Christmas lights in Maryville

Colonial revivals, college houses and big lots

The College Hill historic district next to Maryville College is full of Colonial Revival, Craftsman and late Victorian houses, and so is the stretch of older homes along West Broadway. Those houses have symmetrical fronts, so the lights should be symmetrical too: matching runs on both sides of the main gable, the same spacing all the way across.

Neighborhoods like Heritage Hills and Wimbledon have large Colonial Revival homes on big lots, and big lots usually mean big trees. That's where tree wraps and lit shrubs earn their keep, because a roofline alone can look small set back from the road. Newer subdivisions like Royal Oaks, with homes on half-acre rolling lots, often have an HOA, so we'll ask about yours before we design.

When does Maryville start lighting up?

The city lights its tree downtown on Broadway the Saturday after Thanksgiving, the same day as the Downtown Holiday Market, and the Festival of Trees follows on the courthouse lawn in early December. Then the Jaycees Christmas Parade comes through Alcoa and Maryville. If you want your house lit before all that, book in the fall.