Historic Rugby Village in Tennessee - Thomas Hughes Victorian England

Guided Walking Tours

The Rugby Visitor Centre & Theatre is the daily starting point for viewing the national award winning Rugby history film, The Power of a Dream, and for guided walking tours of some of the key historic buildings and exhibits at Historic Rugby. You'll also view the 32-foot 1880s Rugby mural before starting your one-block walking tour with an informative guide. You'll visit the 1882 Thomas Hughes Free Public Library, the founder's home 1884 Kingstone Lisle, 1887 Christ Church Episcopal and the 1907 Schoolhouse with exhibits featuring Rugby images through the years. You might also enjoy a visit to Laurel Dale Cemetary (staff can direct you), where Thomas' mother Margaret Hughes and many other early colonists are buried.

Hughes Free Public Library

This library is virtually unchanged since it opened in 1882. Its diverse, 7000-volume collection was donated primarily by American publishers in honor of Hughes and represents the entire spectrum of reading tastes of the late Victorian period. The building is painted its original colors.

Kingstone Lisle

Founder Thomas Hughes' house is based on an 'English Rural Style' cottage drawn by the famous American landscape and architectural designer Andrew Jackson Downing. It clearly reflects Hughes' and Downing's shared belief that buildings should harmonize with their natural surroundings. Furnished today with many original Rugby pieces, the cottage reveals much about early life in Rugby and is also painted its original colors.

Christ Church Episcopal

This lovely example of Carpenter Gothic architecture, like all Rugby's early buildings, was constructed of the virgin pine, walnut and poplar which covered the Plateau in the 1880s. The church is painted it's original colors and contains all its early furnishings, light fixtures and rosewood organ. It has been used continuously for public worship since 1887. Visitors are welcome at services every Sunday at 11:00 a.m. Eastern time.

The Rugby Schoolhouse

The 1907 Schoolhouse contains pictorial exhibits that trace more than a century of Rugby's history. This building was built on the same foundation as the original 2 1/2 story public building constructed by the Board of Aid to serve as school, church, and later as the meeting place for the local order of Masons. The first building burned in 1906. As there were still dozens of children attending school at Rugby, the Morgan County Board of Education had this building constructed with the typical one large room for teaching downstairs and a lunchroom upstairs. It served as Rugby's all-grade school until 1951.

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Historic Rugby Vision

British-founded Rugby, Tennessee, is a rare example of a rural, living community that survives from its 1880s utopian beginnings with its town plan intact, many buildings and its natural setting preserved and with no encroaching incompatible development. This is the result of a long chain of human effort to preserve it, inspired by its founder's vision of equality and cooperation, community planning and natural resources stewardship. Rugby and its heritage must be preserved for all time and shared with this and future generations.

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