Grey Gables Bed & Breakfast — Hotel in Oliver Springs

I have visited Historic Rugby, Tennessee, since 2003 and made a point of spending at least one night a year there from 2009 to 2016, when I moved to Texas. I always rented a room in Rugby proper. Planning such a trip this year, I was dismayed to find that all rentals in Rugby were taken and very nearly canceled the whole trip. Fortunately, I found Grey Gables online and remembered that I had passed it many times when leaving Rugby to head for points west. As I said to Linda, the owner, this place salvaged the trip for me!||Set on large, grassy acreage perhaps a couple of hundred feet back from highway 52 and a couple of miles outside of the town, Grey Gables gives the impression of a house built over a century ago but in fact is quite modern, with the antique feel coming from its architecture, furnishings, and decor. As another reviewer noted, entering this place is like going home to grandma's house. ||A large verandah fronts the place, and a house cat roams it; it seems to want to be petted, though if you attempt that, it becomes rather skittish. Both the guest rooms and the common areas such as the parlor and dining room are large and homey, filled with old furnishings and knick-knacks, exuding an old-fashioned charm. ||Alone among all the bed-and-breakfasts I have ever visited, a full-course dinner is served here, around 7 pm; this is really a practical necessity, since the nearest towns of any size, Monterey and Cookeville, are 47 and 62 miles away, respectively (Rugby had a restaurant, the Harrow Road Café, which burned down a few years ago and is now being rebuilt; it will reopen in 2025). Linda is a person who believes in dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's, and everything about the presentation of the meals (as well as everything else in this place) is "just so"--exactly as it should be. There is no alcohol in the house, but you may bring your own wine and liquor, if you choose. ||Linda was born in Rugby, and the R.M. Brooks General Store, just down the road, was begun about 95 years ago by her grandfather, father, or uncle. She grew up with the grandchildren of the original 1880s Rugby settlers and absorbed the lore of the town. In later years, returning to the town from living in other parts of the country, she built Grey Gables and even wrote a 320-page Rugby Cookbook, which is available for purchase--one of the recipes that intrigued me was "Devils on Horseback." The first 75-80 pages of the cookbook is a history of the town and its inhabitants, obviously a labor of love and informed by Linda's exhaustive research into old newspaper archives. For instance, although it is generally held that iced tea was introduced in the St. Louis World's Fair of 1904, Rugby tradition says that it was brewed and sold in the 1880s at the town's popular Tabard Inn, named after the famous London establishment of Chaucer's Day. I sat up for a while, the night I stayed there, in the roomy parlor, perusing Linda's book, and I told her that whereas I had wished, upon first spending the night in Rugby some years ago, that I could just sit up and absorb the lore of the place and its atmosphere, reading her cookbook in the parlor at Grey Gables accomplished just that for me. ||My room was spacious, the bed perfectly comfortable, the room well cooled, and the shower providing plenty of hot water the next morning. I was sent off the next morning with a wonderfully filling breakfast of cheese grits, scrambled eggs, bacon, French toast, orange juice, and coffee. The price was perfectly reasonable and a good value. For me, Grey Gables was a fortunate discovery, and I will certainly...

I have visited Historic Rugby, Tennessee, since 2003 and made a point of spending at least one night a year there from 2009 to 2016, when I moved to Texas. I always rented a room in Rugby proper. Planning such a trip this year, I was dismayed to find that all rentals in Rugby were taken and very nearly canceled the whole trip. Fortunately, I found Grey Gables online and remembered that I had passed it many times when leaving Rugby to head for points west. As I said to Linda, the owner, this place salvaged the trip for me!||Set on large, grassy acreage perhaps a couple of hundred feet back from highway 52 and a couple of miles outside of the town, Grey Gables gives the impression of a house built over a century ago but in fact is quite modern, with the antique feel coming from its architecture, furnishings, and decor. As another reviewer noted, entering this place is like going home to grandma's house. ||A large verandah fronts the place, and a house cat roams it; it seems to want to be petted, though if you attempt that, it becomes rather skittish. Both the guest rooms and the common areas such as the parlor and dining room are large and homey, filled with old furnishings and knick-knacks, exuding an old-fashioned charm. ||Alone among all the bed-and-breakfasts I have ever visited, a full-course dinner is served here, around 7 pm; this is really a practical necessity, since the nearest towns of any size, Monterey and Cookeville, are 47 and 62 miles away, respectively (Rugby had a restaurant, the Harrow Road Café, which burned down a few years ago and is now being rebuilt; it will reopen in 2025). Linda is a person who believes in dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's, and everything about the presentation of the meals (as well as everything else in this place) is "just so"--exactly as it should be. There is no alcohol in the house, but you may bring your own wine and liquor, if you choose. ||Linda was born in Rugby, and the R.M. Brooks General Store, just down the road, was begun about 95 years ago by her grandfather, father, or uncle. She grew up with the grandchildren of the original 1880s Rugby settlers and absorbed the lore of the town. In later years, returning to the town from living in other parts of the country, she built Grey Gables and even wrote a 320-page Rugby Cookbook, which is available for purchase--one of the recipes that intrigued me was "Devils on Horseback." The first 75-80 pages of the cookbook is a history of the town and its inhabitants, obviously a labor of love and informed by Linda's exhaustive research into old newspaper archives. For instance, although it is generally held that iced tea was introduced in the St. Louis World's Fair of 1904, Rugby tradition says that it was brewed and sold in the 1880s at the town's popular Tabard Inn, named after the famous London establishment of Chaucer's Day. I sat up for a while, the night I stayed there, in the roomy parlor, perusing Linda's book, and I told her that whereas I had wished, upon first spending the night in Rugby some years ago, that I could just sit up and absorb the lore of the place and its atmosphere, reading her cookbook in the parlor at Grey Gables accomplished just that for me. ||My room was spacious, the bed perfectly comfortable, the room well cooled, and the shower providing plenty of hot water the next morning. I was sent off the next morning with a wonderfully filling breakfast of cheese grits, scrambled eggs, bacon, French toast, orange juice, and coffee. The price was perfectly reasonable and a good value. For me, Grey Gables was a fortunate discovery, and I will certainly...

How have I missed this? Lived in Knoxville most my life and never heard of this charming place until I won a nights stay at a benefit auction. This B & B was like staying at grandmas. Linda is such a great host and the food is terrific? We sat around the table with the 4 other guest getting to know each other after dinner, all who had been here before. We had Soup, Salad, chicken breast, green beans and mashed potatoes & bananas foster for dinner. The rolls were some of the best I have had and the sweet almond tea was addictive. Breakfast was delicious and consisted of scrambled eggs, hash browns, sausage, bacon, biscuits, gravy, cinnamon rolls (which I took some home) and fresh fruit. If you want to slow down and just relax, this is the place for you. You can take long walks in the town or around the grounds. She has plenty of board and card games if you want to do that. They even have a Moco-opoly (Morgan County Monopoly) game that tells you more about the surrounding area. We actually watch a NCAA basketball play off game in the den. We will be going...