Historic Rugby

The story of british author and social reformer thomas hughes vision for a cooperative, class-free community founded in the rugged river-gorge setting on the cumberland plateau is told to the public through an award-winning film in the vistors centre, and tours of a Historic home (kingston lisle), the 1882 hughes library (with 7000+ original volumes), the schoolhouse/museum, and the 1887 christ church. Rugbys heritage is also shared through several festivals and activities during the year, highlighting the british and appalachian cultures that formed Rugby, and through a number of craft and workshop programs, exhibitors, and interpreters. The reconstructed Historic commissary offers for sale local appalachian crafts, as well as educational items, much like the commissary did in the 1880s. Rugbys story is also told through interpretative programs such as a latern tour of Historic laurel dale cemetery.

The Rugby colony is listed on the national register of Historic places, and one of the primary program activities of Historic Rugby, Inc. is the preservation, protection, and restoration of this would-be utopian community. Besides the necessary and extensive preventative maintenance and site preservation activities for the victorian-era village, Rugby has created opportunities for architecturally and environmentally compatible colonization while protecting the Historic site from incompatible development.

Interpreting the lifestyle of the original Rugby colonists in an important program activity, sharing what it was like when victorian england came to the rural cumberlands of Tennessee. Period-dressed staff and volunteers help vistors attending one of the several special events step back in time to experience victorian english life in the colony. Traditional british fare is available in the harrow road cafe, an establishment that was advertising in the village newspaper as early as 1882. Several of the current menu offerings were available at the original cafe, which has been reconstructed to conform to rugbys Historic archtecture. Vistors can also spend the night in the original newbury house, a boarding house that opened in 1880 and was in continuous operation until the 1920s. It was authentically restored in 1985, and offers guests the opportunity to spend the evening amid period antiques. Several other restored or reconstructed cottages are available.