Exploring Alabama’s Stagecoach Stop at Blount Springs

[dirty-diesel]

Awesome Dave! Looking foward to the rest.


I took a hiatus from riding but Im back and looking to do some riding

[rob feature]

and

[PinkPillion]

Awesome and unique as usual DeBandi! Looking forward to the next installment.

[ihatefalling]

DeBandi, your stories and RRs trip me out dude.
You must be on some good drugs to come up with those pictures.
Keep up the good work, I enjoy the laughs

[DeBandi]

I mounted the smaller bike thinking today's riding would require something a little more maneuverable. It would turn out to be the right decision.



Twenty feet off the old stage coach road I discovered a spring that some industrious person tapped for his own use many years ago.












A few hundred feet away I discovered another old building site.
















A boarding house once stood at this location.






Another dangerous cistern.



























More later...

[veriest1]

I love it and can't wait for more!

[BUBB]

fascinating - well done

[DUALATP]

Originally Posted by BUBB

fascinating - well done

+1000

[ClearwaterBMW]

love this thread
amazing information and photography
thank you for sharing this with us

[DeBandi]

The hotels:




Just across the old stage coach route stood two large hotels.



The remaining footings of the upper Mtn. House hotel still stand today.











This was a large two story hotel. This was the second hotel built at Blount Springs. Mtn. House was built in 1883 because the original hotel was not large enough to handle all of the guests coming to Blount Springs.








The Mtn. House hotel can be seen in the drawing. It's the hotel sitting back behind the main hotel.








The original Jackson Hotel is located just down the hill. It was constructed in 1871. It was rebuilt in 1878 and was considered to be one of the finest hotels in the south.









Let’s go down the hill and look around.

[DeBandi]

The first lower hotel was built in 1871.

Other events were happening in 1871 that would prove to benefit Blount Springs in a huge way.


While the first hotel was being constructed, John T Milner was appointed Chief of Construction over the North and South Railroad. Colonel J.F.B. Jackson was the construction engineer. He was a landowner with property at Blount Springs. L&N (Louisville and Nashville) took over the North and South railroad the same year.


The L&N was notorious for shady land deals. It earned the name the Long and Nasty.



The railroad project was completed in 1872, and the final spike was actually driven -- yep, you guessed it -- right here in Blount Springs, adjacent to Colonel J.F.B. Jackson's property. -Imagine that-


In the late 1800s and early 1900s if you had the railroad, you had the world at your fingertips.



In 1878 Colonel J.F.B. Jackson built an all new incredible hotel and spa here replacing the original smaller hotel.



It was called the New Jackson House and was designed after the spas in Europe. The new hotel was strategically placed right along the new railroad.

With dancing all night in the grand ballroom, elegant china, imported wallpaper, the socially elite frequented the hotel. Opulence was the description given by many reporters of the era.

Improvements to the grounds and hotel continued. The grounds were terraced in the late 1880’s.










The walls still stand strong today.







The employees lived in small cabins scattered throughout Blount Springs.




















I can still smell the food coming from the kitchen.


More later.

[WaywardSon]

Nice work........thanks once again!

[DeBandi]

The hotel and spa flourished for several years. Colonel J.F.B. Jackson sold his hotel to a couple of wealthy industrialists from Birmingham.




The Sloss brothers purchased the hotel in 1887.











They operated Sloss Furnace.




Additional information on Sloss can be found at

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=296596





They quickly began to pump some of their tremendous fortune into the hotel.

Improvements included:

Adding new bathhouses
Hiring a new landscape architect
Piped water to the hotel directly from the springs
Hiring a French chef
Adding an indoor billiard parlor and bowling alley at the spring yard
Setting up slot machines, roulette tables and numerous card games in the basement
A brass band would welcome guests as they exited the train
Wooden boardwalks built as pathways to the spring yard

Blount Springs was thriving and became a place to see and be seen.



The experts proclaimed the area to be one of the healthiest places in the country to live.



It gained the name the “Saratoga Of the South”.



I found this interesting article from 1910 in the L&N Summer Outings Magazine.






Many of the wealthy patrons fell in love with the area and built summer cottages in Blount Springs.




Still more interesting places to discover around the area later.

[Kenbike]

Why did it fail?

[MarkNC]

Great History in that area. Thanks for Sharing, Looking forward to the
rest.