Blount Springs is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

Blount County, Alabama Blount County is a county located in the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2020 census, the population was 59,134. Its county seat is Oneonta. Blount County is a moist county. In the November 6, 2012 elections, a countywide ballot initiativ ...

United States.

Geography

The community is located three miles east of

Interstate 65 Interstate 65 (I-65) is a major north–south Interstate Highway System, interstate highway in the central United States. As with most primary interstates ending in 5, it is a major crosscountry, north–south route, connecting between th ...

, approximately north of

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

and 28 miles south of Cullman.

History

Blount Springs's mineral springs and rural setting made it a summer resort for thousands of wealthy people from

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, and more from 1820 to the 1930s. The sulfur springs were renowned for their curative properties. More than the health benefits, Old Blount became known for its social scene as the gentry of the Black Belt and later the City of Birmingham took advantage of the cooler temperatures of the area during the heat and malarial conditions of late summer. The Goff House and Duffee House were antebellum hotels of renown there. Col. J. F. B. Jackson built a resort hotel, the Jackson House, in 1872 around the sulfur springs. In 1887, Jackson sold the land and hotel to James Sloss and his brother, Mack Sloss, who renamed it Blount Springs Hotel. It became one of the finest hotels in the Southeast and was known for its hospitality and the highest quality food and parties. Besides hotels, cottages were available for guest use as well as horseback riding, gambling (permitted by state law only at water places), ten pins and plenty of spirits. Many of the regulars owned their own cottages and spent every season (July through October) at the springs. Visitors to the springs occasionally made the four-mile trip to the northeast to visit the nearby Bangor Cave. Celebrities and important people visited and politicians galore spoke and vacationed there. Governors of several states, Senators and other office holders and seekers were constantly visiting. Teddy Roosevelt once made an appearance. One of the largest stars of the day,

Lillian Russell Lillian Russell (born Helen Louise Leonard; December 4, 1860 or 1861 – June 6, 1922) was an American actress and singer. She became one of the most famous actresses and singers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, praised for her beaut ...

, came for an extended visit and created quite a stir after she enjoyed a day of sunbathing and was covered in chigger bites. It took every ounce of butter in the town and surrounding countryside to sooth the most famous body in the country.

Diamond Jim Brady James Buchanan Brady (August 12, 1856 – April 13, 1917), also known as Diamond Jim Brady, was an American businessman, financier and philanthropist of the Gilded Age. Early life and family Brady was born in New York City to an Irish immig ...

, New York

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and gentleman friend of Miss Russell, also accompanied her on the trip. The resort burned down on June 3, 1915, after a fire started in the kitchen of the main hotel and it also burned much of the town. The fire marked the end of the resort and the town, combined with the changing of the railroad so that it didn't go through town anymore and the easy access to other entertainments. Those that owned cottages and a few others still came for the next several years. There was an attempt to locate a Veteran's Hospital that failed. Other development plans by members of the Drennen family for a large village and resurgence of the springs never came to fruition. Blount Springs became sparsely populated and largely undeveloped for several decades. In the late 1980s, Blount Springs Recolonization Partners began work on The Village at Blount Springs, the first stage of a planned gated community designed by Duany, Plater-Zyberk architects on the former site of the Blount Springs resort. Numerous springs emerge at the site of the former resort, each containing a different mineral (white sulfur, red sulfur, and lithium, to name a few). When the resort was still in operation, water from the springs was sold in blue glass bottles. Shards of these bottles fill the soil near the foundations of the resort, and are said to bring good luck. A post office operated under the name Blount Springs from 1830 to 1957.

Demographics

Blount Springs appeared on the 1880 U.S. Census as an incorporated town having 156 residents. It was the only time it appeared on census rolls.

References

External links

www.blountsprings.com
{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Blount County, Alabama Unincorporated communities in Alabama 1830 establishments in Alabama