Alabama Postcard: Mentone Springs Hotel

Mentone is a small town in DeKalb County in the northeastern part of the state. Mineral springs in the area led to its development in the 1880s as a resort, and it later became a location for summer camps for young people. Mentone is atop Lookout Mountain at an elevation of more than 1700 feet, and naturally cooler in the summer.

The Mentone Springs Hotel opened in 1884 to serve the numerous tourists coming to the area. The hotel thrived until the 1920s, but then began a decline that lasted into the 21st century. The hotel was purchased in 2010 by two couples who began restoration efforts. Unfortunately, the facility burned to the ground in March 2014. 

James F. Sulzby, Jr.'s classic Historic Alabama Hotels and Resorts [1960, pp 175-179] has a chapter on Mentone and the Springs Hotel. The hotel was originally built in 1884 by Dr. Frank Caldwell of Pennsylvania. The two-story frame structure had 57 rooms with hot and cold water. Caldwell sold the property in 1896, and new owner Charles Loring further developed the popular facility, which was open from June 1 until October 1 each year. 

New owners in 1914 added an annex with 24 rooms, each having a private bath. Ownership changed again in 1918 and once more in 1920, when a group of Baptists purchased it for the denomination's summer activities. That group added a 44-room dormitory, an auditorium for 600 and six classrooms. 

The final Baptist summer was in 1932, as the Great Depression deepened. After that, a series of owners had little success, and the hotel sat unused some years. The 2010 purchasers seemed to resurrect the hotel, but the electrical fire ended its history forever. 

This postcard comes from my collection. It has no date, but 1981 is mentioned in the text on the reverse side, so it was issued sometime after that. The "family from Atlanta" may be one of the unsuccessful efforts at restoration that took place over the years. 

The hotel's zombie web site is still available. The hotel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983, and the Wikipedia article has links to the nomination form for the National Register. That document in PDF format gives extensive details about the history. 

Below the postcard are two more images about the hotel with links to more newspaper articles about it and the fire. 

You can read about the supposed visit of Welsh Prince Madoc to the Mentone area in 1170 here. 

Source: Chattanooga Free Press 3 March 2014

Source: Chattanooga Free Press 28 July 2014

Gadsden Postcard: Hotel Reich

Gadsden's Hotel Reich, built by Adolphe "Popo" Reich, opened on February 12, 1930. The ten-story structure had 150 rooms and interiors designed by Marshall Field's of Chicago. David O. Whilldin, a Birmingham architect active from 1902 until 1961, designed the hotel.  

The Reich was meant to be first-class. Chefs were hired from New Orleans. After World War II big bands such as those of Guy Lombardo and Tommy Dorsey played the ballroom. 

Popo's son Robert took over operations eventually, and the hotel was modernized in the 1960's. Sold in 1970, the new owner renamed it the Downtown Motor Hotel. In 1978 the facility was converted to the Daughette Towers subsidized housing for senior citizens.

This postcard, from my own collection, originated with E.C. Kopp, a printing and publishing company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that operated from 1898 until 1956. Another Reich postcard can be seen here. Mike Goodson's article about the hotel's opening day is here. More information is available here. 

Old Alabama Stuff : A Battle House Hotel Menu from 1857

The Battle House Hotel in Mobile has a long and storied history. The facility originally opened in 1852, but that structure burned in 1905. Three years later the current Battle House opened on the same spot, one of the first steel frame structures built in Alabama. The name today is the Battle House Renaissance Mobile Hotel and Spa. 

Thus the menu below, from the collection of the New York Public Library and dated March 4, 1857, was used almost five years after James Battle and two half-nephews opened the original hotel on November 13, 1852. The location already had a history as Andrew Jackson's military headquarters during the War of 1812. Two other hotels built on the site had burned.

So just what victuals were being offered that day on the "Bill of Fare" at the Battle House? Well, down the left side we see listings of wines, sherries and champagnes. Among the wines is "Commander Nicholson's Sercial, black seal, bottle racked 1842". Sercial is the driest of wines from the Madeira Islands. Along the right side are more wines, brandies, port, burgundy, claret, and porter and ale. Presumably whiskies were available for the gentlemen who adjourned to a smoking room after the meal. 

The menu lists a variety of meat dishes, including ham, tongue, and "Calf's head brain sauce". Yummy. Side dishes include baked oyster, boiled hominy, another calf's head, sirloin, beef currie [sic], turkey wings, breaded pork, and musette of mutton. Seafood included baked oysters and tripe al lyonnaise. There's several roasted meats, duck, puddings and pastries and barley soup. One important side dish was macaroni au gratin. And how about that baked sago pudding?

Room service was available at an extra charge. Lunch was served for just the ladies from 11 to 12 in the dining room. Children taking a seat at the table were charged full price. Dinner for children and nurses took place from 1 to 1:30.

F.H. Chamberlain and Company are listed as proprietors of the Battle House. Chamberlain, a Baldwin County landowner, had built the Grand Hotel in Point Clear in 1847. 

Below I've included a giant image of the menu to make it more readable and a photo of the hotel from the 1940s. 

Source:

Rare Book Division, The New York Public Library. "DAILY MENU [held by] BATTLE HOUSE [at] "MOBILE,AL." (HOTEL)" The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1857.

Part of the Buttolph Collection of Menus

Battle House in the 1940s

Source: Alabama Dept of Archives and History

Birmingham Postcard: The Redmont Hotel

As its BhamWiki entry notes, the Redmont Hotel opened in May 1925 with 250 rooms in the 14-story building. The Redmont is the oldest hotel still operating in the city, and today is part of the Hilton Curio Collection. 

The back of this card tells us "The Redmont, Corner 5th Ave. and 21st St., Birmingham's newest hotel, 225 Rooms / 225 Baths, Circulating Ice Water. Direction / Dinkler Hotel Company, Dispensers of True-Southern Hospitality." Thus it was printed soon after the Redmont opened.

Louis Jacob Dinkler, a Nashville native, opened his first hotel in Macon, Georgia, in 1914. Other Dinkler hotels in Alabama included the original Tutwiler, opened in 1914 and which Dinkler was operating by 1926; and the Jefferson Davis in Montgomery. The Tutwiler was demolished in 1974. At one time the chain advertised it offered 3000 rooms around the South.

The BhamWiki resource has an extensive history of the Redmont, including the November 1, 1934, shootout between robbers and Birmingham police. On December 8, 1986, the Birmingham Post-Herald published an article by Mitch Mendelson about the first-class hotels for travelers in the city, the Redmont and the Wynfrey.

Hotel Redmont postcard ca. 1920

Source: Alabama Dept of Archives & History

Birmingham Photo of the Day (58): Relay House Hotel

The article below identifies the Relay House as the city of Birmingham's first hotel. The BhamWiki article on the hotel says it "was actually the new city's second hotel" without naming the first one. I presume one of the sources cited there might give that information.

At any rate, the Elyton Land Company built the Relay House in 1871 next to the Railroad Reservation at the corner of Morris Avenue and 19th Street North. The two-story wood frame building had 37 rooms and cost almost $14,000. 

The hotel opened on December 15th that year under the management of William Ketchum. Wife Jane, daughter Margaret and her husband George R. Ward assisted Ketchum. Margaret and George became the parents of future city mayor George B. Ward.

The facility served as a train station and general social gathering place for the new city in addition to providing overnight accommodations. The Relay House had many special features for the day as discussed in the BhamWiki article linked above. That article also has an engraving of the hotel showing it from a slightly different angle than the photo here. 
n In 1886 the hotel was torn down and replaced with Union Station, the city's first significant railroad station for passengers.
.

Article from the Birmingham News 25 October 1959

Source: Birmingham Public Library 

The Alabama Apartments in NYC in 1909

Here's another one of those "I was looking for something else and found this" posts.

In 1908 the G.C. Hesselgren Publishing Company of New York published Apartment Houses of the Metropolis; the following year it issued a Supplement. In that supplement is a photo of "The Alabama", an apartment building at the northeast corner of Riverside Drive and 127th Street. That location is in Harlem, a large neighborhood in northern Manhattan. The area's history dates back to the Dutch in the 17th century. 

Also below are a photograph of the complex from 1910 and a contemporary view. I have no idea why the building was called "The Alabama".

Under the supplement photograph we read:

"Built by the Riverside Viaduct Realty Company 1908-09

"George F. Pelham, Architect

"Apartments in suites of 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 rooms and servants' toilets and baths for six and seven room suites."

I have been unable so far to find anything about the realty company other than a few newspaper mentions related to other buildings. Pelham was a prominent New York architect who designed many city buildings in his long career. He apparently has no state connection, since he was born in Canada. 

The complex seems to have been pretty upscale!

Source: New York Public Library Digital Collections

550 Riverside Drive at the corner of 127th Street. The Alabama Apartment House.

Taken by the Wurts brothers, ca. 1910

Source: Museum of the City of New York 

Here's the Google Street View of the building today. 

Valhermoso Springs

Valhermoso Springs is a small community on Alabama Highway 36 in Morgan County. Although unincorporated, the place does have its own post office. There is also a cemetery. 

Mineral springs were discovered in the area by Lancelot Chunn around 1813. James Manning from Madison County operated a hotel at the site from 1818 until 1823. A post office opened in 1834 when the area was known as White Sulphur Springs; the present name was adopted in 1857. 

The previous year Jean J. Giers bought the hotel and turned it into a nationally known resort. The hotel finally closed in 1923 and was destroyed by tornado in 1950. The resort is described in some detail in James F. Sulzby's wonderful book, Historic Alabama Hotels and Resorts (1960).  

Further Reading

Walde, Megan N.. A 'vale of beauty,' a cornucopia of history. Tiny Valhermoso Springs, where people cam for their health, has a long and storied history. Huntsville Time 30 July 2001

Lawley, Jim. Valhermoso remembers: Healing haven in 1800s awarded historical marker. Decatur Daily 31 July 2001

This advertisement extolling the resort's qualities appeared in the Memphis Daily Appeal 17 May 1873 along with ads for other similar health springs. The ad appeared in numerous issues of that paper in 1872 and 1873.

Source: Library of Congress Chronicling America

Another site in Valhermoso Springs is the First Christian Church property featuring a "Trail of Scriptures" and a shaded picnic area. 

Birmingham Photo of the Day (27): Hotel Hillman in 1908

As the BhamWiki article notes, construction on the Hotel Hillman was completed in October 1901. Until the original Tutwiler opened in 1914 it was the city's showplace hotel. Located on the corner of 4th Avenue North and Nineteenth Street, the Hotel Hillman building remained until 1969. The BhamWiki article has a link to a Google Earth view of the site now--a parking lot. That article also has photos of the hotel around 1906 and 1926. This photograph comes from the wonderful 1908 book Views of Birmingham. The title page and a link to the book are below.

The hotel was named after Thomas T. Hillman, an executive of the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company. As I have discussed in a previous blog post, he was a driving force behind Hillman Hospital.  

This book was published in 1908 and can be found online via the Internet Archive. 

Pelham Heights Hotel

For a few years early in the 20^th century Pelham had its very own resort hotel. The structure with 60 rooms was built in the summer of 1912 as a place for the annual encampment of Alabama Baptists. The grounds also featured a dining hall, auditorium, swimming pool and tennis courts. The religious affiliation did not last, however; and the complex soon became a resort for the general public.

The buildings were located off what is now County Road 52 on the mountain dividing Pelham and Helena. According to one source, Helena, Alabama, by Ken Penhale and Martin Everse, the structures were dismantled in the 1920s and moved to Cook’s Springs in St. Clair county. In his book Historic Alabama Hotels & Resorts James Sulzby includes a chapter on Cook’s Springs, but that hotel and resort were already operating very early in the 20^th century. He makes no mention of the hotel in Pelham.

Today the site of Pelham’s short-lived resort is marked by a Pelham water tower.

Pelham Heights Hotel
[Photo courtesy of the Shelby County Historical Society/President Bobby Joe Seales]

This item originally appeared in the Pelham City News September 2014.