Berkeley Springs - Revision history

M-westerby at 18:44, December 7, 2023

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M-westerby at 03:01, August 10, 2021

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M-westerby at 02:59, August 10, 2021

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M-westerby at 02:49, August 10, 2021

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V-Federici at 10:28, February 4, 2021

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 During the colonial period, the springs lay within the Northern Neck Proprietary, a territory of more than five million acres between the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers that belonged to Thomas, Baron Cameron, sixth Lord Fairfax (1693–1781).<ref>Lord Fairfax inherited one-sixth of the Northern Neck Proprietary upon the death of his maternal grandmother in the spring of 1710. He inherited the remaining five-sixths of the proprietary from his mother, Katherine Culpeper Fairfax, in May 1719. She had inherited the land from her father, Thomas Culpeper, second baron Culpeper of Thoresway, who had served as governor of Virginia from 1677–1683. See Warren R. Hofstra, “Thomas Fairfax, sixth baron Fairfax of Cameron (1693–1781)," ''Dictionary of Virginia Biography'', Library of Virginia, 2016, http://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/dvb/bio.asp?b=Fairfax_Thomas_baron_Fairfax_of_Cameron. </ref> Since this time, the springs have been known by many names, including Warm Springs, the appellation used in an early survey map of the Northern Neck [Fig. 1].<ref>This is not to be confused with the town Warm Springs located in Bath County, Virginia, which has also attracted visitors since the colonial period. For more on the history of Warm Springs, Virginia, see Carl Bridenbaugh, “Baths and Watering Places of Colonial America,” ''The William and Mary Quarterly'' 3, no. 2 (April 1946): 163, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FDI9CBAU view on Zotero].</ref> By the mid-1740s, white settlers had reportedly begun to erect makeshift accommodations in the area.<ref>Harding 1976, 3, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Fairfax_cite"></span>As early as June 1747, Fairfax proposed a town and promised to “give all Encouragement to invite People to inhabit and Settle there" ([[#Fairfax|view text]]).  <span id="Washington_1748_cite"></span>A young George Washington, serving as an assistant on a surveying trip for Lord Fairfax, recorded in his diary his first visit to the “Fam’d Warm Springs” in March 1748, suggesting the site’s familiarity to Virginia colonists by this early date ([[#Washington_1748|view text]]).
-Although a town was not officially established at Berkeley Springs for another thirty years, the waters continued to attract visitors of different backgrounds and social classes who sought a cure for ailments such as rheumatism or who simply desired rest and relaxation.<ref>Bridenbaugh 1946, 161, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FDI9CBAU view on Zotero].</ref> Moravian missionaries Joseph Spangenberg and Matthew Reutz stopped at Berkeley Springs in 1748 and enjoyed the proximity of the site’s warm and cold springs, noting that “being in the one, you can reach into the other."<ref>Quoted in William J. Hinke and Charles E. Kemper, “Moravian Diaries of Travels through Virginia (Continued),” ''The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography'' 11, no. 3 (January 1904): 238, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/H64SNKMH view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Thomas_cite"></span>Dr. Thomas Walker of Albemarle County recorded his encounter in 1750 with “Six Invalids” and found the springs to be “very clear and warmer than New milk” ([[#Thomas|view text]]). When Washington returned to Berkeley Springs in August 1761 to seek relief from rheumatic fever, he found more than two hundred people “of both sexes. . . full of all manner of diseases & Complaints.” This number is surprising given how difficult it was to reach the springs during this period; Washington found the terrain to be quite rugged and struggled to pass a road blocked by fallen trees. After completing the arduous trip, bathers often had to construct their own rudimentary shelters.  <span id="Washington_1761_cite"></span>|Washington was grateful to have secured a tent to pitch, writing that otherwise he “would have been in a most miserable situation” ([[#Washington_1761|view text]]). <span id="Washington_1769_cite"></span> By August 1769, the amenities at the springs had apparently improved enough for Washington to bring his wife and stepdaughter with him in a desperate bid to treat the latter’s seizures ([[#Washington_1769|view text]]).<ref>According to Jeanne Mozier and Betty Lou Harmison, Washington was able to stay in houses during his visits to Warm Springs in the late 1760s, including a house that belonged to his friend James Mercer. ''Berkeley Springs'', Images of America (Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2011), 7, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/K327A3I3 view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Fithian_cite"></span>Philip Vickers Fithian (1747–1776), a diarist and Presbyterian minister, stopped in 1775 to drink the waters while on a missionary tour of the Pennsylvania and Virginia frontier. He reported approximately four hundred people at Berkeley Springs—about half of whom he estimated to be ill.  The other half were there presumably to enjoy what had evolved into a site of leisure with various evening entertainments, including a ball, card games, and, to his dismay, “promiscuous Company” engaged in “Amusements in all Shapes” ([[#Fithian|view text]]).
+Although a town was not officially established at Berkeley Springs for another thirty years, the waters continued to attract visitors of different backgrounds and social classes who sought a cure for ailments such as rheumatism or who simply desired rest and relaxation.<ref>Bridenbaugh 1946, 161, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/FDI9CBAU view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Thomas_cite"></span>Dr. Thomas Walker of Albemarle County recorded his encounter in 1750 with “Six Invalids” and found the springs to be “very clear and warmer than New milk” ([[#Thomas|view text]]). When Washington returned to Berkeley Springs in August 1761 to seek relief from rheumatic fever, he found more than two hundred people “of both sexes. . . full of all manner of diseases & Complaints.” This number is surprising given how difficult it was to reach the springs during this period; Washington found the terrain to be quite rugged and struggled to pass a road blocked by fallen trees. After completing the arduous trip, bathers often had to construct their own rudimentary shelters.  <span id="Washington_1761_cite"></span>|Washington was grateful to have secured a tent to pitch, writing that otherwise he “would have been in a most miserable situation” ([[#Washington_1761|view text]]). <span id="Washington_1769_cite"></span> By August 1769, the amenities at the springs had apparently improved enough for Washington to bring his wife and stepdaughter with him in a desperate bid to treat the latter’s seizures ([[#Washington_1769|view text]]).<ref>According to Jeanne Mozier and Betty Lou Harmison, Washington was able to stay in houses during his visits to Warm Springs in the late 1760s, including a house that belonged to his friend James Mercer. ''Berkeley Springs'', Images of America (Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2011), 7, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/K327A3I3 view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Fithian_cite"></span>Philip Vickers Fithian (1747–1776), a diarist and Presbyterian minister, stopped in 1775 to drink the waters while on a missionary tour of the Pennsylvania and Virginia frontier. He reported approximately four hundred people at Berkeley Springs—about half of whom he estimated to be ill.  The other half were there presumably to enjoy what had evolved into a site of leisure with various evening entertainments, including a ball, card games, and, to his dismay, “promiscuous Company” engaged in “Amusements in all Shapes” ([[#Fithian|view text]]).
 The influx of summer visitors prompted the Virginia General Assembly to improve the site and formally establish a town at the springs. A 1776 act called for “the laying off of fifty acres of land in lots and streets” in the hopes of “encouraging the purchasers thereof to build convenient houses for accommodating numbers of infirm person, who frequent those springs yearly for the recovery of their health.”<ref>Harding 1976, 5–6, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view on Zotero].</ref> The town, which the Assembly named Bath after the spa in Somerset, England, was to be comprised of one-quarter acre lots laid out by appointed trustees. Proceeds from the sale of the lots at public auction were to be paid by the trustees to Lord Fairfax, and purchasers were required to build houses “twelve feet square at least” on their new parcels within a year. <span id="Assembly_cite"></span>The springs—save for one, which remained under the private ownership of Lord Fairfax—were to “be vested in the said trustees in trust, to and for the public use and benefit” ([[#Assembly|view text]]).<ref>Taylor 2009, 55, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WVDKWV33 view on Zotero]; and Mozier and Harmison 2011, 7, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/K327A3I3 view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Washington_1777_cite"></span>The August 1777 sale attracted several prominent individuals from Maryland and Virginia, including Washington, to purchase lots in Bath ([[#Washington_1777|view text]]).<ref>Washington purchased two lots located on the southeast corner of Fairfax and Mercer streets, two blocks from the springs, for the cost of 100 pounds and 15 shillings. Other early Bath landholders included Horatio Gates, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Charles Mynn Thruston, and Fielding Lewis, among others. Taylor 2009, 56, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WVDKWV33 view on Zotero]; and Harding 1976, 6, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view on Zotero].</ref>

← Older revision		Revision as of 03:01, August 10, 2021
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	</gallery>		</gallery>
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−	~~<hr>~~
−
−	~~==Other Resources==~~
−	~~[http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n80051018.html Library of Congress Authority File]~~

	<hr>		<hr>

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 |Alternate names=Warm Springs; Medicinal Springs; Frederick Springs; Bath
 |Established Present=No
-|Established Date=1600
+|Established Date=1740
 |Established Circa=No
 |Established Concurrence=Before

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 |External link URL=http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n80051018
 |External link text=LOC
 }}
 }}

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 |End Circa End=No
 |End Questionable End=No
 }}
 }}

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 }}{{Associated person
 |Name=Charles Varlé
-|Role=Designer
+|Role=Landscape designer
 |From Present=No
 |From Circa=No

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 }}
 '''Berkeley Springs''', a resort area in present-day Morgan County, West Virginia, has been well known for its mineral springs since the precolonial period. The Virginia Assembly established the town of Bath (later renamed Berkeley Springs) in 1776, and the town’s trustees soon commissioned the construction of public [[bath|bathhouse]]s in the town [[square]]. It has remained a prominent public spa and leisure destination since the time of its founding.
 <hr>

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 |Alternate names=Warm Springs; Medicinal Springs; Frederick Springs; Bath
 |Established Present=No
 |Established Circa=No
-|Established Concurrence=Exact
+|Established Concurrence=Before
 |Established Questionable=No
 |Established HasEndDate=No
@@ Line 9: / Line 10: @@
 |Established Circa End=No
 |Established Questionable End=No
-|Through Present=No
+|Through Present=Yes
 |Through Circa=No
 |Through Concurrence=Exact

← Older revision		Revision as of 02:45, August 10, 2021
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		+	{{Place
		+	\|Alternate names=Warm Springs; Medicinal Springs; Frederick Springs; Bath
		+	\|Established Present=No
		+	\|Established Circa=No
		+	\|Established Concurrence=Exact
		+	\|Established Questionable=No
		+	\|Established HasEndDate=No
		+	\|Established Present End=No
		+	\|Established Circa End=No
		+	\|Established Questionable End=No
		+	\|Through Present=No
		+	\|Through Circa=No
		+	\|Through Concurrence=Exact
		+	\|Through Questionable=No
		+	\|Through HasEndDate=No
		+	\|Through Present End=No
		+	\|Through Circa End=No
		+	\|Through Questionable End=No
		+	\|Location=Morgan County, WV
		+	\|Coordinates=39.62692, -78.22904
		+	\|Geolocation link=coordinates
		+	\|Condition=Altered
		+	\|Keywords=Basin; Bath/Bathhouse; Green; Grove; Meadow; Pavilion; Piazza; Picturesque; Promenade; Seat; Shrubbery; Square; Walk; Wood/Woods
		+	\|Site owners={{Site owner
		+	\|Name=Sixth Lord Fairfax
		+	\|Owned Present=No
		+	\|Owned Date=1719
		+	\|Owned Circa=No
		+	\|Owned Concurrence=Exact
		+	\|Owned Questionable=No
		+	\|Owned HasEndDate=Yes
		+	\|Owned Present End=No
		+	\|Owned Date End=1776
		+	\|Owned Circa End=No
		+	\|Owned Concurrence End=Exact
		+	\|Owned Questionable End=No
		+	}}{{Site owner
		+	\|Name=Trustees of Bath
		+	\|Owned Present=No
		+	\|Owned Date=1776
		+	\|Owned Circa=No
		+	\|Owned Concurrence=Exact
		+	\|Owned Questionable=No
		+	\|Owned HasEndDate=Yes
		+	\|Owned Present End=No
		+	\|Owned Date End=1925
		+	\|Owned Circa End=No
		+	\|Owned Concurrence End=Exact
		+	\|Owned Questionable End=No
		+	}}{{Site owner
		+	\|Name=West Virginia Commissioner of Public Institutions
		+	\|Owned Present=No
		+	\|Owned Date=1925
		+	\|Owned Circa=No
		+	\|Owned Concurrence=Exact
		+	\|Owned Questionable=No
		+	\|Owned HasEndDate=Yes
		+	\|Owned Present End=No
		+	\|Owned Date End=1970
		+	\|Owned Circa End=No
		+	\|Owned Concurrence End=Exact
		+	\|Owned Questionable End=No
		+	}}{{Site owner
		+	\|Name=West Virginia Department of Natural Resources
		+	\|Owned Present=No
		+	\|Owned Date=1970
		+	\|Owned Circa=No
		+	\|Owned Concurrence=Exact
		+	\|Owned Questionable=No
		+	\|Owned HasEndDate=Yes
		+	\|Owned Present End=Yes
		+	\|Owned Circa End=No
		+	\|Owned Concurrence End=Exact
		+	\|Owned Questionable End=No
		+	}}
		+	\|Associated people={{Associated person
		+	\|Name=James Rumsey
		+	\|Role=Builder
		+	\|From Present=No
		+	\|From Circa=No
		+	\|From Concurrence=Exact
		+	\|From Questionable=No
		+	\|From HasEndDate=No
		+	\|From Present End=No
		+	\|From Circa End=No
		+	\|From Questionable End=No
		+	\|End Present=No
		+	\|End Circa=No
		+	\|End Concurrence=Exact
		+	\|End Questionable=No
		+	\|End HasEndDate=No
		+	\|End Present End=No
		+	\|End Circa End=No
		+	\|End Questionable End=No
		+	}}{{Associated person
		+	\|Name=Charles Varlé
		+	\|Role=Designer
		+	\|From Present=No
		+	\|From Circa=No
		+	\|From Concurrence=Exact
		+	\|From Questionable=No
		+	\|From HasEndDate=No
		+	\|From Present End=No
		+	\|From Circa End=No
		+	\|From Questionable End=No
		+	\|End Present=No
		+	\|End Circa=No
		+	\|End Concurrence=Exact
		+	\|End Questionable=No
		+	\|End HasEndDate=No
		+	\|End Present End=No
		+	\|End Circa End=No
		+	\|End Questionable End=No
		+	}}
		+	}}
	'''Berkeley Springs''', a resort area in present-day Morgan County, West Virginia, has been well known for its mineral springs since the precolonial period. The Virginia Assembly established the town of Bath (later renamed Berkeley Springs) in 1776, and the town’s trustees soon commissioned the construction of public [[bath\|bathhouse]]s in the town [[square]]. It has remained a prominent public spa and leisure destination since the time of its founding.		'''Berkeley Springs''', a resort area in present-day Morgan County, West Virginia, has been well known for its mineral springs since the precolonial period. The Virginia Assembly established the town of Bath (later renamed Berkeley Springs) in 1776, and the town’s trustees soon commissioned the construction of public [[bath\|bathhouse]]s in the town [[square]]. It has remained a prominent public spa and leisure destination since the time of its founding.

@@ Line 25: / Line 25: @@
 [[File:0462.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 2, Samuel Vaughan, ''Warm or Berkley Springs, in Virginia'', from the diary of Samuel Vaughan, June–September 1787.]]
 <span id="Vaughan_cite"></span>Bath’s streets took the form of a gridded plan arranged just below a large [[square]], as recorded by [[Samuel Vaughan]] in his diary in 1787 [Fig. 2] ([[#Vaughan|view text]]). In another sketch of Berkeley Springs, [[Samuel Vaughan|Vaughan]] observed the formation of islands surrounded by the warm spring’s flows, as well as the arrangement of the public [[bath]]s, noting a separate “[[Bath]] for Poor People [g]” [Fig. 3]. Separate [[bath]]s for men and women constructed in the [[square]] in 1786 were likely the work of James Rumsey (c. 1743–1792), an inventor, builder, and “jack-of-all-trades” who had opened a general store and boarding house in town in 1782.<ref>Harding 1976, 6, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view in Zotero]; and Mabel Henshaw Gardiner and Ann Henshaw Gardiner, ''Chronicles of Old Berkeley: A Narrative History of a Virginia County from Its Beginnings to 1926'' (Durham, NC: The Seeman Press, 1938), 222, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/DK298NQE view in Zotero]. The early bathhouses at Berkeley Springs were likely constructed by Rumsey, but this is not certain. See Taylor 2009, 57, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WVDKWV33 view in Zotero].</ref> The so-called Roman Baths, which are still extant, are in a two-story brick building with a hipped roof that contains ten individual [[bath]] stalls built initially for use by men. Each stall is accessible by a private entrance from the long hallway that runs along the length of the first floor. On the building’s east elevation, a row of ten openings provides ventilation to each stall. The other extant eighteenth-century building, the old [[bathhouse]] or shower [[bath]], was initially constructed for women. The building, a one-story brick building with a hipped roof, is smaller.<ref> Taylor 2009, 56, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/WVDKWV33 view on Zotero]; and Harding 1976, 2, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/AZZ6ZIDM view on Zotero].</ref> <span id="Vaughan_cite"></span>[[Samuel Vaughan|Vaughan]]'s textual description of Bath notes a flurry of building activity in the town’s early years, including 164 houses constructed over a four-year period, a playhouse, a Methodist church, and several taverns with [[piazza]]s that were among “the best calculated for America of any [he had] seen”([[#Vaughan|view text]]).
-[[File:0461.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 3, Samuel Vaughan, Plan of Bath (Berkeley Springs), VA [detail], 1787, from the diary of Samuel Vaughan, June-September 1787.]]
+[[File:0461.jpg|thumb|right|Fig. 3, Samuel Vaughan, Plan of Bath [Berkeley Springs], VA [detail], 1787, from the diary of Samuel Vaughan, June-September 1787.]]
 Berkeley Springs continued to prosper as a resort until about 1805 when a fever plagued the summer guest population, reducing the number of seasonal visitors by more than half for the next several years. The relative inaccessibility of Berkeley Springs compared to other springs in the region also contributed to its decline. In 1809 Charles Varlé proposed a redesign to improve Bath’s [[public garden]]. His drawing indicated, among other features, a [[canal]] with a foot [[bridge]] [A], a [[basin]] with a [[jet d’eau]] in the center [B & C], a reservoir or [[fountain]] “covered with a vine treliage in a form of a dome or copula” [E], an additional [[bath]] [F], a sunken [[bowling green]] [H] within a [[parterre]], a two-sided [[sundial]] [I] located near the [[basin]] and [[bowling green]], and two [[labyrinth]]s “contrived so as to be different in their issues and windings” [K] [Fig. 4]. Colonel Robert Bailey (1773–1827), an infamous gambler and entrepreneur, also made a concerted effort to revitalize the resort’s reputation. <span id="Bailey_cite"></span>In an 1813 advertisement he promoted the quality of the springs’ waters, [[bath]]s, [[walk]]s, and lodging, and personally guaranteed that visitors who stayed in his guesthouse would be well satisfied ([[#Bailey|view text]]).
@@ Line 191: / Line 191: @@
 Image:0462.jpg|Samuel Vaughan, ''Warm or Berkley Springs, in Virginia'', from the diary of Samuel Vaughan, June–September 1787.
-Image:0461.jpg|Samuel Vaughan, Plan of Bath (Berkeley Springs), VA [detail], 1787, from the diary of Samuel Vaughan, June-September 1787.
+Image:0461.jpg|Samuel Vaughan, Plan of Bath [Berkeley Springs], VA [detail], 1787, from the diary of Samuel Vaughan, June-September 1787.
 Image:0460.jpg|Charles Varlé, ''Project for the Improvement of the [[Square]] and the Town of Bath'' [detail], c. 1809.