As the name suggests, Sweet Springs is a 1992 resort and spa in Sweet Springs, West Virginia, United States. One of its kind resorts was built by William Lewis with the aim of making Sweet Springs a tourists’ destination. His plans worked well until the late 1900s when business declined leading to closure of the resort.

History of Sweet Springs

James Moss, who built a cottage in Sweet Springs, Virginia in 1760, was the valley's first permanent settler. Moss was compelled to leave the land in 1774 when King George III granted it to William Lewis, brother of General Andrew Lewis, who commanded the Virginia militia in the Action of Point Pleasant, and Charles Lewis, who died in that battle, and son of John Lewis, the founder of Augusta County, Virginia. William first erected a two-story cabin about a mile from Sweet Chalybeate (previously known as Red Springs), but in 1784, he relocated to Sweet Springs. The resort first welcomed visitors in 1790, although there were just a few log cabins available.

Rowan Memorial Home

Sweet Springs Resort was closed for several years beginning in 1928, went into receivership in 1930, and was sold numerous times before being purchased by Roanoke's D.M. Taylor in 1941 and converted into a tuberculosis sanatorium. After the business collapsed, the property was transferred to the state in 1943 and transformed into an elderly home. The Andrew S. Rowan Memorial Home, named after a local citizen who conveyed the "message to Garcia" during the Spanish-American War, reopened in 1945. The state undertook nearly $150,000 in renovations to the complex in 1945, with additional improvements occurring in 1946. In 1950, a rear addition was built, and renovations were carried out between 1972 and 1975. In 1974, two three-story wings designed by Henry Elden & Associates and built by the Kuhn Construction Company were added.

Was Sweet Springs ever restored?

On December 2, 1995, the shuttered resort turned nursing home was auctioned off to Dr. Vasu Arora of Grundy, Virginia. Arora expressed interest in bottling water on the site, processing food, and reopening the buildings as a nursing home or resort, but the proposal never materialized due to a lack of financial resources. Sweet Springs was designated as one of West Virginia's most valuable and endangered historic resources by the West Virginia Division of Culture and History in 2005.  The Division was concerned about the spring house, which was vacant and in a state of disrepair. Warren D. Smith, owner of Chrismarr Realty in Fredericksburg and a member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, inquired about purchasing the resort in 2007 2002, and eventually purchased the property. Currently, renovations are ongoing on the building.