The village of Rugby, Tenn., on Highway 52, hosted its annual Thanksgiving Marketplace event on Friday, Nov. 28, 2014, to welcome the Christmas season.
Historic Rugby and local vendors planned special sales and activities to draw in visitors for the holiday weekend.
In September, the village received very positive attention from an article about Dolly Parton in Southern Living magazine. She was quoted to say, “’[My husband and I] try to see all the little, out-of-the-way places [where] other people don’t go. … Just like our little Rugby. You know up around Knoxville? There’s a little town up there called Rugby. We find all the little Rugby’s all over Tennessee. All the little places that are just out of the way and have a little history.’”
Donna Heffner and Annie Patterson own the of Spirit of Red Hill Nature Art and Oddiments gift shop and the Alexander-Perrigo House, a bed and breakfast, in which the shop is located. Heffner said that she was very pleased with the turnout for this holiday event.
Heffner said, “We brought [the boarding house] back. We reconstructed it on the exact spot in the exact same way, so it looks identical to what was here. The shop part of it – this is my artwork. I am a nature wildlife artist. I’m an acrylic painter, and then my partner and I raise gourds, and we’re also gourd artists, so this table is our gourd work. Everything else in our shop basically is vintage. … We make things from vintage things, too, like our jewelry and things like that.”
In the Rugby Commissary, visitors browsed products, such as Victorian toys, pottery and jewelry, made by local and visiting artisans. Jessie Gully, manager of the Rugby Commissary, also planned needle felting classes, which allowed guests to make Victorian-style Christmas ornaments.
Several ladies in the community hosted two afternoon Victorian teas at the Newbury House, which is used as a bed and breakfast by Historic Rugby.
From the Rugby Visitor Center and Theater, interpreters led walking tours through the town and original buildings.
The Harrow Road Café served British dishes such as bangers and mash, shepherd’s pie and Welsh rarebit, along with standard American fare.
Thomas Hughes, British judge and author of “Tom Brown’s School Days,” founded Rugby in 1880 as a self-sustaining agricultural and cultural utopia on the Cumberland Plateau. This Victorian-era town did not continue the way Hughes imagined it due to several unexpected setbacks; however, in the 1960s, some local families established the Historic Rugby organization to restore the remaining buildings and Hughes’ legacy.