Although not of Huguenot architecture or built on a Huguenot grant, this hotel was
built in 1847 by a stock company including Huguenot descendants such as Archibald
and Abraham Sallé Wooldridge and Wyndham Robertson, former governor of
Virginia. It was built as a health resort for the nearby sulphur and chalybeate springs.
Huguenot Springs Hotel
2815 Huguenot Springs Road
Although not of Huguenot architecture or built on a Huguenot grant, this hotel was built in 1847 by a stock company including Huguenot descendants such as Archibald
and Abraham Sallé Wooldridge and Wyndham Robertson, former governor of
Virginia. It was built as a health resort for the nearby sulphur and chalybeate springs.
A century ago this hotel was one of Richmond's most popular summer resorts.
Virginia gentry had flocked to the better known mountain springs such as White
Sulphur and Warm Springs, but travel involved a long, uncomfortable coach ride
over unimproved roads for Tidewater and Piedmont residents. With the opening of
Huguenot Springs Hotel, Richmond families could escape and heat and "summer
complaints" of the city by riding only 17 miles to nearby Powhatan County.
The hotel had a reputation for good food, lodging, music, dancing, and other forms of
recreation in addition to the "medicinal" benefits of the water. The hotel and adjacent
cottages in their heyday could easily accommodate 150 guests and numerous horses
without crowding.
During the War Between the States, the hotel and cottages were converted into a
Confederate convalescent hospital. Trains of ambulances rumbled out of Richmond,
bringing the wounded to the former spa where Chesterfield and Powhatan
housewives served as nurses, supplying bandages and food. About 250 soldiers died
here from wounds or disease and lie buried in unmarked graves at the nearby
Huguenot Spring Hospital Cemetery. Although social activities quickly resumed after
the war, their time was short-lived, for the old hotel burned some time between
September 1888 and August 1889.
Compiled by Lucille C. Moseley for the 300th Anniversary
Celebrating the Arrival of the Huguenots in Virginia
Huguenot Springs Hotel