Rice’s Hotel/Huglett’s Tavern has been restored and operates today as an artisan center and restaurant.
Since 1795, and maybe earlier, Rice’s Hotel/Hughlett’s Tavern has been a landmark in Heathsville, the county seat for Northumberland. Today, it is home to the Heritage Arts Center. Working artist studios fill the lovingly restored rooms that include a gallery and a shop showcasing locally made artisan wares. Visitors to the center can chat with local artisans as they work, making each shopping trip a destination experience.
The shop offers captivating items like decorative “birdhouses” made from found items, wine bottle night lights covered in colorful glass baubles, and handmade baskets. Don’t miss the braided wool rugs, hand-thrown pottery, greeting cards, quilted table runners, handwoven placemats and dish towels, framed artwork, jewelry, wooden boxes, and so much more. Each item is unique.
Members of the Tavern Spinners & Weavers Guild greet visitors as they arrive. A quilting bee is often underway in the Tavern Quilt Guild’s Studio. Other artists-in-residence include a jewelry maker who creates colorful and imaginative jewelry, and a painter who takes thrift shop furniture finds and turns them into unusual decorative household items. There’s also a spinner and maker of exquisite bobbin-lace and a seamstress who specializes in custom tote bags.
The last surviving structure of its type in the Northern Neck, Rice’s Hotel/Hughlett’s Tavern, is located just off Route 360 in Heathsville, hidden behind the old Northumberland Courthouse.
The Heritage Arts Center is open Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
For more information, visit RHHTFoundationinc.org, or call 804-580-3377.
This article appeared in the Fall 2015 issue of The Local Scoop Magazine, pg. 77.