Best] had lived here all his life and his dad was on the board of directors for years. He still did not know anything about it,” Kennedy said. 

Once they found it, Kennedy and Best were not sure what to make of it. “We called it a bunker, for lack of a better name,” Kennedy said. “The whole place was filled with beer cans.”

Those beer cans helped date how long the structure had been hidden. Though the building’s original use might have ceased, people were still using it. Dr. Drew Crain, professor of biology, said, “There was a big cistern filled with hundreds of crushed beer and soda cans. At the very top of the pile were cans that had ‘1982 World’s Fair’ on them. So we can assume [the greenhouse] was pretty populated until the early ’80s.”

When Kennedy first approached Crain about the structure, Crain didn’t know its origins either. “When I first went down there, I got lost,” Crain said. “I was literally turned around almost at dark one night with my daughter.”

Crain noted how strange it was that no one had heard of the building. Though it was clearly a very old structure, the college archives had no record of it, and no one on campus had ever heard of it. 

It remained a mystery for some time, until Crain spoke to then-Maryville Mayor Tom Taylor. “[Taylor] solved the mystery for me,” Crain said. “It was a greenhouse on the left and the right side was built into the ground as a root cellar (to store food).”

But why build a greenhouse where the trees are so dense? “When [the greenhouse] was constructed around 1917 or 1918, there were zero trees,” Crain said. “It was the perfect spot.”

Once it was found, Crain made certain the greenhouse and root cellar wouldn’t be lost again. “We kept it on the downlow,” Crain said. “We did not want it to be destroyed.”

But the days of the greenhouse being a mystery are over. “I’ve asked Dr. Dave Unger’s GIS class to make the greenhouse trail official,” Crain said. “It will be recognized on the woods map as an official spot this semester.”

Today, the College is leading an effort to restore the building. Crain said he often leads Student KT Day missions to restore the structure, clearing debris and foliage that has built up over time. Most recently, volunteers added beams to support new windows atop the greenhouse. Crain’s goal is for it to become an educational spot where people walking through the woods can learn about the journey of the lost greenhouse and how it withstood the test of time.