Dancing at the Warm Springs Hotel

Description

The history of the Warm Springs Hotel is not just the untold story of a famous resort in the Appalachian Mountains. It is a story of nineteenth-century politics, social custom, class, gender, and fashion.

For half a century, thousands of men, women, and children vacationed at the hotel to enjoy lavish entertainment, bathe in therapeutic mineral waters, and socialize away from society’s rigid complexities at home. After the Civil War, the hotel thrived at a time of southern remembrance, clannish loyalty, elegance, and sophistication. It was a resort renowned for serious matchmaking and secret rendezvous, pool parties and fancy-dress balls, a time of indulgence before the world faced war and depression in the next century.

The story of the Warm Springs Hotel is an authoritative and beautifully illustrated addition to libraries, museums, and anyone interested in history—especially Southern history, changing social norms, and the ways fashion embodies the politics of culture. Rare photography of men and women, black and white, at work and play create an unforgettable realism.