Rugby Re-enactment Set For 125th Anniversary

September 22, 2005

RUGBY — Rugby’s British founder, Thomas Hughes, stood on the verandah of the just-completed Tabard Inn on October 5, 1880, and formally opened a new colony for British and American settlers on the sparsely populated Cumberland Plateau of East Tennessee. Dignitaries from all over Tennessee and the northeast were in attendance.

On October 5, at 11 a.m. EST, exactly 125 years to the hour later, Historic Rugby and village residents will present an historic re-enactment of the opening day, under tent at the foundation site of the Tabard Inn.

The same religious service, singing and opening day speeches will be re-enacted thanks to extensive and detailed records in the Rugby Archives and other repositories. Cumberland County Playhouse actor Jack Irvin will take the part of Thomas Hughes, presenting Hughes’ opening day speech in its entirety. The Rev. Charles vonRosenberg, Episcopal Bishop of the East Tennessee Diocese, will play the role of Tennessee’s 1880s Bishop Charles Todd Quintard. Former Senator and Ambassador Howard Baker, Jr., will present a short speech originally given by Judge Oliver Perry Temple, who was the Tennessee agent for Hughes’ Rugby colony and a Knoxville lawyer and UT trustee from 1854 until his death in 1907. The Tennessee Tech chorus will sing the same hymns sung at the 1880 opening.

Amber Brown, a great-great-great niece of Thomas Hughes, will end the re-enactment ceremony by leading all present in singing God Save the Queen and the Star Spangled Banner. Other Hughes and Rugby descendants will be in attendance.

The Opening Day celebration is free to the public. Victorian and Appalachian dress is encouraged. Donation boxes will be available, and any proceeds will help continue Rugby’s restoration and permanent preservation.

A box lunch provided by the Harrow Road Cafe and homemade cakes by Rugby and area residents will be available by reservation after the ceremony. Lunch cost is $10. Highland Manor Winery of Jamestown will provide complimentary Cumberland Plateau wines. Lunch tickets can be purchased by calling 888-214-3400.

All Historic Rugby facilities, including the cafe, Commissary Museum Store and Visitor Centre, will be closed from 10:30 a.m. until 2 p.m. on October 5 so all staff can take part in the ceremony.

Rugby today is the only rural Utopian colonizing effort in America to survive with many of its original buildings still standing, its sophisticated town plan still intact and with no encroaching modern development. Non-profit Historic Rugby oversees 12 buildings and some 250 acres of woodland greenbelt, and conducts daily tours of the 1882 Hughes Library, 1887 Christ Church Episcopal and 1884 founder’s home, Kingstone Lisle. Year-round arts and culture events and craft and outdoor workshops are also presented.

newsroom@ihoneida.com

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