HISTORIC RUGBY, TENNESSEE

Rugby Commissary Museum Store

Rugby's original Commissary was built in 1881 and operated on a cooperative basis in the early years, as Thomas Hughes had hoped. Here both colonists and visitors found many of the wares needed to "begin life anew" in the Tennessee wilderness. Commissary ads such as this one from an early Rugby newspaper touted "merchandise of nearly every description at lowest market prices - dry & fancy goods, boots & shoes of all grades, crockery and glassware, woodware, tinware, farming implements and a full line of groceries." The Commissary was torn down in the 1930's.

Today, the historically reconstructed Commissary holds a treasure trove of traditional handcrafts made by dozens of area artisans; British Isles foods, games and prints; Rugby and area history and travel books; Victoriana of every description and much more.
CLOSED ON TUESDAYS DURING WINTER.

Board of Aid to Land Ownership Building

It's now home to Spirit of Red Hill Nature Art & Oddiments on the first floor and the Rugby Archive & Research Centre on the second. Artist Donna Heffner specializes in gourd art, including evocative jewelry.

The original Board of Aid was the first destination for incoming colonists. Here they could buy or lease land and find temporary homes and agricultural training opportunities. It burned in 1976 and was reconstructed in 1987.