A grand repurposing: Fort Craig opens at Maryville City Schools central office

A grand repurposing: Fort Craig opens at Maryville City Schools central office 

10/31/24 

Daily Times 

By: Shanon Adame 

After almost a year of renovations, Maryville City Schools finally revealed their newly updated Fort Craig building. 

The building, which has served several different purposes, is now the home of the district’s central office as well as Maryville Virtual School, Maryville Academy and the district’s technology team. 

Last week, folks gathered on Thursday afternoon to get a look at the repurposing. MCS Marching Band entertained the crowd with a few songs before administrators and board members spoke to the crowd. 

MCS Board Chair Julie Elder said Maryville High School needs a major expansion which meant that the central office staff, who were previously operating out of the high school, would need to be moved. They looked at several buildings, but nothing seemed quite right. 

“We kept coming back to the idea of repurposing Fort Craig because isn’t it great when you can take a building that is already so rich in history, give it a facelift and enable it to continue to provide for our children in our community for years to come,” she said. 

MCS Director of Schools Mike Winstead spoke next. He told the crowd a little about the building’s history. From 1913 to 1927, the site was home to Maryville High School 

“This is where it all started, when Maryville City families and businesses and officials decided in 1911 that we wanted something special for our kids and we were wiling to invest into something special for out kids,” he said. 

The first two pieces of land that Maryville City Schools bought were the site of Fort Craig and the land that the Maryville Municipal Building currently sits on. 

Those first two sites became the East Side School and the West Side School. 

In 1927, East Side School was renamed Fort Craig and in 1951, the East Side School building was torn down and a new building took its place, the current Fort Craig building. 

For MCS Assistant Director of Schools Amy Vagnier, Fort Craig is a part of her educator journey. In her freshman year at Maryville College, Vagnier said she would walk over to Fort Craig to volunteer. 

“I was amazed at what the teachers did inside this school, and that is where I fell totally, head over heels, in love with teaching, and I’ve not lost that love ever since,” she said. 

Once the ribbon was cut, everyone filtered inside to tour the space. MCS culinary students served up appetizers they made as part of their program and five orchestra students played music for the guests on the second floor. 

Blount County Library was set up on the second floor with a table full of archival materials, like old newspapers and yearbooks.