A university greenhouse (hothouse), measuring 20 feet by 13 feet, was built in 1880 at a cost of about $1,550. It was located on the Hill behind the Agricultural Building (to the south of the current site of the Science & Engineering Building). The location was part of the 1900 site of Barbara Blount Hall (now the parking lot beside Perkins). The greenhouse was relocated (to a site near where Pasqua Nuclear Engineering now stands) in 1900 to allow construction of Barbara Blount Hall. Later, in the early 1900s, a location for the greenhouse was created by digging into the hill behind Estabrook.
The hothouse was maintained at a temperature of approximately 70 degrees and was heated by the waste steam from dormitories on the Hill. It provided an extensive collection of tropical plants (in fact, the first banana grown in Tennessee was a product of the hothouse) and grew the shrubbery and plants with which the grounds were landscaped. The facility also provided the plant decorations for the stage for commencement and other events, and botany and horticulture classes used the facility to grow all the materials used in the various courses.