 Rockbridge Alum Spring click on title for larger image |
"These Springs are in the County of Rockbridge, in a narrow but beautiful valley, between the North and Mill Mountains. The large and commodious Hotel fronts north, and the handsome Cottages and Cabins are built in a circle. At the base of the Mill Mountain are the Alum Wells, five in number, which graduate in strength. The fifth is rarely if ever used. The Virginia Central Rail Road runs within five miles of this place, and Stages are running to it, during the summer season, from every direction." |
Looking south toward Brushy Mountain Beyer viewed Rockbridge Alum Springs from high ground as in many of his resort scenes. Located ten miles north of Lexington in Rockbridge county, the spa is currently a Christian youth camp with some of the original buildings still standing.
Taking the waters was not the only activity at the springs of nineteenth-century Virginia. Horseback riding, hiking, dances, billiards, and bowling could be enjoyed. Author James Branch Cabell, who visited Rockbridge Alum Springs in its declining years in the early twentieth century wrote “I found nothing that sent my imagination soaring like that little charmed circle of buildings called Rockbridge Alum Springs.”
Back to Top