Drinking the Waters at The Greenbrier

by Sandra Merville Hart

In A Spring at The Greenbrier, Book 7 in Romance at the Gilded Age Resorts Series, Marilla, our heroine, works at The Greenbrier in 1914. Her first job at the resort was serving guests tumblers of sulphur spring water, a tradition at the historic hotel, one that dates back to 1785, when Michael Bowyer owned the land. He hired a couple to manage his health resort and early guests stayed in their own tents to partake of the waters.

The health resort grew from those humble beginnings to become a place where the wealthy came to drink the waters. Guests brought their whole families and stayed for weeks in the summer. They walked across the lawn to the Springhouse to drink tumblers of water before breakfast, lunch, and supper.

Dr. Moorman served resort guests in the 1800s for decades. He recommended starting with 4 – 8 glasses daily, growing to a maximum of 12 glasses daily in two weeks. He felt that guests would see health benefits for the bowels, liver, kidneys, and skin in 3 – 6 weeks.

Dyspepsia, jaundice, chronic rheumatism, scurvy, and neuralgia were a few of the conditions he prescribed drinking spring water. Other doctors sent their patients to the resort for a variety of ailments.

Guests wanted the waters in between visits. It was sent in bottles and barrels to apothecaries in major cities. Nearly every drug store in America sold cases of 24 bottles for $5 by 1902. It was labeled as A Natural Laxative and was sold until 1942.

The spring waters are an important part of the story in A Spring at The Greenbrier, where two little girls need its benefits.

Sources

Conte, Robert S. The History of The Greenbrier: America’s Resort, Pictorial Histories Publishing Co., 1989.

Moorman, J.J., Md. Directory for Use of White Sulphur Waters with Practical Remarks on their Medicinal Properties, T.K. & P.G. Collins, 1839.