Rugby

Well, I'm not talking about the sport of Rugby, but instead the village of Rugby, Tennessee. It is a historic village that was founded in 1880 by a gentleman from England. The village survived as a progressive community for about 20 years and then began to decline due to a number of reasons including the mother of the founder dying. She had been the driving force in the village's success. There are still a number of original buildings that have been restored and are open for touring.

Above is the school. It is not an original building but it dates back to 1907 and is a two story copy of the original three story building. The original building burned. The third floor in the original building had been for a church. By the time it burned, a church had been built across the street so the third floor was not needed.

Above is the library. It is an original building and contains same 6000 volumes. The books have been kept on the shelves of the library since it was built without temperature or humidity control. We got to look at some of the books and they are still in great shape.

Pictured above is the church, built in the late 1880's. Church members originally met in an upper floor of the school building. The church is now Episcopal, but was originally Anglican. Services are still held here.

One of the original houses. There are some 40 left ( out of about 200). Just about all of the furnishing are original to the house or one of the other houses in town.

We spent the day here with our neighbors David and Becky touring, eating, and hiking. Our hike was to the "Gentlemen's Swimming Hole." It was a mile round trip that seemed to go straight down and then straight back up. Another interesting activity was to walk around in the village cemetery. It dates back to the founding of the village and people that live there today can be buried there free.