Rockbridge Baths 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 ...

in Rockbridge County,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

, United States. Rockbridge Baths is located on state route 39, Maury River Road, midway between Lexington and Goshen. The waters contain iron and are rich in carbonic acid gas.(Moorman, J. J.: The Virginia Springs. J. B. Lippincott, New York, 1859, p. 289.) A hotel accommodating 150 to 200 visitors was built there in 1857, and R. E. Lee and his wife, Mary Custis Lee, frequented the resort. Its owner, Dr. Samuel Brown Morrison, had to give it up in 1900 because of illness, and when he left so did most of the patrons. A succession of owners followed, and in 1921 the Virginia Military institute took over the property and established a summer school. In 1926 the hotel burned to the ground and was not rebuilt. VMI then closed the summer school and sold the property, but the swimming pool, part of the dance hall, and some cottages can still be seen. (Cohen, Stan: Historic Springs of the Virginias. Pictorial Histories Publishing Co., Missoula, Montana, 1981, pp. 103, 121). — From "Historic Spring Resorts and Their Lost Culture in Rockbridge County," By Erich Faber. Washington and Lee University Senior Thesis in Anthropology, 1988 (http://www.historicrockbridge.org/spreads/33_faber_springs.pdf)

Notable residents

* Jean Hélion, French painter * Rick Mast, NASCAR driver * Henry C. Schadeberg, politician

References

Unincorporated communities in Rockbridge County, Virginia Unincorporated communities in Virginia {{RockbridgeCountyVA-geo-stub