Historical Highway Markers

Fauquier White Sulphur Springs

FF-16

Fauquier White Sulphur Springs, just west of here, was among the most prominent mineral water resorts in the South before the Civil War. Developed in the 1830s to accommodate hundreds of guests, the resort attracted U.S. presidents, Supreme Court justices, foreign visitors, and elite families seeking medicinal waters and fashionable society. The Virginia General Assembly met here in 1849. The resort employed free white and African American workers and also relied on enslaved laborers. A Civil War battle in Aug. 1862 left the facilities in ruins. Rebuilt after the war, the resort closed in 1901 when its main hotel burned. Fauquier Springs Country Club opened here in 1957.

Department of Historic Resources, 2020

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

William Burns Jones, “This Picturesque Spot: Fauquier White Sulphur Springs” (MA Thesis, George Mason University, 1993). Charlene M. Boyer Lewis, Ladies and Gentlemen on Display: Planter Society at the Virginia Springs, 1790-1860 (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2001). “Six Weeks in Fauquier (New York: Samuel Colman, 1839). Frederick William Franck, “The Virginia Legislature at the Fauquier Springs in 1849,” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 58, no. 1 (Jan. 1950), 66-83. “Fauquier White Sulphur Springs, Virginia” (1882, 1888). Phenix Gazette (Alexandria), 2, 16 Aug. 1833. Alexandria Gazette, 12 Aug. 1834, 29 Aug. 1837, 13 Oct. 1856, 26 July 1870. Richmond Enquirer, 29 Aug. 1834, 5 April 1836, 29 March, 8 May, 14 Sept. 1838. United States’ Telegraph, 19 May, 8 June 1835. Staunton Spectator, 23 Aug. 1838. Nashville Daily Patriot, 9 Sept. 1856. Washington Evening Star, 9 Sept. 1856, 20 March 1944. Richmond Daily Dispatch, 29 Aug. 1857. Richmond Times, 15 Nov. 1901. Loudoun Times-Mirror, 15 July 1943. “A Timeline of Our Club’s Heritage” “The History of Fauquier Springs Country Club”