Florida's Original Tourist Attractions (on PorterBriggs.com)

Hi All -

I just got an article published on PorterBriggs.com about one of my favorite topics - the abandoned springs-resorts of north Florida. CLICK HERE or on the image below to check it out!

White Springs

The town of White Springs sits on the eastern shore of the Suwannee River in the southeastern corner of Hamilton County. Today the town is a quiet, sleepy community with a population of less than a thousand. While the annual folk festival draws thousands to the Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park on the town’s edge once a year, on the average day the streets and the park are fairly quiet. However, things were once quite different.

The Timucuan tribe, the first recorded residents of the area (as documented by Spanish explorers of the 1500s), considered the springs to be sacred and to contain healing properties. While European settlers displaced the Native Americans who once called this area home, they retained the local belief in the healing powers of the springs. Plantation owners Bryant and Elizabeth Sheffield purchased the property in the 1830s, and were the first to market the springs' purported health benefits, including treatment of nervousness, kidney disease, and rheumatism. They named the springs Upper Mineral Springs and constructed a log springhouse and hotel. For this reason, the springs are considered by many to have been Florida’s first tourist attraction.

The original springhouse, photographed in the 1890s (source)

The Civil War and the following Reconstruction period stifled the town’s burgeoning tourist industry. However, the 1880s saw the beginning of a massive influx of tourists to Florida for the purpose of “taking the waters” at various high mineral content springs throughout the state. (I have written previously about such tourist destinations as Suwannee Springs, Worthington Springs, and Hampton Springs.) At this time, the springs and the community which had sprung up nearby were renamed White Springs. The connection of the town to nearby rail lines spurred the growth of the town’s tourist industry. In 1903, the spring was enclosed in a three-story bathhouse constructed from coquina and concrete; the bathhouse contained changing rooms, doctors’ offices, concessions facilities, and even an elevator. Fourteen luxury hotels, numerous boardinghouses, and all the amenities of a modern community of the time sprang up around the springs.

Hamilton Hotel, ca1900 (source)

Colonial Hotel, early 1900s (source)

Hotel Jackson, ca1920 (source)

Telford Hotel, ca1903 (source)

Interior of the springhouse, ca1910 (source)

Exterior of the springhouse, 19?? (source)

Today, only one of the fourteen hotels remains (and it is closed and up for sale at the time of this writing), and few of the community’s “downtown” structures remain. The spring itself stopped flowing in the mid-1990s, although in recent years heavy downpours have triggered short periods of spring-flow. The springhouse, located adjacent to the entrance to the Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park, can be explored to this day, although it is now only one story, and a shadow of its former glory.

Telford Hotel, currently closed and for sale by owner

Downtown structures on Bridge Street

Adams Country Store, est 1885

Many of the town's old homes are still maintained and inhabited:

Sophia Jane Adams House, built 1893

Although there are also plenty of abandoned structures:

The Riverside Filling Station, built in 1914, was recently the site of the White Springs Public Library, although from what I can tell the building now sits empty, except for the books piled inside.

The springhouse today

The view of the interior of the springhouse from the remaining walkway

Looking out from the walkway over the Suwannee River

The springhouse as seen from the Suwannee River

The exterior of the springhouse where water once flowed out into the Suwannee River. A gate system could once be closed at this location to prevent backflow from the Suwannee entering the spring during periods of flood.

The interior of the springhouse as seen from inside

For more information on White Springs:

The Telford Hotel of White Springs

White Springs, FL (wikipedia)

Heritage Site of the Month: White Springs

The springs are running in White Springs: The odor is unmistakable

Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park

I'm Going to Jasper

The Original High Springs

When I was looking at real estate in and around High Springs (where I did, eventually, purchase a home back in 2014), I remember having a conversation with my mother in which we mused about the reason why High Springs was named High Springs. We thought the name was a bit odd, as it wasn’t as if there were a spring in the center of town or anything. However, we decided that perhaps the name probably came from the high quantity of springs in the near vicinity of the town; Poe, Gilchrist Blue, Ginnie, and Rum Island springs are all short drives from High Springs, and many other springs are accessible via the nearby Santa Fe River. This is apparently the etymology of the town’s name that many people in North Florida believe, although it turns out that it is not, in fact, correct.

While doing research for my various High Springs railroad posts, I learned that there had indeed once been a spring in High Springs proper. According to the Architectural and Historical Survey of High Springs, Florida, published in 1990, “The spring that gives High Springs its name is located a mile northeast of the current center of town, in what is now a pleasant residential suburb. Its steady flow of water attracted settlers in the latter part of the nineteenth century, and the first group of buildings – a school, a few stores, and several homes – was built here. The railroad tapped this spring and diverted its flow, via a long pipe, to the site chosen for the railroad shops.” As I continued to search for more information on the railyard in High Springs, I came across several other mentions of a spring on top of a hill north of town giving rise to the town’s name… but where had the spring been?

I got my answer when JOM and I visited the High Springs Historical Museum to learn more about the railroad back in the fall. We were told where exactly this ‘hill north of town’ was located, that there were remains of the springhouse, and that the spring itself even still flowed. Sort of. In a bit of a trickle. We also learned that there were plans being discussed to clean the area up and turn it into a park – perhaps even to restore the springs – although nothing had been decided.

Due to busy schedules and plans to explore other places, I didn’t get a chance to follow the directions I’d been given in search of the old springs until yesterday. And as JOM is off cycling around Australia, I went hunting for it by myself. The directions I’d been given led me up a hill and to a trail entering a wooded area northeast of downtown High Springs, and while they weren’t too specific for once I reached said wooded area, I vaguely remembered being told that the area was marked off with caution tape. Shortly after entering the woods, I began to come across the remains of structures: foundations, collapsing remains of wooden walls, and concrete structures. Initially I thought I might have found the old springhouse… until I noticed the old tobacco barn behind it. That didn’t seem to fit what I was looking for. Additionally, I couldn’t find anything that resembled a spring – not even a trickle.

Foundations of something

More foundations; tobacco barn in the distance


Collapsing wooden structure

The tobacco drying barn told me I was looking in the wrong place.

And so I continued on, following the trail until in the distance I saw what looked like yellow caution tape tied around a tree:

Er. That’s caution tape, right?

Looking into the woods, I could see another band of yellow tape around another tree, and then farther into the woods, yet another. Following a Hansel and Gretel breadcrumb trail of police-line-do-not-cross tape into the forest all by your lonesome is surely a good idea. I figured either this was the caution tape that I thought I remembered hearing about, or I’d find myself arrested for trampling over a murder scene. As there hadn’t been any recent murders in the area (to my knowledge anyway), I figured I had to be on the right track. Safety first!

The pieces of yellow tape did indeed lead me to the spring – or what was left of it – and I would never have found it without them. When I finally reached the last piece of yellow tape in the trail, I could see what looked like a round clearing in the woods. It was impossible to get a photograph that showed what I could discern: a near perfect circle of slightly depressed land covered in weeds and small trees, surrounded by much older trees. Venturing into the depressed circle, I could tell that this had indeed once been the spring head pool. Around the edges older oaks leaned over what would have once been water. The ‘pool’ itself was nothing but mud – wet enough to show that water was still seeping to the surface, but dry(ish) enough to walk across, although my shoes definitely sunk into the mud in spots.

What remains of what would have been the spring's pool

On one end of the former ‘pool’ the remains of a dam and pipe could be seen… and flowing through it and down an old creek bed was the trickle of water I had been told to expect.

Remains of the dam. The round object in the lower left quadrant is a pipe.

The stream, trickling east from the dam/pool

Looking back towards the spring from downstream; the dam is at the top of the hill.

On the opposite side of the ‘pool’ I found three large metal bolts extending inward from the ‘pool’ wall. I've no idea what their purpose would have been.

The complete set of photos taken on my explorations in search of the original High Springs Spring can be seen HERE.

According to the Alachua County Property Appraiser’s website, the piece of land upon which what remains of the spring sits belongs to the City of High Springs, which would certainly simplify the process of turning it into a city park. Of course, whether or not this actually comes to fruition definitely remains to be seen. And restoration of the spring itself? I do not know if such a thing would be possible, although if it were, that would indeed be lovely.