Butts County GaArchives History .....OLD INDIAN SPRINGS HOTEL BRINGS BACK GRACIOUS ERA ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Don Bankston digitialdog1@juno.com October 9, 2005, 1:33 am Book Title: OLD INDIAN SPRINGS HOTEL BRINGS BACK GRACIOUS ERA The Elder Hotel Built in 1903, Drew Resort Visitors from Many States Indian Springs, Ga. The large, white, two story hotel with green shutters and a long porch stands on a hilltop guarded by stately oaks. I stood on a bed of dry leaves and gazed fondly at the Elder Hotel, the last of Indian Springs’ five resort hotels to survive. For a moment I felt as if I were admiring the beautiful face of a dear old woman known for her great charm and character. She has known the god life but time has been kind to her. James E. Cornell, 58, is the owner of the Elder Hotel, built in 1903 by his grandmother, Mrs. Texas Elder, in an era when Indian Springs also boasted of the Wigwam Hotel, Foy Hotel and Bryans House, and earlier, the Calumet Hotel. Early in the 20th century, Indian Springs, with its famed, mineral-rich waters, drew thousands of persons from many states each summer. They arrived in horse drawn buggies and on trains to spend a week, a month and in some instances the whole summer. The Elder Hotel which will be open 90 days beginning June 15, used to have 75 rooms, but the number has been reduced to 52. A painter was working on the front porch when Cornell and I arrived, the owner lives in a brick house next door and we stepped from the warm outside temperatures into a big, cool lobby with high ceilings. In the center of the lobby were rows of 48 Brumby rocking chairs, bought for $16 each just after World War I, which will be moved to the porch in June. “Walk from one end of the porch to the other and back 10 times and you will have walked one mile,” said Cornell. I imagined how delightful it would be to rock in one of the handsome chairs on the porch in the cool of the evening after a fried chicken supper. The wide, long halls with high ceilings were quite conspicuous in this age when no space is wasted in new hotels and motels. Cornell showed me several rooms on both floors, explaining they have been modernized a bit over the years. “Two sets of baths have gone in this hotel,” he said. “Back in 1925 my father put in old type tubs with legs on the bottom, and after World War II he changed to the built-in type tubs with the tile baths. “The dining rooms and television room are air conditioned, but only 20 or more rooms have air conditioning. A lot of people who come here don’t’ like air conditioning. They like to open the windows.” Cornell said that Indian Springs usually is several degrees cooler than either Macon or Atlanta in the summer and winter. In the early years of operation, the Elder Hotel charged just $3 a day per person for a room, and this included three meals. “I can remember when I was young when rates were $12.50 a week including all meals, and this was for seven days,” he said. His father, James E. Cornell, Sr. said the hotel was especially popular among honeymooners and many returned years later on vacations. “My father told me that a couple came in one day and the man said, “We want room No. 15,” said Cornell. “He said, No. 15 is not one of my best rooms” “The man said, No, we want No. 15.” My father said it was vacant and they could have it. The man said, “We were married 20 years ago, we had that room, and we want it again.” When the hotel was built for about $75,000 in 1903, the ladies’ and the men’s bathrooms were located at the end of the halls. This was in an era when that line about the Saturday night bath was a fact, not a joke, for some folks, who found a daily scrubbing rather difficult to arrange. Waking slowly down a long hall, Cornell said, “This hotel represents an era that has passed. Many people today don’t now about that era. It brings you back to the country, a relaxed atmosphere, with its charm and character. “It offers something different. You are used to the motel chains, the same furniture and design. If you were in a motel room, you wouldn’t know if you were in Seattle or Atlanta.” The late Senator Walter George of Vienna, Ga., was among the many resort visitors who enjoyed games of bridge with friends. Cornell remembers when Georgia Governor Ellis Arnall used to come her on summer weekends. “People still enjoy playing bridge on summer nights said Cornell, “and they like bingo and shuffleboard. Sometimes the people get together to put on plays at night.” Among the popular features of Indian Springs State Park are the lake and beach, miniature golf, nature trails, bowling alleys, picnic grounds, and of course, the sulphur water with its reputed curative powers for stomach and kidney problems. Who is the Elder Hotel’s oldest regular guest? “A fellow in Miami is now 88 years old and he has been coming here since he was a small boy,” said Cornell. “He brings his nurse and stays a month or six weeks.” I’d like to have one penny for each hours that fellow has rocked on the porch Copied from the Jackson Progress Argus File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/butts/history/other/oldindia611gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/ File size: 5.6 Kb