Rugby, Tennessee
Encyclopedia
Rugby is an unincorporated community
in Morgan and Scott counties in the U.S. state
of Tennessee
. Founded in 1880 by English author Thomas Hughes
, Rugby was built as an experimental utopian colony. While Hughes's experiment largely failed, a small community lingered at Rugby throughout the 20th century. In the 1960s, residents, friends and descendants of Rugby began restoring the original design and layout of the community, preserving surviving structures and reconstructing others. Rugby's Victorian architecture
and picturesque setting have since made it a popular tourist attraction. In 1972, Rugby's historic area was listed under the name Rugby Colony on the National Register of Historic Places
as a historic district
.
The Rugby experiment grew out of the social and economic conditions of Victorian England, where the practice of primogeniture
and an economic depression had left many of the "second sons" of the English gentry jobless and idle. Hughes envisioned Rugby as a colony where England's second sons would have a chance to own land and be free of social and moral ills that plagued late-19th century English cities. The colony would reject Late Victorian materialism in favor of the Christian socialist ideals of equality and cooperation espoused in Hughes's Tom Brown's School Days.
From the outset, however, the colony was beset with problems, namely a typhoid epidemic in 1881, lawsuits over land titles, and a population unaccustomed to the hard manual labor required to extract crops from the poor soil of the Cumberland Plateau
. By late 1887, most of the original colonists had either died or moved away from Rugby. However, a few carried on into the 20th century and the village retained a small, continuous population.
near the junction of Morgan, Scott, and Fentress Counties. While it straddles the two former counties, the majority of it lies in Morgan County. On the north side of Rugby, the Clear Fork joins White Oak Creek to form a natural pool known as "The Meeting of the Waters" that has been a popular hiking destination since the colony's early days. Beyond Meeting-of-the-Waters, the Clear Fork continues northeastward for another 9 miles (14.5 km) to where it joins New River
to form the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River
.
State Route 52
passes through the town, connecting it with U.S. Route 127
in Jamestown
to the west and U.S. Route 27
in the community of Elgin to the east. The area is relatively remote, with the 125000 acres (505.9 km²) Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area
dominating the area to the north, and sparsely-populated rolling hills stretching for miles to the south. Most of the historic district is located on or just off TN-52. A more modern residential area is located in the Beacon Hill section on the north side of the community.
in 1822. In the 1830s, he attended the Rugby School
in Rugby, Warwickshire
, where he was greatly influenced by the school's progressive headmaster, Thomas Arnold
. Both Rugby School and Arnold figured prominently in Hughes's 1857 novel, Tom Brown's School Days, and the school would eventually be the namesake for Hughes's utopian colony in Tennessee. In Tom Brown's School Days, Hughes espoused the ideals of Christian socialism, namely the cooperative
ownership of community businesses. By the 1860s, Hughes had grown disenchanted with the materialism of Late Victorian England. He was disheartened by the fact that the talents of many of England's younger sons were wasted due to an economic recession and the medieval system of primogeniture, in which the oldest son inherited all of the family's land.
In 1870, Hughes travelled to America to meet his friend, the poet James Russell Lowell
, and learned of the Boston
-based Board of Aid to Land Ownership, which specialized in helping unemployed urban craftsmen relocate to rural areas. Hughes indicated that such an operation might also be beneficial to young, unemployed English gentry. In 1878, Board of Aid president Franklin Webster Smith
and an agent with the new Cincinnati Southern Railway
, Cyrus Clarke, were travelling on the railroad's new tracks along the Cumberland Plateau when they identified the future site of Rugby, and were impressed with its virgin forests, clear air, and scenic gorges. Clarke secured options
on hundreds of thousands of acres of Plateau land. Knoxville attorney Oliver Perry Temple
, who became the colony's legal and agricultural advisor, began the complicated process of securing land titles.
Smith returned to Boston to recruit families to move to the newly-acquired land on the Plateau, but economic conditions in the northeast had improved, and few families were interested in relocating. Smith then notified Hughes of the Board's new land acquisitions, and Hughes expressed interest in establishing a colony. Hughes formed a partnership with British lawyers Sir Henry Kimber
and John Boyle, and bought the Board of Aid.
and croquet
courts, and built a walkway to "The Meeting of the Waters." Within a few months, several residences had been completed, along with the three-story Tabard Inn, which was named for the Southwark hostelry
in Canterbury Tales.
Thomas Hughes was onhand for the colony's "opening" on October 5, 1880, and gave a speech that laid out his plans for Rugby. All colonists would be required to invest $5 in the commissary, thus ensuring public ownership. Personal freedoms were guaranteed, although the sale of alcohol was banned. The colony would build an Episcopal church, but the building could be used by any denomination. On opening day, Tennessee's Episcopal bishop, the Right Reverend Charles Quintard, chartered Christ Church and licensed colonist Joseph Blacklock as lay reader
.
American publications such as the New York Times and Harper's Weekly
and London publications such as The Spectator
, Saturday Review
, and Punch
, all followed the colony's progress. Rugby published its own newspaper, The Rugbeian, which was edited by Oxford graduate Osmond Dakeyne, and several colonists formed a Library and Reading Room Society, headed by Tübingen graduate Edward Bertz. In Summer 1881, a typhoid outbreak killed seven colonists— including Dakeyne— and forced the Tabard Inn to close for cleansing, but the colony recovered. By 1884, the colony boasted over 400 residents, 65 frame public buildings and houses, a tennis team, a social club, and a literary and dramatic society. In 1885, Rugby established a university, Arnold School, named for Rugby School headmaster Thomas Arnold.
n natives grew suspicious of Clarke and refused to sell their property. This slowed the colony's early development, and as the lawsuits dragged on, many colonists gave up and moved away. Furthermore, Smith, who had selected the townsite, had ignored the site's poor soil in favor of its potential as a mountain resort. Rugby's main resort hotel, the Tabard, was forced to close due to the typhoid outbreak in 1881, however, and burned down altogether in 1884, halting Rugby's burgeoning tourist economy and damaging the Board of Aid's credit.
Frustrated by the colony's slow development, the Board of Aid's London backers replaced colony director John Boyle with Irish
-born Cincinnati city engineer Robert Walton in May 1882. Rugby attempted to establish a tomato
canning operation in 1883, but after the cannery was constructed, colonists failed to grow enough tomatoes to keep it operational. Newspapers began to ridicule Rugby, with London's Daily News accusing Hughes of creating a "pleasure picnic" rather than a functioning colony, and the New York Times claiming that Hughes was planning to abandon the colony altogether.
In 1887, the deaths of a number of prominent colonists— including Hughes's mother, Margaret, and geologist Charles Wilson— led to the departure of most of Rugby's original settlers. That year, Hughes made his last annual visit to the colony, and The Rugbeian ceased publication. In 1892, Sir Henry Kimber reorganized the Board of Aid as the Rugby Tennessee Company, which focused on harvesting the region's natural resources, all but abandoning the anti-materialistic ideals on which the colony was founded. By 1900, the company had sold its Cumberland Plateau holdings.
, but the state of Tennessee rejected the logging companies' offering price for the land, and the forest was cut right up to the community's boundaries.
In 1966, preservationists formed Historic Rugby, a non-profit group dedicated to restoring and maintaining the community's surviving historic structures, which include the Christ Church Episcopal, the Thomas Hughes Library, the Rugby School, Kingstone Lisle, Uffington House, and Newbury House. The group has also reconstructed several buildings based on their original designs, including the Board of Aid office, the Rugby Commissary, and Sir Henry Kimber's Percy Cottage. The Harrow Road Cafe, a restaurant built in the 1980s, was named for a restaurant that existed at Rugby in the 1880s, although its original design is unknown. The Rugby Printing Works, which originally stood at nearby Deer Lodge, was moved to Rugby in the 1970s. In recent years, Historic Rugby has opened up the community's Beacon Hill area (originally planned to include residences and a park) to new home construction, with the condition that all new homes must be designed in accordance with the community's Victorian aesthetic.
, built in 1849, is one of the oldest in the United States. The Christ Church congregation has met here regularly since 1887.
cottage, was built in 1884 as a residence for Thomas Hughes, although Hughes stayed at the cottage for just a very short period on one of his annual visits (he usually stayed at the Newbury House). In the late 1880s, Hughes gave the house to Christ Church priest Joseph Blacklock for use as a rectory
. Historic Rugby restored the house in the 1960s, and has outfitted it with period furniture.
Unincorporated area
In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...
in Morgan and Scott counties in the U.S. state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
. Founded in 1880 by English author Thomas Hughes
Thomas Hughes
Thomas Hughes was an English lawyer and author. He is most famous for his novel Tom Brown's Schooldays , a semi-autobiographical work set at Rugby School, which Hughes had attended. It had a lesser-known sequel, Tom Brown at Oxford .- Biography :Hughes was the second son of John Hughes, editor of...
, Rugby was built as an experimental utopian colony. While Hughes's experiment largely failed, a small community lingered at Rugby throughout the 20th century. In the 1960s, residents, friends and descendants of Rugby began restoring the original design and layout of the community, preserving surviving structures and reconstructing others. Rugby's Victorian architecture
Victorian architecture
The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...
and picturesque setting have since made it a popular tourist attraction. In 1972, Rugby's historic area was listed under the name Rugby Colony on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
as a historic district
Historic district (United States)
In the United States, a historic district is a group of buildings, properties, or sites that have been designated by one of several entities on different levels as historically or architecturally significant. Buildings, structures, objects and sites within a historic district are normally divided...
.
The Rugby experiment grew out of the social and economic conditions of Victorian England, where the practice of primogeniture
Primogeniture
Primogeniture is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn to inherit the entire estate, to the exclusion of younger siblings . Historically, the term implied male primogeniture, to the exclusion of females...
and an economic depression had left many of the "second sons" of the English gentry jobless and idle. Hughes envisioned Rugby as a colony where England's second sons would have a chance to own land and be free of social and moral ills that plagued late-19th century English cities. The colony would reject Late Victorian materialism in favor of the Christian socialist ideals of equality and cooperation espoused in Hughes's Tom Brown's School Days.
From the outset, however, the colony was beset with problems, namely a typhoid epidemic in 1881, lawsuits over land titles, and a population unaccustomed to the hard manual labor required to extract crops from the poor soil of the Cumberland Plateau
Cumberland Plateau
The Cumberland Plateau is the southern part of the Appalachian Plateau. It includes much of eastern Kentucky and western West Virginia, part of Tennessee, and a small portion of northern Alabama and northwest Georgia . The terms "Allegheny Plateau" and the "Cumberland Plateau" both refer to the...
. By late 1887, most of the original colonists had either died or moved away from Rugby. However, a few carried on into the 20th century and the village retained a small, continuous population.
Geography
Rugby is located atop the Cumberland PlateauCumberland Plateau
The Cumberland Plateau is the southern part of the Appalachian Plateau. It includes much of eastern Kentucky and western West Virginia, part of Tennessee, and a small portion of northern Alabama and northwest Georgia . The terms "Allegheny Plateau" and the "Cumberland Plateau" both refer to the...
near the junction of Morgan, Scott, and Fentress Counties. While it straddles the two former counties, the majority of it lies in Morgan County. On the north side of Rugby, the Clear Fork joins White Oak Creek to form a natural pool known as "The Meeting of the Waters" that has been a popular hiking destination since the colony's early days. Beyond Meeting-of-the-Waters, the Clear Fork continues northeastward for another 9 miles (14.5 km) to where it joins New River
New River (Tennessee)
The New River is a tributary of the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River in the U.S. state of Tennessee. Via the Big South Fork and the Cumberland and Ohio rivers, it is part of the Mississippi River watershed....
to form the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River
Big South Fork of the Cumberland River
The Big South Fork of the Cumberland River is a river in Tennessee and Kentucky. It is a major drainage feature of the Cumberland Plateau, a major tributary of the Cumberland River system, a world-class whitewater canoeing and kayaking stream, and the major feature of the Big South Fork National...
.
State Route 52
Tennessee State Route 52
Tennessee State Route 52 is an east–west highway that crosses northern Tennessee.It extends from State Highway 49 in Robertson County to its eastern terminus at the intersection with U.S. Route 27 in Scott County....
passes through the town, connecting it with U.S. Route 127
U.S. Route 127
U.S. Route 127 is a long north–south United States highway in the eastern half of the United States. The southern terminus of the route is at U.S. Route 27 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The northern terminus is at Interstate 75 near Grayling, Michigan...
in Jamestown
Jamestown, Tennessee
Jamestown is a city in Fentress County, Tennessee, United States. It is the county seat of Fentress County. The city population was 1,839 at the 2000 census. The 2008 estimated population is about 2,300.-History:...
to the west and U.S. Route 27
U.S. Route 27
U.S. Route 27 is a north–south United States highway in the southern and midwestern United States. The southern terminus is at US 1 in Miami, Florida. The northern terminus is at Interstate 69 in Fort Wayne, Indiana...
in the community of Elgin to the east. The area is relatively remote, with the 125000 acres (505.9 km²) Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area
Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area
The Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area preserves the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River and its tributaries in northeastern Tennessee and southeastern Kentucky...
dominating the area to the north, and sparsely-populated rolling hills stretching for miles to the south. Most of the historic district is located on or just off TN-52. A more modern residential area is located in the Beacon Hill section on the north side of the community.
Establishment
Thomas Hughes was born in Uffington, EnglandUffington, Oxfordshire
Uffington is a village and civil parish about south of Faringdon. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire. Uffington is most commonly known as the location of the Uffington White Horse hill figure....
in 1822. In the 1830s, he attended the Rugby School
Rugby School
Rugby School is a co-educational day and boarding school located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire, England. It is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain.-History:...
in Rugby, Warwickshire
Rugby, Warwickshire
Rugby is a market town in Warwickshire, England, located on the River Avon. The town has a population of 61,988 making it the second largest town in the county...
, where he was greatly influenced by the school's progressive headmaster, Thomas Arnold
Thomas Arnold
Dr Thomas Arnold was a British educator and historian. Arnold was an early supporter of the Broad Church Anglican movement...
. Both Rugby School and Arnold figured prominently in Hughes's 1857 novel, Tom Brown's School Days, and the school would eventually be the namesake for Hughes's utopian colony in Tennessee. In Tom Brown's School Days, Hughes espoused the ideals of Christian socialism, namely the cooperative
Cooperative
A cooperative is a business organization owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit...
ownership of community businesses. By the 1860s, Hughes had grown disenchanted with the materialism of Late Victorian England. He was disheartened by the fact that the talents of many of England's younger sons were wasted due to an economic recession and the medieval system of primogeniture, in which the oldest son inherited all of the family's land.
In 1870, Hughes travelled to America to meet his friend, the poet James Russell Lowell
James Russell Lowell
James Russell Lowell was an American Romantic poet, critic, editor, and diplomat. He is associated with the Fireside Poets, a group of New England writers who were among the first American poets who rivaled the popularity of British poets...
, and learned of the Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
-based Board of Aid to Land Ownership, which specialized in helping unemployed urban craftsmen relocate to rural areas. Hughes indicated that such an operation might also be beneficial to young, unemployed English gentry. In 1878, Board of Aid president Franklin Webster Smith
Franklin W. Smith
Franklin Webster Smith was an idealistic reformer who made his fortune as a Boston hardware merchant. He was an early abolitionist, defendant in a civilian court-martial in 1864, author, and architectural enthusiast who proposed transforming Washington, D.C...
and an agent with the new Cincinnati Southern Railway
Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway
The Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway is a railroad that runs from Cincinnati, Ohio, south to Chattanooga, Tennessee, forming part of the Norfolk Southern Railway system. The rail line that it operates, the Cincinnati Southern Railway, is owned by the City of Cincinnati and is...
, Cyrus Clarke, were travelling on the railroad's new tracks along the Cumberland Plateau when they identified the future site of Rugby, and were impressed with its virgin forests, clear air, and scenic gorges. Clarke secured options
Option (finance)
In finance, an option is a derivative financial instrument that specifies a contract between two parties for a future transaction on an asset at a reference price. The buyer of the option gains the right, but not the obligation, to engage in that transaction, while the seller incurs the...
on hundreds of thousands of acres of Plateau land. Knoxville attorney Oliver Perry Temple
Oliver Perry Temple
Oliver Perry Temple was an American attorney, author, judge, and economic promoter active primarily in East Tennessee in the latter half of the 19th century. During the months leading up to the Civil War, Temple played a pivotal role in organizing East Tennessee's Unionists...
, who became the colony's legal and agricultural advisor, began the complicated process of securing land titles.
Smith returned to Boston to recruit families to move to the newly-acquired land on the Plateau, but economic conditions in the northeast had improved, and few families were interested in relocating. Smith then notified Hughes of the Board's new land acquisitions, and Hughes expressed interest in establishing a colony. Hughes formed a partnership with British lawyers Sir Henry Kimber
Sir Henry Kimber, 1st Baronet
Sir Henry Kimber, 1st Baronet was a British lawyer and Conservative Party politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1885 to 1913....
and John Boyle, and bought the Board of Aid.
Rugby Colony, 1880–1887
Franklin W. Smith, who was primarily responsible for Rugby's early layout, chose the townsite for Rugby for its resort-like qualities, even though it was 7 miles (11.3 km) from the nearest railroad stop at Sedgemoor (modern Elgin). The colony's first frame structure, known as the "Asylum" (now the Pioneer Cottage), was erected in early 1880, and the first wave of colonists constructed tennisTennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
and croquet
Croquet
Croquet is a lawn game, played both as a recreational pastime and as a competitive sport. It involves hitting plastic or wooden balls with a mallet through hoops embedded into the grass playing court.-History:...
courts, and built a walkway to "The Meeting of the Waters." Within a few months, several residences had been completed, along with the three-story Tabard Inn, which was named for the Southwark hostelry
The Tabard
The Tabard, an inn that stood on the east side of Borough High Street in Southwark, was established in 1307, when the abbot of Hyde purchased the land to construct a hostel for himself and his brethren, when business took them to London, as well as an inn to accommodate the numerous pilgrims headed...
in Canterbury Tales.
Thomas Hughes was onhand for the colony's "opening" on October 5, 1880, and gave a speech that laid out his plans for Rugby. All colonists would be required to invest $5 in the commissary, thus ensuring public ownership. Personal freedoms were guaranteed, although the sale of alcohol was banned. The colony would build an Episcopal church, but the building could be used by any denomination. On opening day, Tennessee's Episcopal bishop, the Right Reverend Charles Quintard, chartered Christ Church and licensed colonist Joseph Blacklock as lay reader
Lay Reader
A lay reader is a layperson authorized by a bishop of the Anglican Church to read some parts of a service of worship. They are members of the congregation called to preach or lead services, but not called to full-time ministry.Anglican lay readers are licensed by the bishop to a particular parish...
.
American publications such as the New York Times and Harper's Weekly
Harper's Weekly
Harper's Weekly was an American political magazine based in New York City. Published by Harper & Brothers from 1857 until 1916, it featured foreign and domestic news, fiction, essays on many subjects, and humor...
and London publications such as The Spectator
The Spectator
The Spectator is a weekly British magazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...
, Saturday Review
Saturday Review (London)
The Saturday Review of politics, literature, science, and art was a London weekly newspaper established by A. J. B. Beresford Hope in 1855....
, and Punch
Punch (magazine)
Punch, or the London Charivari was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and engraver Ebenezer Landells. Historically, it was most influential in the 1840s and 50s, when it helped to coin the term "cartoon" in its modern sense as a humorous illustration...
, all followed the colony's progress. Rugby published its own newspaper, The Rugbeian, which was edited by Oxford graduate Osmond Dakeyne, and several colonists formed a Library and Reading Room Society, headed by Tübingen graduate Edward Bertz. In Summer 1881, a typhoid outbreak killed seven colonists— including Dakeyne— and forced the Tabard Inn to close for cleansing, but the colony recovered. By 1884, the colony boasted over 400 residents, 65 frame public buildings and houses, a tennis team, a social club, and a literary and dramatic society. In 1885, Rugby established a university, Arnold School, named for Rugby School headmaster Thomas Arnold.
Struggle and decline
Throughout its early history, Rugby was beset with lawsuits over land titles. While Cyrus Clarke had obtained options on nearly 350000 acres (141,640.1 ha) of land, many of the Plateau's AppalachiaAppalachia
Appalachia is a term used to describe a cultural region in the eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York state to northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Canada to Cheaha Mountain in the U.S...
n natives grew suspicious of Clarke and refused to sell their property. This slowed the colony's early development, and as the lawsuits dragged on, many colonists gave up and moved away. Furthermore, Smith, who had selected the townsite, had ignored the site's poor soil in favor of its potential as a mountain resort. Rugby's main resort hotel, the Tabard, was forced to close due to the typhoid outbreak in 1881, however, and burned down altogether in 1884, halting Rugby's burgeoning tourist economy and damaging the Board of Aid's credit.
Frustrated by the colony's slow development, the Board of Aid's London backers replaced colony director John Boyle with Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
-born Cincinnati city engineer Robert Walton in May 1882. Rugby attempted to establish a tomato
Tomato
The word "tomato" may refer to the plant or the edible, typically red, fruit which it bears. Originating in South America, the tomato was spread around the world following the Spanish colonization of the Americas, and its many varieties are now widely grown, often in greenhouses in cooler...
canning operation in 1883, but after the cannery was constructed, colonists failed to grow enough tomatoes to keep it operational. Newspapers began to ridicule Rugby, with London's Daily News accusing Hughes of creating a "pleasure picnic" rather than a functioning colony, and the New York Times claiming that Hughes was planning to abandon the colony altogether.
In 1887, the deaths of a number of prominent colonists— including Hughes's mother, Margaret, and geologist Charles Wilson— led to the departure of most of Rugby's original settlers. That year, Hughes made his last annual visit to the colony, and The Rugbeian ceased publication. In 1892, Sir Henry Kimber reorganized the Board of Aid as the Rugby Tennessee Company, which focused on harvesting the region's natural resources, all but abandoning the anti-materialistic ideals on which the colony was founded. By 1900, the company had sold its Cumberland Plateau holdings.
Preservation
Robert Walton's son, William (1887–1958), maintained the Thomas Hughes Library, the Christ Church Episcopal, and Kingstone Lisle until the mid-20th century. During the same period, Uffington House was maintained by the family of C.C. Brooks. Conservation efforts at Rugby began in the 1940s when logging practices were decimating the surrounding virgin forests. The efforts were publicized by the New York Times and the Washington Post, and gained federal support with the aide of Secretary of State Cordell HullCordell Hull
Cordell Hull was an American politician from the U.S. state of Tennessee. He is best known as the longest-serving Secretary of State, holding the position for 11 years in the administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt during much of World War II...
, but the state of Tennessee rejected the logging companies' offering price for the land, and the forest was cut right up to the community's boundaries.
In 1966, preservationists formed Historic Rugby, a non-profit group dedicated to restoring and maintaining the community's surviving historic structures, which include the Christ Church Episcopal, the Thomas Hughes Library, the Rugby School, Kingstone Lisle, Uffington House, and Newbury House. The group has also reconstructed several buildings based on their original designs, including the Board of Aid office, the Rugby Commissary, and Sir Henry Kimber's Percy Cottage. The Harrow Road Cafe, a restaurant built in the 1980s, was named for a restaurant that existed at Rugby in the 1880s, although its original design is unknown. The Rugby Printing Works, which originally stood at nearby Deer Lodge, was moved to Rugby in the 1970s. In recent years, Historic Rugby has opened up the community's Beacon Hill area (originally planned to include residences and a park) to new home construction, with the condition that all new homes must be designed in accordance with the community's Victorian aesthetic.
Notable buildings
Christ Church Episcopal
The hrist Church Episcopal (Rugby, Tennessee)|Christ Church Episcopal was established on October 5, 1880, and initially used the original Rugby schoolhouse for services. The current building was built in the Carpenter Gothic style in 1887 by Cornelius Onderdonk, who constructed many of the original buildings in Rugby, and consecrated by Episcopal bishop Charles Quintard in 1888. The church's alms basin was designed by English carpenter Henry Fry, who had previously done work for various churches in the London area. The church's reed organReed organ
A reed organ, also called a parlor organ, pump organ, cabinet organ, cottage organ, is an organ that generates its sounds using free metal reeds...
, built in 1849, is one of the oldest in the United States. The Christ Church congregation has met here regularly since 1887.
Thomas Hughes Library
Built in 1882, the Thomas Hughes Library is the most unchanged of all the buildings in Rugby. The library's 7,000 volumes were collected primarily by Boston bookseller Estes & Lauriat, and donated to Rugby's Library and Reading Room Society with the stipulation they name the new library for Hughes. The library still contains most of its original collection, the oldest volume of which dates to 1687. German-born colonist Edward Bertz, Rugby's first librarian, published a book about his Rugby experiences, entitled Das Sabinergut, in 1896.Kingstone Lisle
Kingstone Lisle, a Queen Anne-styleQueen Anne Style architecture (United States)
In America, the Queen Anne style of architecture, furniture and decorative arts was popular in the United States from 1880 to 1910. In American usage "Queen Anne" is loosely used of a wide range of picturesque buildings with "free Renaissance" details rather than of a specific formulaic style in...
cottage, was built in 1884 as a residence for Thomas Hughes, although Hughes stayed at the cottage for just a very short period on one of his annual visits (he usually stayed at the Newbury House). In the late 1880s, Hughes gave the house to Christ Church priest Joseph Blacklock for use as a rectory
Rectory
A rectory is the residence, or former residence, of a rector, most often a Christian cleric, but in some cases an academic rector or other person with that title...
. Historic Rugby restored the house in the 1960s, and has outfitted it with period furniture.
Comprehensive list of historical structures
| Structure | Image | Originally constructed / reconstructed (if not original) | Principal original owner | Named for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Christ Church Episcopal |  |
1887 | ||
| Rugby School | 1880/1907 | |||
| Thomas Hughes Library | 1882 | Author Thomas Hughes (1822–1896) | ||
| Kingstone Lisle | 1884 | Thomas Hughes | Community in Hughes's native Berkshire, England | |
| Percy Cottage | 1884/1970s | Sir Henry Kimber (1834–1923) | Kimber's son | |
| Roslyn | 1886 | Montgomery Boyle | Roslyn Castle Roslin Castle Roslin Castle is a partially ruined castle near the village of Roslin in Midlothian, Scotland. It is located around 9 miles south of Edinburgh, on the north bank of the North Esk, only a few hundred metres from the famous Rosslyn Chapel.There has been a castle on the site since the early 14th... in Scotland |
|
| Walton Court | 1881/2007 | Robert Walton | Walton family ancestral home in County Cork, Ireland | |
| Harrow Road Cafe | 1880s/1985 | Harrow Road Harrow Road The Harrow Road is an ancient route in Greater London which runs from Paddington in a northwesterly direction to Harrow. With minor deviations in the 19th and 20th centuries, the route remains otherwise unaltered... in London |
||
| Rugby Printing Works | 1880s | Abner Ross | ||
| Board of Aid to Land Ownership office | 1880/1970s | |||
| Rugby Commissary | 1880/1970s | Publicly owned | ||
| Ingleside | 1884 | Russell Sturgis | ||
| Adena Cottage | 1881 | Frederick Wellman | Adena Mansion Adena Mansion Adena Mansion was built for Thomas Worthington by Benjamin Latrobe, and was completed in 1806-1807. It is located west of downtown Chillicothe, Ohio, United States. The property surrounding the mansion included the location of the first mound found to belong to the Adena culture and thus the... in Ohio, built for Wellman's grandfather-in-law |
|
| Wren's Nest | 1887 | Frederick Wellman | ||
| The Lindens | 1880 | Nathan Tucker | Linden trees planted around the house | |
| Newbury House | 1880 | Ross Brown | ||
| Onderdonk House | 1880s/2007 | Rugby architect/builder Cornelius Onderdonk | ||
| Pioneer Cottage | 1880 | |||
| Martin's Roost | 1880s/1960s | |||
| Oak Lodge | 1881 | T. Lyon White | ||
| Uffington House | 1881 | Margaret Hughes | Uffington, England Uffington, Oxfordshire Uffington is a village and civil parish about south of Faringdon. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire. Uffington is most commonly known as the location of the Uffington White Horse hill figure.... |
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| The Clubhouse/Ruralia | 1884 | Daniel Ellerby | ||
| Twin Oaks | 1884 | Beriah Riddell |