Down memory lane to The Pence Springs
Resort --My first memories of this fascinating development center on the
springs itself. My father, Robert Morton Steele, was a traveling
salesman. Before cars had radios he frequently took me along on his
travels to keep him company. He seemed to me to favor springs and
waterfalls. At least that is my excuse for still favoring those two
natural phenomena.
He would drive up to the sparkling
white Pence Springs spring house--lovely architecture, a building with
two glass window sides and two open ends and a high, peaked roof. We
would enter the open end, go down 2 or 3 steps to where the water flowed
from a low fountain. He would give me a penny and I got to drop it in a
slot where paper cups were stored inside a glass tube. The penny would
release the cup and we could fill and refill it as many times as we
wanted. I don't remember having to pay for the water. I thought that
water, (or was it freeing the cup?), was the biggest treat of the entire
trip. Alongside the spring house was a large, 1 story building, a
bottling plant. The spring water was bottled in large glass containers
and delivered to hotels in the cities. I also remember that ginger ale
or some kind of soda pop was also made and bottled there but that memory
is too faint to rely upon.
The grand hotel had had a very
short existence. It was built early in the 20th century and was closed
by The Great Depression. The Methodist Church in Alderson would hold
their annual summer picnic on the grounds and adventurous kids would
climb the hill and explore the several hotel buildings and if we were
lucky we could find a door unlocked or a window open and explore even
further forbidden territory. In my senior year, 1941, about 8 of us
rode our bicycles from Alderson down to Pence Springs and had a picnic.
I had made butterscotch tarts topped with meringue, trying, no doubt, to
impress some boy(s) but my borrowed bicycle had a very rickety basket
and the pie box took a number of spills. I was mortified to discover,
when the box lid was taken off, therein was one large
butterscotch/meringue mess. My friend Ann Howard Jeffers Eades
remembers that we scooped it up with spoons and ate it anyhow. My
memory is one of agonizing embarrassment.
Many years later I read that the
hotel had been converted to a state women's prison and then still later
that it was restored to an operating hotel. I was glad to learn that
so on my very next West Virginia vacation I signed in as a paying guest
feeling much better about myself than when I was a sneaking-in kid
trespasser. I have stayed there several times now and always recommend
it to Ohio friends who can be persuaded to leave the Interstate.
But I also have memories of other
West Virginia springs: I worked at The Greenbrier, White Sulphur
Springs, when it had been converted to Ashford General Hospital during
WWII and lived in The President's Cottage. I have played many hours in
the Greek temple pavilion at Blue Sulphur Springs where the acoustics
made me sound like I was an opera star. I have also been to Red Sulphur
Springs, Green Sulphur Springs, Craig Healing Springs and others that I
can't spell or no longer remember. I have never been to any of the
modern entertainment parks such as Disney World. It is natural springs
that rank high on my list of favorite places. I try to make an annual
pilgrimage to the awesome Warm Springs in Bath County, Virginal. --Mary
Margaret Steele Morgan
When I was a little girl, more years ago than I can
remember, my mother and father played golf at Pence (with a "c" in those
days) Springs. There was a nice golf course with some holes going out
behind the spring house and around and up the hill to the hotel. I don't
remember well, but I think there was some sort of club house or pro shop
or something of the sort half
way up the hill in the back.
Riverside, at that time was also a supper club and lots of Alderson people
used to go there for dances, especially in the summer.
My father was convinced that the Pence Springs water had great restorative
powers and every Sunday, even after it became a women's state prison, we
went down and filled up jugs of sulphur water. Sometimes there was a small
charge, some times there was no one operating the spring house, I guess it
depended on the year.
In recent years, the twenty first century! we drove down to see the place
but did not have reservations for a meal. It looked crowded at that time.
Ashby has had several eating establishments in the county and used to
cater parties also. He does serve wonderful food. I was sad to hear that
Riverside Inn had burned. It, too, was a pretty place. After the dance
club
closed -- during the war maybe? -- it was a camping place for awhile.
I wonder, does the water still flow from the old sulphur spring? --Amanda
Iodice |
