We did some work at the 1830-1920s Crab Orchard
Springs Hotel site in Crab Orchard, Kentucky. It was
known at one time as the "Saratoga of the South".
Unfortunately, it is now a school; they blitzed the
site away with baseball, volley ball, and t-ball
fields. We found one foundation- the rest is gone.
Below is the description of the resort and citations.
Sarah
The Crab Orchard Springs Hotel was quite a place. The
central hotel structure had a bowling alley in the
basement, two long annexes of rooms that flanked the
main building, a dance hall, a caddy house, servants
quarters, and a barn and stables. Centered around the
springs, the complex grew to include a golf course,
tennis courts, a lake for swimming and rowing, and a
swimming pool on the other side of the lake. The
hotel hosted nightly dances with guest orchestras.
The large expanse of land was used for foxhunts and
picnic horseback rides to the surrounding springs.
Townspeople worked at the hotel and were invited to
attend the activities. When we asked Grace Wilson, a
resident of Crab Orchard who remembers the hotel, what
it was like to have a business like that operating in
their town, she said, “Your mouth would hang open with
what you saw. It was like a different world.”
Miller, Sarah E.
2004 A Report on the Initial Investigations at Crab
Orchard Springs Hotel, Lincoln County, Kentucky.
Letter report on file with the Office of State
Archaeology, Lexington.
Miller, Sarah E. and A. Gwynn Henderson
2004 The “Saratoga of the South" Will Rise (or Be
Razed) Again: A Community's Perspective on the
Benefits of Archaeology. Paper presented at the 2004
SHA meeting in St. Louis.
I can send copies of both if you need them.
--- [log in to unmask] wrote:
> We are currently doing a Phase I investigation of a
> property in the Pocono region of Pennsylvania (you
> know - heart-shaped tubs, honeymoon cottages, etc.).
> We've found that this property contains the remains
> of an early incarnation (late-19th to early-20th C.)
> of what was to become this area's substantial
> vacation / resort industry during the second half of
> the 20th Century. While historians have devoted a
> good deal of attention to the Pocono vacation
> wonderland, it has been subjected to very little
> archaeological investigation. I'm wondering if
> anyone knows of studies of this sort of vacation /
> resort site in other regions. Just a few references
> to give us an entry into the literature would be
> much appreciated.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Philip.
>
> Philip A. Perazio, M.A., RPA
> Senior Principal Investigator
> Kittatinny Archaeological Research, Inc.
> 609 Main Street, P.O. Box 1117
> Stroudsburg, PA 18360
> Phone: 570-421-9525; FAX: 570-421-9527; Cell:
> 570-350-8018
> Email: [log in to unmask]
> please send large files to:
> [log in to unmask]
>
Sarah E. Miller
Kentucky Archaeological Survey
1020 A. Export Street
Lexington, KY 40506
USA
phone: 859-257-1944
fax: 859-323-1968
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