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Photo, Print, Drawing Yellow Sulphur Springs, 3145 Yellow Sulphur Road, Christiansburg, Montgomery County, VA Yellow Springs Taylor's Springs

[ Data Pages from Survey HALS VA-55  ]

About this Item

Title

  • Yellow Sulphur Springs, 3145 Yellow Sulphur Road, Christiansburg, Montgomery County, VA

Other Title

  • Yellow Springs Taylor's Springs

Names

  • Historic American Landscapes Survey, creator
  • Taylor, Charles
  • Forrest, Armistead
  • Yellow Sulphur Springs, Inc.
  • Early, Jubal A.
  • Poindexter, C. W.
  • Cowan, P. R.
  • Reid, J. L.
  • Brooks, Albert F.
  • Burwell, William H.
  • Johnson, Henry C.
  • Thompson, C. W.
  • Coleman, Alvin L.
  • Tolliver, C. Tiffany
  • Micheaux, Oscar
  • Crowell, William B. F.
  • Stevens, Christopher M., transmitter
  • Katen, Brian, historian
  • Bohannon, C. L., historian
  • Virginia Tech University, Landscape Architecture Program, sponsor

Created / Published

  • Documentation compiled after 2000

Headings

  • -  health resorts
  • -  African Americans
  • -  springhouses
  • -  springs (bodies of water)
  • -  bathing
  • -  vacations
  • -  hotels
  • -  taverns (inns)
  • -  cottages
  • -  barns
  • -  servants' quarters
  • -  Virginia--Montgomery County--Christiansburg

Latitude / Longitude

  • 37.178133,-80.397814

Notes

  • -  Significance: Long associated with white privilege, the Virginia mineral springs resorts have been identified by historian Charlene Lewis as playing a key role in shaping elite southern society throughout the south - the place where in antebellum Virginia "each Summer, more elite whites congregated...than anywhere else in the south...." Among the Virginia springs frequented by elite whites during the antebellum and post-Civil War periods was Yellow Sulphur Springs located in Montgomery County near Christiansburg. Originally developed in the first decade of the nineteenth century by Charles Taylor as Taylor's Springs, later known as Yellow Springs, the spa featured a two story hotel and springs on 160 acres. Yellow Springs became one of the stops on the nineteenth century spring's circuit that extended throughout the western part of present day Virginia and into eastern West Virginia. Additional acreage and expanded accommodations, including cottage rows, were added by Armistead W. Forrest, who purchased the Springs in 1842. Renamed Yellow Sulphur Springs in 1853, the spring complex would eventually include a second hotel, individual cottages, a bowling alley, and ponds in addition to the original hotel and spring. Following the Civil War the Virginia Springs were frequented by many former Confederate officers. Among the spring's most famous patrons was former Confederate General, Jubal Early who made Yellow Sulphur his "summer home" following the Civil War. Yellow Sulphur would pass through various owners until its supposed demise in 1923 when most histories note that the Yellow Sulphur Springs "closed for good." However, black Virginians began to frequent a select group of mineral springs that catered specifically to African Americans in the late nineteenth century. The development and popularity of these early black springs set the stage for the purchase in 1926 of Yellow Sulphur Springs by Yellow Sulphur Springs, Inc. a company formed by 10 prominent black businessmen from nearby Roanoke, Virginia. The resort served the African American community for the next few years until it was sold on the Montgomery County Courthouse steps in the spring of 1929.
  • -  Survey number: HALS VA-55
  • -  Building/structure dates: ca. 1842 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: ca. 1926 Subsequent Work
  • -  National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 79003057

Medium

  • Data Page(s): 10

Call Number/Physical Location

  • HALS VA-55

Source Collection

  • Historic American Landscapes Survey (Library of Congress)

Repository

Control Number

  • va2213

Rights Advisory

Online Format

  • pdf

Rights & Access

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  • Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; images copied from other sources may be restricted. https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/114_habs.html
  • Reproduction Number: ---
  • Call Number: HALS VA-55
  • Access Advisory: ---

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Historic American Landscapes Survey, Creator, Charles Taylor, Armistead Forrest, Inc Yellow Sulphur Springs, Jubal A Early, C. W Poindexter, P. R Cowan, et al. Yellow Sulphur Springs,Yellow Sulphur Road, Christiansburg, Montgomery County, VA. Montgomery County Virginia Christiansburg, 2000. translateds by Stevens, Christopher M.Mitter Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/va2213/.

APA citation style:

Historic American Landscapes Survey, C., Taylor, C., Forrest, A., Yellow Sulphur Springs, I., Early, J. A., Poindexter, C. W. [...] Virginia Tech University, L. A. P. (2000) Yellow Sulphur Springs,Yellow Sulphur Road, Christiansburg, Montgomery County, VA. Montgomery County Virginia Christiansburg, 2000. Stevens, C. M. M., trans Documentation Compiled After. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/va2213/.

MLA citation style:

Historic American Landscapes Survey, Creator, et al. Yellow Sulphur Springs,Yellow Sulphur Road, Christiansburg, Montgomery County, VA. trans by Stevens, Christopher M.Mitter Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/va2213/>.