{"nrhp_refnum":"100004302","name":"Warm Springs Bathhouses","other_names":["DHR No. 008-0007"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"NE of Warm Springs off Rt. 220","address_restricted":false,"city":"Warm Springs","county":"Bath County","state":"VA","lat":null,"lon":null,"geom_source":null},"listed_date":"2019-08-20","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Entertainment/Recreation"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Two historic bath houses built over warm mineral springs at Warm Springs, Bath County, Virginia, on the west side of Route 220 at its intersection with Route 39. One is an octagonal men's bath house and the other a larger twenty-sided women's bath house.","why_significant":"The Warm Springs were the traditional starting point for the annual tours of the Virginia springs, a social custom among Southern aristocrats escaping summer heat. The bath houses are described as excellent examples of simplicity in public accommodations in early Virginia. They remain in their original use and have been little altered.","narrative":"Two bath houses at Warm Springs in Bath County, Virginia, enclose pools fed by a natural spring. The men's bath house is a simple one-story frame octagon with little decoration. Its two gabled entrances appear original, while the projecting dressing rooms were added later. The women's bath house is a larger, twenty-sided building with vertical siding and an enclosed gallery under a shed roof holding individual dressing booths. Each pool is thirty-five feet across, fed through loose cobbles at the bottom, and the water stays close to 96 degrees. Each roof is a truncated octagonal pyramid with a ventilation opening. The springs first drew visitors seeking cures, then grew into a fashionable resort. They served as the starting point for the annual tours of the Virginia springs, a summer custom of wealthy Southerners. The men's bath house is thought to date to the late eighteenth century. Both buildings are still used for bathing and have changed very little.","period_of_significance":"18th and 19th centuries; specific dates 1761 and 1836","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Described as in an excellent state of repair, little altered, still used as bath houses and maintained by the Homestead Hotel; the form's condition box marks fair/good.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:02.75534-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/22/6797/41679722/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/69000222.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":null,"wikipedia":null,"wikidata":null},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/bath-county/warm-springs-bathhouses-100004302/"}