Glenn
Springs
History
The fair hills and woodlands beneath the beautiful Carolina blue skies of the upstate boast many mineral springs. One of the best known is Glenn Springs. According to legend, Native Americans were the first to discover its healing powers when a gravely ill warrior made a miraculous recovery after days of drinking the spring’s waters. Another legend tells of sick animals recovering after drinking from the “deer lick” waters. Another is that a young boy recovered from a skin disease after being covered in the mud of the swampy area.
In 1752, the King of England granted Henry Storey 1,000 acres in the Glenn Springs area. The Spartanburg District was becoming more densely settled than other parts of the pre-Revolutionary backcountry and played a key role in the colonies' fight for independence. It is said that General George Washington stopped at the springs on his way to Savannah as a guest of John King, a member of the famous Washington’s Guard.
An extensive drought in 1800 dried up the surrounding swamp, exposing the mineral spring. Between 1815 and 1820, James P. Means purchased 1,000 acres for $300 and built a two-story house near the spring. In 1825, John B. Glenn acquired 500 acres, including the “powder spring” (so named for its strong sulfur smell, reminiscent of gunpowder) for $800. He opened an inn for travelers, and the area soon became known as Glenn Springs. Log cabins were constructed along the hill near the spring, and wealthy gentlemen were allowed to build their own cabins as well.
As popularity grew the area was strapped for vacancies and in 1835 “The Glenn Springs Company” was formed with 15 members paying Mr. Glenn $1000 each. They built a grand hotel that opened in July 1836 and quickly became known for its elegance, gentility, and the prominence of its guests. Where opulence was the standard, it became known as the unofficial capital of South Carolina because of the judges, US senators, representatives, and state officials who spent summers with their families at Glenn Springs. Nouveau riche joined old money in the quest to see and be seen. The Glenn Springs Academy was opened in 1842 and the Episcopal Church in 1848.
In 1877 during the Reconstruction years following the War Between the States, Dr.John W. Simpson and his son J. Wistar Simpson brought the property. Stately homes continued to be constructed and the Presbyterian Church was chartered in 1883. The Simpsons enlarged the hotel in 1894 to accommodate 500 guests. It had more than 58,000 square feet of floor space and 580 linear feet of piazzas. Polished curly pine covered the hallways. Entertainment was provided with nightly dancing to the orchestra in the ballroom, tennis court, tin pan alley billiard and card tables, bathing pool, shooting gallery, chess, croquet, and visits to nearby gold mines and Revolutionary War sites.
Walking to the spring was a common ritual, with visitors often drinking 15 to 30 glasses of the mineral water daily. The water, hailed as the “true Elixir of Life,” contained calcium sulfate, sodium sulfate, calcium carbonate, meta-salicylic acid, and magnesium carbonate. Glenn Springs Company bottled and shipped its mineral water across South Carolina, the United States, and even parts of Europe. It was still being stocked in the U.S. Senate cloakroom as late as 1930.
Travel to the popular Glenn Springs Hotel became easier when the Glenn Springs Railroad opened in 1894. Operating ten miles of track from Glenn Springs to Pauline to Roebuck on the Port Royal and Western Carolina, the line owned one locomotive, one combination car, and one passenger car. The train, pulled by wood-burning locomotive #1226, made one round trip a day in the summer and three times a week in the winter with a fare of seventy-five cents for adults and thirty-five cents for children.
After the Great Depression, the popularity of the health resort never recovered. The grand hotel was destroyed by fire on July 25, 1941. Today the Glenn Springs Preservation Society owns the church and Cates store building along with the post office. The hotel site and spring is privately owned.
