{"nrhp_refnum":"78002380","name":"Riverside Hotel","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1 Fountain St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Cambridge Springs","county":"Crawford County","state":"PA","lat":41.80661528700006,"lon":-80.05072830688862,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1978-12-13","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-story wood-frame health resort hotel on French Creek in Cambridge Springs Borough, Crawford County, Pennsylvania, with a Casino wing, a spring house and a water tower on its grounds. It was constructed in 1888.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the hotel exemplifies the mineral water resort craze of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and was the first hotel in the county designed to provide the full range of cure services. It is also presented as a fine example of 19th century resort complex architecture, and its builder-owner William Baird had a notable engineering career.","narrative":"Built in 1888 on French Creek in Cambridge Springs Borough, the Riverside Hotel is a three-story wood-frame resort with a hipped-roof corner tower, bracketed verandas and a shingled Casino wing. Its lobby holds a grand staircase and an original reception desk, and the dining room has a curved leaded cut-glass window about 42 feet long. The hotel grew out of the mineral spring discovered in 1859 by Dr. John H. Gray, whose water he later claimed cured dyspepsia, rheumatism and gout. Gray's Mineral Fountain Company contracted H. B. Wilbur to build the sanitarium, which opened in 1888 after construction delays. It is significant as a surviving example of the health resorts that followed the mineral water craze, a movement that declined after medical criticism and federal pressure in the 1900s and 1920s. William Baird, a former bridge builder, bought the property in 1895 and developed it into a successful spa.","period_of_significance":"1888","architect_builder":"H. B. Wilbur (builder, contracted by Gray's Mineral Fountain Company)","architectural_style":"Second-Empire style fireplace; Shingle style Casino","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":null,"vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:30.572325-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/78002380.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78002380/71fa4dedfd-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78002380/71fa4dedfd-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"Niagara","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Riverside_Inn,_Cambridge_Springs,_PA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Niagara</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:Riverside_Inn,_Cambridge_Springs,_PA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71994889","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riverside_Inn_(Cambridge_Springs,_Pennsylvania)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7338523"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/crawford-county/riverside-hotel-78002380/"}