Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1890-05-02
A PLACE FOR SUMMER REST.

DROPPED INTO THE COUNTRYSIDE
&C, &C.. &C.
Reported for the Staunton VINDIcAToR.l
THE GRoTToEs, April 26.
This is a place where take it a man i
the summer time just lies III state of laz
establishment. Not active establishment
for no man in an arm chair, looking out on
landscape of seventy-five miles, softened b
the haze of summer is likely to do anythin
requiring activity. How this hotel cam
to be dropped here is puzzle to me. No
how hotel came here; that is natura
enough, for the famous caves are locates
here, but how came this one? What bust
ness has modern hotel with steam heat
ing, bath and toilet rooms, electric lights
the richest of furniture and table ware,
hundred yards of wide verandah, mirrors
spring beds, and the like, right here wher'
the air from the pine forest blows right init
its windows and the tinkling of the COW bell!
comes from far over the fields
But it is rather with what may be see1
from this hotel verandah, than with how il
came here, that I have to do. That We
may sit comfortably in Augusta county
and look at the point of mountain il
Hardy county, W. Va, seventy-five miles
away, seems impossible. But that is what
you do here, and in doing it you scan 6
panorama that it would be hard to find else
where. You are at point, in the Shenan.
doah Valley of Virginia, thirty miles wide
The boundaries of the Valley, which you
can see for miles, are the North Mountain
on one side and the Blue Ridge on the other.
In front of you and swiftly running at the
foot of the park is the shining river and
on it's bank little further on, you can see
the memorable village of Port Republic.
Rising abruptly in the centre of the
Valley, is the Massanutten Mountain,
at whose base twenty eight years ago
StoneWal Jackson was carrying out his
famous Valley campaign. You can see on
the hither side the line which Shields came
up, while on the other side Fremont was
marching parallel with him. The battle
fields of Cross Keys and Port Republic,
which proved SO disastrous to them both,
are in plain sight of you. And it is just
behind the hill containing Weyer's Cave, at
the end of the hotel park, that Jackson
rested his forces after these battles, before
making his famous movement to Richmond
to join Lee in the Seven Days engagement
around that city.
But am not here to talk about war.
Maj. Jed. Hotchkiss, who was Stonewall
jackson S Typographical engineer and sig
nailed him day and night from that very
mountain in front of you, and who is now
one of the owners of this place, can tell you
about war. [ am for Peace, and am here
to talk about that most independent of all
earthly peace which is to be found in well
ordered hotel surrounded by lovely grounds
Everything about here, to use a
feminine expression, and very expressive
one, is mice" The little railroad station
you get off at in a few yards from the hotel
exactly fits the word, with it's modern fix
lures and everything as neat as new pin
The hotel building itself with it's peaked
roof and plain outside is far from being a
triumph of architecture. But as [ after
wards learned it is wholly designed for
comfort. Under this ugly peaked roof is
another roof of iron which gives such ven
tilation that the upper rooms are as cool in
summer as the lower. The broad sixteen
foot verandah which runs around three
sides of the house, is there for comfort, in
which it is aided and albeit ed by some
hundred easy arm chairs scattered oyer it:
The parlor it seems to me takes up1just a
half IF the ground floor, and by it's low
windows becomes almost an extension Of
the verandah; indeed so airy is it that it
might be mistaken for part Of it were it
not for the luxurious furniture, and car
peting and curtains. A wide fire place
filled with brightly burning and cracking
wood for chilly mornings is another of the
real comforts Of the establishment. The
dining saloon about takes the other half of
the floor and is SO full of windows that it
too looks like near relation of the veran-
dab. The style adopted is the round table
and the silver and table ware are of the lat
est pattern. The chambers, some forty in
number, are as luxurious as the rest of the
house, and each one has all outlook on the
wide stretching scene Of hill, river and
forest. In every room are electric lights
and call bells.
There has just been erected an addition
to the hotel containing 10, 00O-gallon tank
OF water, and the most costly and modern
bath and toilet rooms. I presume that
from the complete character of the building
and style of the plumbing that together
they must have cost about as much as the
main hotel building itself. The tank and
building are the work of Eutzler Bros. of
Mt. Meridian, in this county, and the
plumbing is done by Louis Wanner, Jr., of
Philadelphia. In addition to this, Wanner
is putting in steam laundry where the
wash tubs are made OF soap-stone and
everything else is of the latest STYLE The
sewerage of the establishment is done by
tiles, and may add for the credit Of
Augusta that they are manufactured in
this county only few miles above here.
Of course such an establishment as this
has been well patronized in the summer;
but hereafter it is to be open both summer
and winter, and to that end steam coils
have been introduced into every chamber
and other room in the house. The summer
proprietor, Mr.. Wright, who has become
noted in hotel keeping in Virginia through
his hotels at Charlottesville, Danville and
the Midland Junction, will hereafter be
the proprietor the year round.
THE GROTTOES.
If you expect stalactites or stalagmites
to steal their way into this letter, it
will be because thew slim nv the doOrkeeper