{"nrhp_refnum":"69000222","name":"Warm Springs Bathhouses","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"NE of Warm Springs off Rt. 220","address_restricted":false,"city":"Warm Springs","county":"Bath County","state":"VA","lat":38.053746223000076,"lon":-79.78067754299997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1969-10-08","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Two historic bath houses enclosing spring-fed pools at Warm Springs in Bath County, Virginia: an octagonal men's bath house and a larger twenty-sided women's bath house, located on the west side of Route 220 near its intersection with Route 39.","why_significant":"The Warm Springs served as the starting point for the annual tours of the Virginia springs, a social custom of Southern aristocrats escaping summer heat. The bath houses are described as excellent examples of simplicity in public accommodations in early Virginia. They have changed little and are still used for their original purpose.","narrative":"Two spring-fed bath houses at Warm Springs, Bath County, Virginia, preserve a form of public bathing that dates to the eighteenth century. 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 later women's bath house is larger, with twenty sides, vertical siding and an enclosed gallery under a shed roof that holds individual dressing booths. Each pool is thirty-five feet across and fed through loose cobbles at the bottom, with water holding near 96 degrees. Roofs shaped as truncated octagonal pyramids have openings for ventilation. The springs were first known for curative powers but became fashionable resorts, and Warm Springs began the yearly circuit of Virginia springs visited by Southern aristocrats. The men's bath house was apparently built in the last third of the eighteenth century. Both buildings remain in good repair, little altered, and still serve their original purpose.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Described as in an excellent state of repair with very little alteration, still used for their original purpose and maintained by the Homestead Hotel.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:56.819218-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/22/6797/41679722/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/69000222.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/69000222/94b842b94c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/69000222/94b842b94c-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"Kunchan (talk) Min Wu","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jefferson_Pools_Gentlemen.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Kunchan (talk) Min Wu</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jefferson_Pools_Gentlemen.JPG"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"100002991","name":"Warm Springs and West Warm Springs Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/virginia/warm-springs-and-west-warm-springs-historic-district-100002991/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":null,"wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warm_Springs_Pools","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6175570"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/bath-county/warm-springs-bathhouses-69000222/"}