f".
Marshall. N. C.-OctoMr M Wl fnfi '
Plain Talk for giving
management of The News-Record wishes to express appreciation! to The Newport
us permission to republish the following feature
written by Bob Hurley.
and hauledtfm the. coast by ox
cart. The ntajje; still stands,
grown up, in ruins, and not
easily id'-r.tifed as a historical
landmark.
The '.'altons Of Asheville are
gener' .ly credited with starting
a beatification program at the
spri " that was to become the
trai "ii of the place. Their
soji .anagement policies
resu in a thriving influx of
uppe ss citizens
Whi they bought I he land
around the springs, there was
nothing more than a roadside
tavern on it.
As early as 1833. it has been
said that over 1.000 visitors were
attracted nightly to the hotel
ballroom. Social life at the hotel
was not to be surpassed If it was
"happening." it was at Hot
Springs
Kire's Kolly
The besetting tragedy of the
hotel history has been fires One
can only wonder of how it could
be at Hot Springs today if fire
had never set down on the
structures, described as being so
magnificent that their ap
pearances lingered forever in
the minds of all those who had
been there and beheld its beauty.
The first fire happened in 1838,
destroying the main part of the
big hotel built by the Pa (tons
The nearby bridge over the
French Broad apparently
burned at the same time. Both
the bridge and hotel were rebuilt
the following year, 1839.
When the Pattons rebuilt the
hotel, it was more magnificent
than ever It was over 500 feet
( uiiluiued On Page 1
JJof Spring's Changing Scene
J)
HOT jSPRINGS
l,QCnanthKirCSOrt since
loUU. Name changed
iqS? rni SPrin9S
looo. Internment camp
for Germans in World
War I was here.
By BOB HURLEY
Driving East Irom Newport,
one can be al a place in around
JO minutes that once attracted
the worlds kings, queens.,
nobles and princes
II was, at one time, a
gathering place for the world's
richest personalities It offered
unparralled catering to the
wealthy It was considered by
many to be one of the foremost
resort towns in America
Later, when times were not so
good, it was used as an in
ternment (confinement) camp
for nearly 2,500 Germans, thus
still attracting the attention of
the whole world And it still
maintained its status of catering
to wealthy people because the
Germans were from the up
jercrust of the German society
The Germans had been
rrested when the luxury liners
n which they were passengers
were seized at United States
harbors just after the outbreak
of World War I
Today, Hot Springs, N.C., is
seldom thought of as any of the
above except by those still living
there who remember the hay
days of nearly a century ago.
Progress By-Passed It
The Madison County village's
most recent fatal blow came
when it was completely by
passed by a super interstate
system of highways. It had been
hoped that Interstate 40 would
be construe ed near the town
and the talk of the town once
indicated that it would be so,
citizens reasoning that a course
adjacent to the French Broad
River would be very practical,
not to mention the tourist trade
that would be made available.
The planners of the road in
deed agreed upon the path of a
river to follow through the
rugged mountains but it was not
j i i iKftlffllliitel 1 ' fejMSj
PHUT or THE GREAT ONES - The Hot Springs bold buslniws J. H. Rumbough, a GreeneviDe native, then void it. The Ann that
looked like this in ISM. The name of the hotel was the Patton. It bought it rebuilt the hotel, and after going bankrupt later, told the
burned that year, ISM. The man who owned the property, Colonel property back to Rumbough.
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THE GLORY OF IT ALL Sportjng one of the very first gob
courses in the southeastern part of the nation, the Wana Luna, this
was how the Mountain Park looked just before the last fire in 1920
After the fire. Colonel J H. Rumbouth's daughter. Bessie, who
first married Andrew Johnson. Jr.. and later a millionaire named
ml
bartord, acquired the property and built the present brick
structure. It has never enjoyed an era of prosperity since the fire,
however. When this picture was taken, the elegance of the hotel
was compared to that of the Vanderbilt palace, now Biltmore
Estate, at Asheville
r
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II
f4
DESERTED EOR YEARS The
present building, built after the
last of the great fires in 1920. it
hardly comparable to the other
buildings thai once stood in the
same place It was built by
Colonel J H Rambouth't
daughter. Bessie Rumbough
Johnson Safford It was intended
to be a sanitarium but the plan
new materialized. Mrs. Saf
ford. a devout Catholic, later
conveyed the property to the
Society of Jesus, an order of the
Roman Catholic Church, for the
purpose of a rest home and
retreat for priests It was used
for that purpose for a short time
but was sold shortly after Mrs.
Safford s death in M40 to a
private Hoi .Springs
busmeasman. It a now owned by
group of Marshall. N.C.
bankers.
'Nowhere Have I Found
NfHttiHraiiiniiiiuiHinwMM
A Sweeter And More
Restful Spot9
5
ftounus
isvmnninanittwriHNraiuiimiium
the French Broad. The in
terstate was built along the
banks of the Pigeon River
That action not only took away
any hopes of a bright future in
tourist trade but it averted the
greatest per cent of the traffic
that normally flowed down main
street of the town, on U.S. 25.
All Is Calm
The village has now settled
down, without the clamour of a
bustling hotel, the mainstream
of traffic, or a colorful social
life. Fanfare is left for the other
places that have claimed the
glory once rightly owned by the
springs, the hotel, and the people
there.
Some industry has moved into
town but most of the people in
the area still earn a livelihood
much the same way as they did a
century ago - by farming.
The grandeur of the hotels has
given way to weeds and locust.
The water that bubbles from the
springs that became world
renowned for their health giving
and restoring powers is of little
value to those outside the
village The bath house that
covers the main springs is in
ruins, the doors locked, the lawn
covered with vegetation.
An Old Problem
The problem is nothing new to
those living near the springs.
Hot Springs and Madison County
officials have wrestled with the
facts for years. It is a common
understanding that the springs
offer a unique opportunity to
gain tourist dollars but every
recent attempt to draw the
tourists has failed.
Committees have been ap
pointed. Programs have been
instituted. Visits have been
made. Negotiations have been
tried-all with little or no suc
cess. The fact that restoration
"could" attract multiplied
throngs of health and resort
seekers will perhaps continue to
'enhance some to talk about and
even attempt such a program.
But these are all current
problems and the Hot Springs
citizenry who remember the
past agree that the glory is not in
the present but in the past. They
agree that current problems
have clouded their minds,
bedraggled their spirits, but
have enhanced their memory of
the goldern era, an era when Hot
Springs outshined just about
every resort town in the
southeastern United States
Indians Used It
The hot water that spews from
the ground and from below the
bottom of the hurrying French
Broad River has hardly ever
been considered a secret
Legends credit their discovery
to 1778 but it is commonly ac
cepted that the Indians knew
about the value of the hot,
precious chemical water for
years before that
Countless people became
acquainted with and convinced
of the value of the springs long
before the Revolutionary War
because the main route between
Tennessee and the Carolines
was nearby.
A Winning Combination
The real key to the success of
Hot Springs, however, was not
realized until the coming of the
hotel. The term, hotel, is often
used in identification with the
springs but the building that now
stands at the springs is at least
the fourth one. All the others
have perished due to ill-fated
Ores.
The springs themselves never
seemed to be enough to attract
but with the hotel, they worked
magic, drawing thousands from
around the world. Of course it is
also assumed that without the
springs, the hotels that have
graced the spring lawns would
have been nothing more than a
place to spend the night.
Hot Springs folk Uke to think of
the two as inseparable, one
dependant upon the other, and,
putting the two together, the
whole idea of a resort is put ht
the right perspective.
The WarM Stops By
People that were to become
prominent in the history of
North Carolina, and, in fact, the
entire nation, were to become
involved la the establishment,
growth and success of the hotels.
ZebukM B. Vance, CWil War
Governor of North Carolina,
served as hotel clerk while the
town was still caued Warn
' Springs prior te 1830.
Wade Hampton, Ovt War
. Confederate hero and later
Governor of South Carolina,
built a summer cottage behind
the main hotel with brick that
had been shipped from England
0
fit, r -V'wr i.
THE COLONEL TAKES A SMOKE BREAK Ogar in hand. Colonel J. H. Rumbough, a native af
Greeneville, rests in his favorite rocker in this picture, taken late in his life. In his prosperity, be
probably never envisioned the fact that Hot Springs would someday be idle and in ruins. It is today.
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THE COLONEL'S WIFE Carrie Rum bough's beauty was known far and wide. Her iron will and
pride was publicized around the world. The colonel, no doubt, borrowed heavily from her knowledge
when it came to elegance In decorating the hotel.
9
.i a -
Mountain Park Hotel
ON A PENNY POST CARD -The Mountain Park Hotel traveled millions of miles on the face of r -y
post cards around the turn'ot this century. The sharp looking grounds were a great asset to ti e
mountains of western North Carolina. , .