1.800.447.8797                                                   Official Website of Berkeley Springs, WV ~ The Country's First Spa

Berkeley Springs is a town with two names. There's the Post Office name -- Berkeley Springs -- that the world knows, plus Bath, the name given by George Washington and his cronies when they formed a town around the springs in 1776. Bath is still the official name of the tiny town that surrounds the warm mineral spring

The mineral springs flow unceasingly at 74°F and 2000 gallons per minute. Their mineral content includes sulfates, nitrates, and carbonates.

During the final decades of the 18th century, Bath was attacked as a "seat of sin" by traveling preachers because of its gambling, quarter-horse racing and general partying.

BERKELEY CASTLE

Colonel Samuel Taylor Suit built an imposing stone strcuture in the fashionable spa of Berkeley Springs as a summer cottage for his young bride, Rosa Pelham. Construction began in 1885; he never lived to see it finished. Suit was politically well-connected and a successful businessman who marketed his popular brand of whiskey across the country in little brown jugs. Daughter of an Alabama congressman, Rosa was less than half his age when they married.

Perched on Warm Springs Ridge overlooking the famed springs, Suit,s cottage was the most extravagant example of the town,s Victorian building boom. Although it always looked like a castle, it was not until the tall, blue-eyed, attractive widow returned in 1891 that the cottage became known as the Castle. She was Queen Rosa, famous for sophisticated friends and gala parties.

Berkeley Castle has gone through several hands since Rosa was evicted in the 1920s. It served at various times as a tearoom, summer camp and focus of tours. Living quarters were added in 1938. Most of the overblown stories were created for the tours.

Built of local stone, the castle has 13 rooms plus a basement dungeon, which was popular during ghost tours. The Great Hall has a high ceiling, hardwood floor and stone fireplaces at each end. A pine-paneled dining room on the main floor also has a fireplace. A wide stairway curves up to second floor bedrooms and a paneled library. A narrow staircase leads to the turretted rooftop trimmed with battlements and offering a fabulous view of the town. Three crosses are sunk into the stone walls of the turret.

SR9 now cuts through the castle property; a stone gatetower is stranded on the opposite side of the highway.

After years of being open for tours, the castle is now privately owned and is currently closed to the public.

written for the WV Encyclopedia by Jeanne Mozier -- 2000 research by Fred Newbraugh.

Articles The Secret Destiny Of Berkeley Springs