Old Sweet Springs

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Old Sweet Springs, Monroe County

National Historic Landmark -- Sweet Springs, West Virginia -- Monroe County

Sweet Springs opened in 1833 as a health resort, celebrating the naturally carbonated spring water which has won international taste contests as recently at 2008. Rumored to be designed by Thomas Jefferson, a hotel with more than 100,000 square feet of guest space was built at the spring in 1834. Its guest register holds the signatures of George Washington, Robert E. Lee, General Lafayette, and Queen Victoria. Its operation was interrupted by the Civil War, and it struggled afterward. In 1941, the State of West Virginia purchased the property and operated the buildings as a tuberculosis sanitarium. Four years later it became the Andrew Rowan Memorial Home for the Elderly, which operated until 1993. In 2004, Warren D. Smith purchased the property with the intent to restore and develop it.

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