Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-08-31

A MAMMOTH HOTEL AND ITS PICTURESQUE SUR
RoUSDISos-THE FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF NEW
ARRIvAL-THK SULPHUR SPRING AND THE SWIM
MING PooL-socIAL PRE-EMINENcE OF THE PLACE
Correspondents Of THE EVENING STAR.
WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS,
GREESBRIER COUNTY, WA, August 49,
A pleasant surprise is in store for the sum-
mer saunterer who first visits the White Sui
phur Springs. He may have been previously
familiar with other resorts that are clustered
around the copious mineral springs with which
the Allegheny elevations are so richly endowed.
But the White Sulphur is in some respects in
the lead Of all the pleasure resorts of the south
In approaching this favorite and favored spot
the tourist is much jostled and pressed and
crowded in the throng upon the railway train,
but, once set down at the Grand Central
hotel. all the discomforts arising from
contracted spaces are permanently at an
end. Even the long van that meets
him at the railway station and carries him to
the hotel is said by the facetious porter never
to have refused to take in one more passenger
The public rooms, corridors, piazzas and apart
ments are unusually spacious The visitor
is confronted by scene of unwonted anima-
ton. Especially will this be remarkable if he
has been sojourning for the past seventy days
in a remote valley where he has not heard in
that time the whistle Of steam engine nor the
rush Of a railway train. Here as he alights
the band is playing and the company Of dis
Notwithstanding men who are taking easy
attitudes of elegant indifference in the bril-
liant light makes the tourist begin to think he
has arrived at a big New York hotel in the
height OF the winter season. He is usbered
into reception room that opens directly from
the piazza parlor maid brings a tablet and
pencil for him to write his name upon and
then an aged porter takes up his hand-baggage
and moves up grand staircase and the guest
follows him up and along an inside corridor
On and on, and the two are passing
doors numbered in the seven and eight
hundreds, and the new arrival thinks
there must soon be a terminus to this wooden
walk inthe very near future. After short
walk upon a commissioning balcony that is
flooded with soft moonlight and upon which
the cool night air from Kate's mountain
is blowing, the sable guide stops at a
glass door and ushers his charge into
the main room Of a suite Of apartments that
are richly furnished. Left alone the wanderer,
exhausted with his long tramp, goes to bed and
sleeps soundIy.
THE HOTEL AND ITS SURROUNDINGS.
The hotel is set in an extensive amphitheater
surrounded by cluster of the Allegheny s peaks.
This valley Is 1000 feet above tide water, and
the submits of the heights that stand guard
about it tower still 1,5O0 feet farther toward
the eternal blue. The main building is a long
rectangle in shape, three stories in height,
capped by domed observatory. 1t faces the
northwest and has new wing that looks south
west, in which are the Offices, a reception room
and reading rooms and telegraph Offices There
are no inside halls Of any length on the first
floor, as the piazza is a continuous promenade
on three sides Of the building. The dining
room occupies the chief portion of the main
building and is over 800 feet in length. The
only way persons are able to find their tables
again after having been assigned places is by
attending to the numbers that are posted
upon the columns that support the frescoed
ceiling. The room is lighted by arc electric
intervals upon the piazza. To the immediate
rear are located the kitchens, a recent improve
ment, and only fully appreciated after living in
an old-time Virginia hOstelry where the pro-
prietor plumes his pride upon having his sui
lery in remote cabins from which it is not pos
sible to bring dishes in palatable heat
to the table. At the north end of the
dining room is the ladies' parlor a handsomely
appointed chamber that is almost al large again
as the east room in tile White House. At the
opposite and southern end is the ball room.
corresponding in size to the parlor The
grounds about the hotel are picturesauely
beautiful, inclosed by the close copse of the
mountains that extends in thick brushwood
far upon their bases.
GIBDLE OF WHITE PoRTICoED COTTAGES
encircles the sward. In general style these cot
ta2es are all one story in height, but many of
them are set upon high, open lattice-work bases,
and the airy balconies are reached bv long
flights of wooden steps. The large, white
colonnades that support the roofs give an effect
of colonial dignity to the cottage architecture.
Rugs and curtains hung from pillar to post
give pleasant privacy to the inevitable ham
mock that 30 greatly assists in breaking down
the barriers Of formal reserve between young
people. The green sward intervening between
the cottages and the hotel is traversed by
walks and drives, frightened by borders OF
blooming plants, and benches are built under
the oak, elm and pine trees that are near the
tennis courts where the beaux and bellies in
fantastic garb dlspOrt themselves in the morn
ing hours. The shops and the post office are
In detached row, west of the hotel and near
to the spring. Guests at the hotel must go to
the general post office for mail
THE SPRING
rises in deep WELL the limpid water flowing
at the rate OF ~ gallons in a minute, and it is
protected bv hemispher;cal roof raised upon
eight Corinthian columns. The floor about
the edge OK the spring is of marble, and an
iron wicker work surrounds the waters. There
are no seats. boy in attendance plunges a
wire cage set with tumbers and fastened to
the end of a pole into the well and brings it UP,
the glasses brimming with the cool, greenish-
yellow water that is really most delightful
beverage. Near the classical temple dedicated
to sulphur water Is pretty wooden structure
OF the Queen Anne period
10 SWIMMIN9.
In it two pools-one for women, the
other and larger one for men. The water il
brought from distant mountain aid is heated
to the desired temperature. The man in
charge said his place was always well patron
lied when there were no morning germans at
the hotel. The regular sulphur baths are pre-
pared in a dilapidated two-story building and
are scarcely given in a style consistent with
the elegance Of all the other appointments of
the place, from which one may infer that COM
paratively few of the guests visit the White
Sulphur for the baths. On the lower floor of
the house baths are furnished the men, and on
the upper floor the bath rooms are for the use
Of women. The water used is furnished from
the drinking spring and is heated by steam in
the bath tub, where the patient lies, and
the process is considered a great improve
ment over the old methods of heating medi-
Gated waters.
But when everything has been said of the
potent natural charms Of the White Sulphur
Springs it will be found that its social pre-emi-
hence is its great drawing card. For more than
a hundred years the springs have been a place
OF pleasure resort. The Shawnee Indians be-
fore that date used to assemble here in annual
council and declaim of the warlike feats Of
their ancestral braves. After the Shawnees had
moved away out into the west courtly gentle
man of the old school took possession of the
place and reared substantial buildings for the
accommodation of his guests, who increased in
numbers as the country grew in importance
and wealth For over one hundred years de-