E161 A First-Rate Summer Resort: Mineral Springs in Northeast Georgia

Hello everyone, and thank you for listening to then again the podcast of the Northeast Georgia History Center. I am Marie Bartlett, the Director of the Ada may Ivester Education Center. Today I have with me Dr. Gillespie to talk about the mineral springs that brought many tourists northeast Georgia in the mid to late 18 hundreds and into the early 19 hundreds. Thank you so much for being with us today.

Oh, well, thank you for having me. I'm glad to do it.

Could you tell us a little bit about yourself so our listeners can get to know you better?

Sure. I have been at the University of North Georgia for this is my 13th year. I am on the Gainesville campus. I specialize in us. History. Primarily Southern history and women's history. African American history. I have a book out about black women in the civil rights movement. So this project about mineral springs is local history, which is something that I also find interesting, but also kind of taking my research in a new direction that I'm excited about.

So here, tell us a little bit about these mineral springs and what made them so popular and attractive to people in the mid to late 18 hundreds and into the early 19 hundreds. Sure.

So there were four of them that were in operation in and around Gainesville. Three of them were really in the Gainesville area, and then another was 9 miles north of Delanica. But folks had to come through Gainesville to get to that one. So it's kind of included in the Gainesville orbit. Gower Springs was the one that was closest into town, as far as I can tell. From what I've read, it was at the end of the streetcar line and I think it was just north of Academy Street, just north of downtown, near the river. So on. Kind of the Green Street corridor. That area of Gainesville a New Holland Springs and White Sulfur Springs were east of town. Porter Springs was the one that was north of Delaniga. And the springs really fit into a broader context both before the Civil War and after the Civil War. So before the Civil War, there was a lot of attention to well being and a lot of belief that these mineral springs were healthy things to go to, and that both soaking in the water and drinking the water would be good for you. It could restore your health if you were not feeling well, it could make sure that you kept yourself in good health. So it kind of had that rejuvenation idea, but also just in terms of a regimen of good health. And then after the war, the mineral springs kind of carry over. And there's still this belief that there's this well being side of this kind of tourism, but also that the springs themselves were in a place that was scenic. It was a place where you could hang out with people who you enjoyed hanging out with or hang out with new people from different parts of Georgia, different parts of the south see and be seen, which was an important thing in the New South. And then also the recreation opportunities, along with the drinking the spring water or soaking in the spring water.

So how does these resorts contribute to the development of Gainesville and to Northeast Georgia as a whole? Because I assume, as you said, there's so many people coming into these springs that it kind of is like driving this tourism industry, almost.

That's right. It brings tourists to Gainesville in particular. There had been tourists coming to northeast Georgia, going to Tulula Gorge and Tacoa. The Habersham County also became a place where tourists went, particularly those who were looking to escape heat and disease in low lying areas, coastal areas. But the mineral springs really put a focus on Gainesville. And so, particularly after the Civil War, when there's a rail line that comes straight into Gainesville, it makes it very easy and accessible and affordable for people to come to Gainesville to be part of these mineral springs. So it gives the town kind of a sense of an identity of sophistication and being a cosmopolitan kind of city, not quite as rural and rustic, perhaps, as some of its neighbors were at the time. The tourist trade also meant that there was money coming into town that attracted men in particular who already had some money, maybe, and were looking for opportunities after the war. I think a lot of local listeners will know about the Long Street Cafe and then probably maybe know something about the history of that Long Street Hotel. And so men like James Long Street, who was a Confederate general, found a new career here in Gainesville. And the mineral Springs owners are kind of cut from that same cloth. The mineral springs also drove infrastructure development. So in Gainesville, there's a lot of attention to the streets that if people are going to be coming from outside, we want to put our best foot forward and look good, so we're going to make sure our streets are well maintained. There were discussions about streetcar lines. So if you've got tourists coming to town, they're not coming with their own transportation. So how do we get them from the train station to these mineral springs and they've got to go through Gainesville to get there? The mineral springs also, like I said, drove infrastructure development outside of town. The fellow who owned New Holland Springs was also the treasurer of the rail line, so he made sure that there was a rail station now 2 miles east of town. The effort to get tourists to Porter Springs, which, like I said, was 9 miles north of Delaniga, meant that there was attention to how we do that and improving roads to and from Gainesville to Delaniga.

Now, sometimes I've heard Gainesville referred to as the queen city of the mountains. And they mean that it's getting at this time because of these mineral springs and tourism, or is there any relation to that name and what's going on here?

I don't know the exact history of it, but I do know that there was the use of that term to market Gainesville for tourists. Right. Becomes kind of their tagline. If they were on Twitter now, it'd be hashtag Queen City of the Mountains. Right. And the fellow that owned Porter Springs referred to his hotel, referred to his resort as the Queen Resort of the Mountains. Right. So he kind of appropriates it for his own use and really uses that as his tagline or his brand. Right? That's right.

Yeah.

Branding his resort as the Queen Resort of the Mountains.

Very cool. I always have wondered about that just because I'm like that's an interesting name to choose for your city, but it really stands out.

That's right. And it played into the cosmopolitan air, the sophistication that the city was really wanting to project because they wanted tourists to see Gainesville in that way. So it really kind of lent itself to that whole image that the city was wanting to project.

Who was visiting these resorts? What kind of people were drawn to this type of mineral springs that would go and take the waters? Who are these people and where are they coming from?

Yeah, it's a good question. Before the war, you had to have the time and the money to be able to do it. So it was primarily people who were well off enough and then had occupations that allowed them to take what would be an extended stay, because it took time to get to Gainesville before the railroads. And then when you were there, the expectation was you were going to stay for several weeks so that you could really take advantage of the health giving properties of these mineral springs, and that rejuvenating your health would take some time. So before the war, it's really landowners or people who, like I said, had occupations where they could take time off. So there's documentation of, like, newspaper editors taking time from their stressful occupations and coming. And then after the war, there's a shift of sorts. Those people still come to the mineral springs. There's also the opening up of opportunities for folks who maybe weren't as well off, but were aspiring to be as well off. And if you could work it right at one of these mineral springs, you could hobnob with the very people that you're wanting to impress. And just the fact that you're able to be at one of these mineral springs was a sign of upward mobility, was a sign of achieving a certain status, particularly a middle class status. And then, like I said, it put you kind of rubbing shoulders with the very people who could open future doors for you. So the guests really kind of fit into that kind of class group. Obviously, this is during a time when there were segregation laws in place, so we're talking about all white tourists at these resorts. And a lot of the tourists that came particularly to gainesville and porter springs tended to come from within georgia, so places weren't as well known or popular as other places like asheville, which really got a lot of prominence, particularly by the time we get to the late 19th century and other well established resorts like hot springs in Arkansas. So the Gainesville resorts tended to cater to Atlanta visitors macon, Savannah, Columbus, and then some as far away as New Orleans, but mostly a Georgia crowd. So if you went to these resorts, you were likely to run into somebody that you knew, which was another draw for tourists to want to go have.

A little reunion with some of your friends that's right.

Or folks that you only saw that once a year at those places they go into camp. That's right.

So what would a typical day for these tourists look like at a resort like the ones that you're mentioning?

Yeah, it's a good question. It's hard to say, though, because the accounts let us kind of see into the world of these resorts, but there's not really one that kind of walks through from start to finish in a day. But typically the guests would rise when they wanted to because that was the idea of going somewhere where you could be on vacation, right. So you don't have an alarm clock waking you up. Their breakfast would be served. In some places, you might be able to get room service. In other places, there was a central dining hall where you went and had breakfast, and then you just kind of chose from the menu of activities, and chances are you chose based on what your group was doing, based on what your travel companion wanted to do. So there were day excursions to places like Talula Gorge or Tacoa. And at Porter Springs, you could do a day excursion where you could go and walk around or hike Cedar Mountain. If you were a gentleman, you could hunt or fish. This was inappropriate for ladies, but if you were a gentleman, you could go and spend the day hunting or fishing. You could also shoot a round of billiards with your gentleman friends. That was also considered to be inappropriate for ladies. But for ladies, you were able to choose tin pen bowling, which is basically lawn bowling or croquet. So you could be outside and competing, but you just couldn't be shooting animals out in the woods because that was a gentlemanly thing to do. And there's a daily regimen of working the mineral spring water into the daily activities. So each resort kind of had its own kind of expected guests to be in this regimen. So you would have drunk some water in the morning, in the afternoon, and then in the evening eventually they bring some of the spring water up to the hotels for the guests. So servants would have been sent down and then regular kind of bringing the water to the guests. Guests could also sit around the springs themselves. So most of these places had gazebos around them where guests could sit and kind of go through the daily regimen of drinking the water at the spring.

So it's more about drinking the water than, like, bathing in the water.

That's the evidence that I've seen so far. There were some discussions early on about having bathhouses, and so rather than kind of soaking in the spring itself, you'd have the water brought to this bathhouse, and then the guest would basically sit in a tub of the mineral water. Other places like hot springs in Arkansas are more kind of a wide open pool of water that people could sit in. The springs around Gainesville tended to be relatively small pools, so be like trying to fit everybody into a hot tub. So rather than doing that, the idea was we're going to have bathhouses, that we take the water out and put it in a tub, and you submerge yourself in that tub. By the time they figure out running water in the early 20th century at white sulfur Springs and also at porter Springs, there were efforts to pump the water to the hotel so that you could kind of shower in the water or have a swimming pool with the water. You had to kind of construct the pool. The pool wasn't natural in these places.

Because I've looked at hot springs in Arkansas as a fun, perhaps interesting historical experiment of a vacation because you can still go and bathe in these bathhouses.

That's right.

I thought it would be very interesting. But sadly, the ones in Georgia you can't even really go visit. They're not physically here anymore. So can you tell us what happened to these places that have been so popular and brought so many people and now just kind of don't exist?

Sure. Each one kind of has its own story. Gower springs, the decline starts kind of in the 1890s, when tourists are still coming, but the trade is changing. So the business of running these hotels and running these resorts is changing. So the business of leisure is changing. There's a lot more consolidations in terms of management. There's more of a rotating revolving door of managers that come in and out. Partnership syndicates now take on managing these resorts, and as a result, there's not the kind of owner, proprietor, manager who's maintaining all of the records. So part of the story about why we can't find them now is like, we historians, we like paper, we like records, we like to see the guest books, and we like to see the receipts and all that. The revolving door of managers really disrupts all of that. Gower Springs changed hands several times, and then in the early 19 hundreds burned and took all of those records with it, took the building with it. There were efforts to try to rebuild and turn it into a city park and that just never really took off. The same story plays out at White Sulfur Springs just a little bit later. White Sulfur Springs actually had a heyday of sorts in the 1920s but then fell into disrepair. The manager left and went back to his home in South Georgia and then that property burned in the early 1930s. And then Porter Springs was owner maintained for the longest of any of these resorts. When the owner died, though, in the early 19 hundreds, the property changed hands to his daughter. And then his son in law decided, this is really nice property. Let's turn it into a private club for people who can afford to be part of an exclusive private club in the mountains. So kind of the doors shut then to the broader tourists. The property then stayed in the hands of that family. The venture never really took off to the extent that the son in law had hoped. And then eventually the family sold off property. And then New Holland Springs. Folks who are local listeners probably know the term New Holland, but think of it related to a textile mill or cotton mill, not these mineral springs. And that's exactly what happens. In 1900, the Partnership Syndicate sold the property to Caculette Manufacturing, who came in and transformed that whole space into a manufacturing center with a village for workers and effectively shut down the springs.

So if you had to choose one to go visit, which one would you go visit if you had a time machine to go back?

It's a good question. They're also different. I'd like to see all of them, actually, and for different reasons. So I'm going to complicate your question. White Sulfur Springs, like I said, in the 1910s and 1920s, white Sulfur Springs becomes very much a luxury resort. So by that time there are automobiles and there are accounts of guests arriving in RollsRoyce and Packards and dressed to the nines. And it was really for the well to do set. If you were middle class, you could no longer afford to go to White Sulfur Springs. And it really kind of has this heyday. So it'd be interesting to visit during that heyday to see the guests that are arriving then. Gower Springs tended to be more modest, just kind of seeing what that kind of space looked like where it actually was on the streetcar line and where it is in Gainesville. And then Porter Springs really had a more rustic air to it. The owner was an attorney from Atlanta but very much wanted his space to have that kind of rustic feel. So it would be a contrast then to White Sulfur Springs. Still comfortable, but more rustic.

So if the buildings aren't there, are the springs still there?

Technically yes. And full disclosure here, I haven't visited any of these properties, but technically, yes, the springs are there. Unless they've been closed up somehow because they were natural springs to begin with, but the buildings are not there. There was recent Gainesville Times articles about White Sulfur Springs in particular, and the footprint of the building is still visible, but the building itself is no longer there. And I imagine the same would be true at Porter Springs, where you could see the footprints of these buildings, but the buildings themselves are no longer there.

Yes, I would just be very interested to see what's in the water, what minerals are in the water, and if there is any evidence that this was like a healthy place to go and get some vitamin water, almost. Do we have any examples or stories of people who went to the Springs and then suddenly were like, oh my goodness, I feel so much better? Like this really did restore my health. Was that ever really a thing, or was it more just a fun vacation in the mountains?

The people who drank the water believed that it helped. So did it help? That's another question. But they believed that it helped. It did make them feel better. So was it a placebo effect or that they were wanting to believe that it made a difference? And so it did. I think probably being in a healthier environment, probably eating better food for the time that they're at this resort, not being as stressed out as they might be at home, probably played a lot in making them feel better. But yeah, there were guests who swore by the Springs, just like in other places. So guests that came and said, oh, I was wasting away and couldn't hold any food down and was just a wreck, just a mess. And after two weeks at Porter Springs or two weeks at White Sulfur Springs, I was all brand new. I was back to normal, I could eat, I felt a whole lot better and just had a much better outlook on my health and the way that things were going for me. So those testimonials then become really important advertising for the mineral Springs owners, that they really play up these testimonials that if you come here, it's really going to make a difference. And then they competed with each other. So Gower Springs, more than the others, continued to play up the health giving properties of the water, largely because Gower Springs didn't have kind of all of the other accoutrements that the others could have. So Gower Springs was kind of, we're the ones that are still committed to this health side of things, while those others are now distracted by all of this other stuff. And then New Holland Springs really played up the fact that somehow their water was really good for teething babies. So if you had fussy children, you wanted to take them to New Holland springs because according to the advertisements and the testimonials from doctors, the mineral springs at Holland Springs were really particularly good for teething babies. Now, I imagine if you're a guest who did not bring a teething baby, you may not want to spend your vacation with a bunch of people who are bringing their teething babies to New Holland Springs. But if you were a parent who were at your last wits end, couldn't figure anything out, there you went and hoping for relief for both your child and for you.

That is an interesting advertising ploy. I don't know if I've ever seen anywhere else where people are like, you know what? Come to our vacation place. We have teething babies.

That's right. We can do something for your teething baby. And like I said, if you didn't have one, I don't know that it would be much of a draw. I think I might not want to.

Go and spend my vacation if I did not have a child of that age around. A lot of children who were that age.

Right. Hoping the best for all of those parents and those children, but maybe not the most relaxing place if you're not one of them.

Yes, I think I might go to one of the other springs.

That's right.

So I wonder how that worked out for them. Or perhaps that worked.

Yeah, but anything in this competitive tourist trade to get tourists to come to you and not one of the others? Because, again, they had their choice here in Gainesville, so you had to stand out somehow.

It's interesting because I generally think of Gainesville as being rather rural for a very long time, even up into the 19 hundreds, but they were able to support four of these resorts. It was quite the hub of activity. And I know a lot of these people are coming in from outside, just Gainesville itself. And that's just so interesting to me to know that we had four here, it's like, wow, that's quite the I guess we just had a lot of springs. Is that why they just kind of.

Yeah, it's the natural resources that then become an asset for the city and a commercial asset in this case. I think it also kind of has the perspective for city leaders of looking outside of Gainesville to support the local economy. There's the mineral springs in the late 19th and early 20th century. In addition, the rail line makes it so that there is a cotton trade that centers in Gainesville as well. So the rural areas from outside of Gainesville bring the cotton in and then it goes out on the train. So there's that side of the local economy as well. Then, like I said, the textile mills come in, and so then that's another source of money from outside coming into Gainesville in a very welcoming, pro business environment. And then when we get into the 1940s and into the 1950s, there's the damning of the Chattahoochee River creation of Lake Lanier that then kind of rejuvenates this leisure and recreation economy from the early 20th century. And again, it's outside money coming into a welcoming, pro business environment. So I think the mineral springs play that larger role in northeast Georgia as well. That the Gainesville area tends to be very good at adapting to these local, these kind of outside external opportunities that present themselves that really fit into the natural resources that are already here, whether that's the environment or whether it's a workforce for mills. Like I said, I think the mineral springs are an early example of that. The fellows that owned the springs, none of them were from Gainesville. The fellow that had Porter Springs was an attorney in Atlanta. The fellow who kind of restarts White Sulfur Springs after the war was a grocer who then tried his hand in real estate and then eventually buys the property and develops the springs. New Holland Springs, like I said, was owned by the treasurer of the railroad company. And Gower Springs was owned by a fellow who had a carriage business in Gainesville. But he had started that business in the 1850s, before the Civil War, so he wasn't kind of homegrown from Gainesville. And like I said, I think the business environment in Gainesville has consistently been kind of welcoming of people coming in and having a direct influence on that local economy.

Now, you have an upcoming publication about these mills called A First Rate Summer Resort. Gainesville's, Mineral Springs and the New South. So can you tell us a little bit about how you went about the research for this article and then perhaps where folks could find it in the future?

Sure. So I had read about these springs in local histories and went looking for something that was specifically about the springs and couldn't find it. And I thought, well, that's interesting. And so I thought, well, let me just dig around and see what I can find. And because so much of the paper record was destroyed or just not saved, or if it is saved, it's not publicly accessible. It was kind of a challenge. And so I found out that the family of the fellow who owned Porter Springs donated his papers to UGA, to their special collections, in part because he was an attorney. He was also the US. Attorney for Georgia during reconstruction. He played a significant part in the Republican Party during Reconstruction in Georgia. So the springs were just kind of a part of his story. But all of those papers then are at UGA and preserved at UGA. Good news for historians. It also helped enormously that there is the historic Georgia digital newspaper archive. Now that is searchable by key term because it would have taken me years to go through miles of microfilm to find evidence of these sources. And so that archive, that digital resource, was invaluable the hall county Library has several guidebooks from this time period that document the mills and then also newspaper articles that have been written about the mills were the primary source base for the project.

That's just so interesting because, as you said, there's so much that we just don't know about these mills that are really just being discovered by people like you. Bringing this story back to life that was obviously such a huge part of the making of Northeast Georgia and the making of Gainesville. When I was going through your article, it was like the first thing is an article from the Atlanta Constitution. I just think that that's so interesting that even down in Atlanta, the Atlanta newspaper is talking about these delightful breezes and the moderate heat and all of these beautiful advertising draws that have people come up to Gainesville. I just think that's so interesting. Just even in Atlanta, this was still a huge thing.

That's right. And a lot of the advertising was either advertisements that the owners put in the newspapers themselves or publish travel accounts so people would come and visit and then go back. So writers for these newspapers around the state would come up and visit and then submit a travel account. And so for people who were reading the newspaper, they could see the advertisement, but then also read this travel account that also acted as an advertisement for these places.

So if someone wants to read your article and learn even more about these springs, how could they do that?

Sure, it'll be published in the Georgia Historical Quarterly later this year, and so that's where people will find it. I'm considering a book project. I've done a book before, so I know the time and effort that it takes. So I'm slowly getting myself psyched up because the mineral springs here in Gainesville were only one part of this mineral springs history in Georgia. There were mineral Springs in northwest Georgia at Katusa County. Down around Macon. Indian Springs was another popular springs that drew folks. I think the one that most people are familiar with is Warm Springs, of course. And so I think there's room there to restore that broader history and connect it to the history of lakes and dams that comes in in the post war period with kind of a thread of continuing linking the natural environment and this idea that it's healthy and good for you to take time off and go relax somewhere.

So hopefully our listeners will take that advice. They'll take some time off, go relax, maybe go to Lake Lanier, have a wonderful summer day out on the lake. Yes. Do you have any final thoughts or parting thoughts for us?

If any of your visitors know of other sources that might be available about these mineral springs? I don't know if local folks have photographs, maybe in their family collections of folks who have visited these springs or folks who still own those properties and. Maybe have records that they think nobody's interested in. I'd be interested to know if those things still exist.

Yeah. So please get in touch. You can email the podcast or email Dr. Gigaletsby. I'm sure we can put your contact information in the description below. So we hope to find out more in the future. Thank you so much for talking with us today.

Well, thank you so much for having me, and I hope that listeners will get interested in this part of local history.

Then again is a production of the Northeast Georgia History Center in Gainesville, Georgia. Our podcast is edited by media producer Guada Rodriguez. Our digital and onsite programs are made possible by the Ada May I? Vister education center. Please join us next week for another episode of Then Again.