Men, Men, Men, Men, Men-dee-Men-Men!
So, you're tired of men, are you? Well feast your eyes on THIS beauty! ( I jest, so I do.)
Here's another Flickr Commons photo from the National Library of Ireland, and what have we here? Not one, but TWO women! Hurrah! (I was greatly relieved to find the second lady in the background with the lovely hat, but I'll be honest, even I am going to struggle to come up with a photo that follows this theme!)
This picture is of "Twin Wells" on the banks of the River Aille at Lisdoonvarna in County Clare, taken around the turn of the century (1900).
Apparently the waters were acclaimed as restorative and this place was designated a spa. By the looks of things, the old lady in the photo has not benefited, or isn't drinking them. Ha!
Go on my dears, and make what you can of this, be it spas, water, old ladies, young ladies, tourists, umbrellas, homeless people. Go on!
Photo c. 1900 taken from my copy of
Washington County, Kentucky Bicentennial
History
1792-1992
In a previous post I had featured the beautiful
Tatham Springs Hotel which was built in 1893 on Carey Island in Chaplin River in Washington Co., Ky.
The occasion for the building of the hotel was the discovery of the supposedly curative properties of the mineral water found on the site. Spas and mineral water springs were the rage in
Victorian times, hundreds being built all over the country. Some are still famous such as Hot Springs and Eureka Springs in Arkansas or White Sulphur Springs in Virginia, USA. Most are gone now. The resorts were not limited to medicinal value. Before Florida and air conditioning, they were the urban dweller's principle vacation spot.
At Tatham Springs the water was to be drunk as tonic; there was no bath or pool. Water flowed from a natural cistern near the building. The water was sold in bottle form around the county as well as at the hotel.
The hotel was used a the 4-H camp which I attended in the 1940's. I remember it well.
Recently I visited the site and felt an eerie chill as it had been allowed to crumble to the ground with no plans for renovation.
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13 comments:
That chill is a familiar one Peggy. It's always eerie when we return to a site which was once active and lively to find it fallen into disrepair. I guess the demse of the health-giving spas has a lot to answer for.
It is sad to visit the places of our youth and find them deserted and abandoned.
I don't know...perhaps that gal is 150 years old! ☺
Going back to places of your youth to me is about the same as going to high school reunions. The people you see have completely changed and the click you had with them is gone. But the point is that your former fellow students probably have the same thoughts... :)
Isn't it sad that they are allowed to deteriorate? I suppose that if you don't fix up things as you go along it just gets to the point that you can't.
Near Oakridge, Oregon, there are some hot springs where the bathhouse now belongs to bats and the rest of the property is now a boy scout camp. I sure would like to go and take pictures of it someday.
Thanks so much for your memories!
Kathy M.
A lot of us drink bottled water now without knowing or giving a thought of where it comes from. WE just assume it will not harm us. I just wonder about some of those old mineral springs.
Did you drink the waters when you stayed there? Notice any difference in your health?
I wonder if there's anything at all to all of those restorative water claims.
Nancy
You did quite well with the challenge we were given! I agree, it is hard to return to the places that hold good memories and life for us and find them gone or in disrepair.
It could be that the Irish lady wouldn't have lived long enough to look like that if she hadn't been drinking the water!
Reading this post makes me wish time travel was possible. It would be fun to visit this resort and skip across the bridge to enjoy that spring water.
Did you sample the water when you were there in the 40s, QMM?
No I did not sample the waters. The excess to the water was shut off way before 1940. I could not find the exact date. I don't think I would have cared for the smell. Sulphur water does not have a pleasent smell.
QMM
It seems that site ran the gamut of uses right to 4 H so that it held perhaps some historic lore for the younger set. Interesting, I did not think about the springs as vacation spots but certainly in that time before travelers ventured too far it must have been the in thing to do.
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