OffBeat Tennessee

  • Home
  • Curious Facts
  • Places
  • History
Home Beersheba Springs, a beautiful resort town that lost it’s spring

Beersheba Springs, a beautiful resort town that lost it’s spring

beer3

In 1833 Beersheba Porter Cain discovered a chalybeate spring, a mineral spring containing salts of iron.. The spring and surrounding area, located above Collins River Valley, would be incorporated in 1839. Upon its incorporation, Beersheba Springs would serve as a summer resort with a small hotel and log cabins.

beer5

The resort would be popular with stagecoach traffic that would travel between Chattanooga and McMinnville. It was notable for its mineral waters.

Armsfield

Jon Armfield

In 1854 Colonel John Armfield, a slave trader from Louisiana, acquired the property. Upwards of 100 slaves were brought to Beersheba Springs to work on Armfield’s changes to the property: a new luxury hotel, cabins and grounds that would accommodate 400 guests. The resort would feature laundry facilities, ice houses, billiard rooms, and bowling alleys. French chefs were brought in to serve guests, as were musical acts from New Orleans.

beer4

Armfield added a laundry, ice houses, billiard rooms, and bowling alleys to the grounds.   He planted many shade and fruit trees and rebuilt the observatory. French cooks and servants catered to the wealthy patrons.  A band brought up from New Orleans supplied the music for the dances.  The watering spa also adhered to the custom of playing the oach up the mountain. The horn of the coachman conveyed when the horses were resting and could let the staff know how many new visitors to expect for supper. 

beerB9

Ladies at the Great Door, an overlook at Beersheba Springs, ca. 1870

Franklin Pierce the 14th president of the United States was a guest of the resort prior to his presidency.

Summer Season

Summer Season

It would be from the wooden observatory at the front of the hotel that Confederate and Union activity in the valley below could be watched as the Civil War engulfed this region and this exclusive way of life.  The constant threat of raids and plundering unsettled the area. 

beer1

The old hotel is now used as a retreat by the Tennessee Conference of the United Methodist Church

6843087129_36292fbbdd_z

Take a look at this scenic video of the nearby Stone Door and Greeter Falls showing the beauty of the area. Notice the same place the ladies from the picture above are sitting and how it looks today almost 150 years later

May 26, 2014Off Beat

GET MORE STUFF LIKE THIS IN YOUR INBOX! Sign up for our daily email and get the stories everyone is talking about.

Memorial Day has its roots in Tennessee and in the south but does not include Confederate soldiersNashville hotel visited by 7 presidents, and numerous celebs, destroyed by fire in the sixties
More offbeat stories
Sign up to get the latest Offbeat updates daily
Archives
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
Sign up to get Daily updates in your Inbox of stories everyone is talking about



Categories
  • Curious Facts
  • History
  • Places
  • Uncategorized
For story suggestions or to submit a story email us at offbeatten@gmail.com. Also email us if you have anything else you would like to share, we want to hear the offbeat and interesting side of Tennessee
Pages
  • blog
  • Facts, Stories and Places of Tennessee of a curious nature
Recent Posts
  • A child’s playhouse in a cemetery
  • With football season upon us, one Tennessee fan proved he is a diehard Vol with his wedding
  • World’s Longest Yard Sale – yes Tennessee holds that record too
  • Did a Tennessee woman live to be 150 years old?
  • Tennessee is serious when it comes to our lakes, the story of Reelfoot Lake and the Night Riders
2014 © OffBeat Tennessee