“An Overflowing Tide of Immorality” These were the words of the First Methodist Bishop in West Virginia. Turns out, he wasn’t entirely wrong.
Long before Las Vegas had settled and Philadelphia mobsters were running rackets in Atlantic City, there was Berkeley Springs.
And if Bishop Francis Asbury (the man widely regarded as the father of Methodism in what would become West Virginia) is to be believed, this sleepy mountain spa wasn’t just attracting visitors for the mineral water.
On July 18th of 1776, while the rest of America was busy declaring independence, Asbury rode into the tiny community then known as Bath expecting a peaceful stop along his missionary circuit. Instead, he found what he famously described as an “overflowing tide of immorality.”
Asbury’s journals describe the town as “the best and the worst place that I ever was in; good for health, but most injurious to religion.”
Washington’s Favorite…Spa
George Washington had been visiting Berkeley Springs since he was a teenager, returning repeatedly in search of relief for aching muscles and, perhaps just as importantly, relief from the endless responsibilities of public life. In 1784, he stayed at the Sign of the Liberty Pole and Flag, a lodging house that stood on the site now occupied by the Country Inn. During that visit he met inventor James Rumsey, whose ambitious dreams of steam-powered navigation would soon make history.
In an era before paparazzi, social media, and cable news, America’s political elite could disappear into the Appalachian mountains under the perfectly respectable excuse of “taking the waters.” What Washington and others would do after the bath, Asbury noticed.
By the mid-1800s, Berkeley Springs had evolved from frontier spa into one of America’s premier luxury resorts. The town somehow supported three enormous hotels with hundreds of rooms. The grand Berkeley Springs Hotel rivaled accommodations found in major cities and became the unofficial summer office of Washington’s political class. Even President James K. Polk checked into the Berkeley Springs Hotel in 1848, despite the owner being a member of the opposing political party.
Officially, visitors came for hydrotherapy. But, unofficially?
Alcohol. Gambling. Grand balls that lasted until sunrise. Political deal-making. And enough gossip to keep an entire generation of newspaper editors employed. According to period accounts, gambling tables stayed busy late into the night while liquor flowed freely. Society’s wealthiest families danced beneath crystal chandeliers, senators whispered strategy between dances, and industrialists negotiated fortunes over games of cards.
Enter the Whiskey Baron
No story about Berkeley Springs excess would be complete without Samuel Taylor Suit.
Suit was a whiskey magnate, who fell hopelessly in love with the much younger Rosa Pelham.
Legend says Rosa once remarked that she loved castles. Most people would buy flowers. Suit bought a mountain. Then he built The Berkeley Castle as a summer home.
The stone fortress overlooking the town was reportedly sketched by famed architect Alfred B. Mullett on a tablecloth inside the Berkeley Springs Hotel, proving that great ideas often begin over drinks.
When Rosa inherited the castle after Suit’s death, she filled it with lavish parties, music, wealthy guests, and enough flowing spirits to ensure Berkeley Springs maintained its growing reputation as Washington’s favorite place to be seen… without officially being seen until she would use up the last of her riches and die broke.
An Enduring Legacy
The spa town developed a reputation where wellness and indulgence existed side by side. Guests soaked in healing mineral baths by day. By night? Let’s just say Francis Asbury probably wasn’t imagining things.
His mission wasn’t unsuccessful, however. During that first visit in 1776, he preached daily, organized prayer meetings, gathered converts, and believed God had begun checking the very “overflowing tide of immorality” that had shocked him upon arrival. He founded a church in 1785 which still operates today under the name “Trinity Asbury Methodist Church” which boasts a modest congregation of about 40. Legend has it that the location at the corner of Wilkes and Congress Street was chosen because it split the red light district of the community in 1785 and forced prostitutes and gamblers to walk in front of the church before their deeds.
Today, Berkeley Springs is known for wellness retreats, art galleries, historic architecture, hiking trails, and America’s oldest continuously operating spa traditions.
