Chick Springs Resort

I love still visiting Chick Springs because you can see, right off the big highway, the natural quiet that would have been a great place for my family to hunt and relax.

In 1842, Dr. Burwell Chick, a physician from Newberry, South Carolina, transformed this Cherokee-owned 192-acre area into a 60-room luxury hotel and resort. The Civil War came and ruined business and again a year later when the hotel caught fire. Dr. Chick gave up and twenty years later an Atlanta attorney, George Westmoreland, purchased the property and constructed a smaller hotel and cottages. It didn't last long. A local grocer, J.A. Bull, purchased the property in 1903 from Mr. Westmorland with the intent of bottling and selling the famous spring water that gave the place its name. Bull expanded the hotel to have over 100 guest suites, a ballroom and dining room, tennis courts, horseback riding trails, a golf course, an archery field, a swimming pool, and a bowling alley. Unfortunately, just four years later in 1907, the luxury resort had a massive fire again that burned the estate down to the bedrock, leaving charred ashes.

In 1914, the hotel was rebuilt yet again under new ownership, but a grand reopening was underwhelming, with World War I breaking out in Europe. The Great Depression closed the doors of Chick Springs Resort permanently, but until the end of the 20th century, the Chick Springs Lake remained a popular swimming hole and picnic spot. In 2008, the Chick Springs Historical Society organized with the goal of safeguarding the park that surrounds the famous spring. But I'm not sure what success they had. Today, a lone gazebo are the only remains of all this history.

People love to say the Cherokee cursed the site because of the loss of land--but I think we should focus on the fun people had here in its heyday.

Suggested Materials:

Bainbridge, Judith. “Chick Springs Drew Entrepreneurs for Nearly a Century,” Greenville News, July 13, 2005.

Flynn, Jean Martin. A Short History of Chick Springs. Travelers Rest, South Carolina: Loftis Printing Company, 1972.

Flynn, Jean Martin. An Account of Taylors, South Carolina, 1817-1994. Spartanburg: Reprint Company, 1995.

HisDevoutServant. “Chick Springs Historical Park,” YouTube Video, 04:27. March 30, 2008.

Mills, Robert. Statistics of South Carolina. Charleston, South Carolina: Hurlburt & Lloyd, 1826.