Rugby was established in the 1880s by the successful Victorian-era author Thomas Hughes as a Utopian community for the second sons of English gentry.  Due to the system of primogeniture, these men would inherit little or no property and had very limited career opportunities.  Hughes established this colony in the beautiful but hard-scrabble Cumberland Plateau area of Tennessee.  After some initial success, the colony fell on hard times, ultimately failed and was largely forgotten.  In the mid-1960s, residents of the area began to restore the remaining historic buildings and over the course of five decades have saved this wonderful place and turned it into a thriving community and a favorite spot for tourists.

That’s the official story.  The reason it is important to me is because it is where I undertook my first hands-on preservation work, leading to a career that’s now in its fourth decade.

One of the visionary individuals who began the hard work of saving Rugby was named Brian Stagg.  His brother, Alan Stagg, was my Boy Scout leader.  Beginning in the late 1960s, our scout troop would travel to Rugby during the summer, camp out on the site of the old hospital for a week, and undertake clean-up/fix-up projects around the historic buildings in between hikes and swims in the beautiful Clear Fork River (in the old “men’s swimming hole”).  My very first preservation experience was cleaning out the brush that had surrounded the amazing Thomas Hughes Free Public Library (pictured in the background above), which contained over 7,000 volumes of pre-1900 books, many first editions donated to Hughes.  Even as a young teenager I was astounded that such an amazing collection of historic books were just sitting in a sweet little structure in the middle of nowhere.  (And Rugby, dear friends, is far from the beaten path.)

Brian Stagg tragically died much too young, but the family connection has remained, as his sister Barbara has been a leader and stalwart at Historic Rugby since the 1960s.

If you are traveling down the interstate highway from Knoxville to Nashville and see a sign for Historic Rugby and the Big South Fork Recreation area, do yourself a favor and take a couple of hours detour to see a unique place in American history and learn about what the vision of a handful of hard-working citizens – mixed in with the sweat of some Boy Scouts – can accomplish.

More to come…

DJB

You get This Place Matters.

More than 2,000 people took the National Trust for Historic Preservation (full disclosure: my employer) up on their offer, and the results are fascinating.  When you have some time, go to the site, click on the slide show, and sit back and watch.  I guarantee you’ll love it!

And now, the Trust is having a This Place Matters photo contest where you can go online and vote once per day for your favorite This Place Matters photo.  The top three photographers win a digital camera.  (Full disclosure:  I am not eligible.)

You can guess which photo I’m voting for: Miller’s Grocery (shown above) in Christiana, Tennessee.  (Full disclosure:  I do not know the photographer or the subject.)  I just love this picture. Perhaps it is because it comes from my home state (another disclosure).  Perhaps I can just see myself sitting on the bench of a Tennessee country store with my dog by my side.

For whatever reason, I’m going online every day and voting for Miller’s Grocery.  But you should view all 12 finalists and choose your own favorite.  Perhaps you’ll fall for the kids in the Bronx.   San Antonio’s old Humble Oil station may grab your heart.  Or who knows, you may start crying reading the story of Hugh Smalling’s grave in Macon, Georgia.

The deadline for the contest is October 9th, but it is never too late to download a This Place Matters sign, find something that has special meaning and upload a photo at www.PreservationNation.org to tell the world about a place that matters to you.  (Full disclosure:  That’s me to the right in the photo below.  It was not chosen as a finalist.)

More to come…

DJB

More to come…

DJB