Bath County KYGenWeb

Olympian Springs

Olympian Springs was located in what was originally Montgomery County (now Bath County), Kentucky, thirty-six miles east Of Lexington. It was identified as Mud Lick in a land grant given to Jacob Meyers by Virginia's governor in 1784. The springs, which consisted of a salt well, a salt sulphur well, a black sulphur well two chalybeate springs, and an alkaline-saline well and spring, changed hands many times. William Ramsey, around 1796, was the first owner to make any improvements on the property; he was mainly interested in extracting salt from the spring's water, a venture that proved unprofitable.

The springs were purchased by Col. Thomas Hart, father-in-law of Henry Clay, around the turn Of the century, and renamed Olympian Springs. It was during Hart's ownership that the first hotel was built, with a dining room that would seat one hundred. The medicinal value of the springs' water was praised by physicians, who recommended the waters for ailments from skin to digestive disorders. The social life at Olympian Springs included music, dancing, bathing, hiking, horseback riding, and hunting. It was often said that the social offerings Of the springs were more popular than the medicinal use of the waters. The resort proved so popular that it was the destination of Kentucky's first stagecoach line, which originated in 1803 in Lexington. In 1807 Cuthbert Banks, formerly proprietor of Henry Clay's hotel in Lexington, purchased the 625-acre site. He expanded the hotel and its reputation for fine food, including the best venison in the western country. He purchased the land with money borrowed from Hart, guaranteed by a mortgage On the property; upon Hart's death in 1812, Henry Clay as executor of his estate sold the mortgage to Col. Thomas Dye Owings. This episode may have given rise to the legend that at one time Clay owned the springs and lost it in a poker game.

The property was purchased by George Lansdowne in 1830. His son-in-law, Harrison Gill, then became proprietor and owner. In 1833 many residents of central Kentucky summered at Olympian Springs to escape the cholera epidemic that swept Kentucky. This helped to solidify the resort's reputation. In October 1863 a portion of the 1st Kentucky Federal Cavalry fought about 250 Confederate cavalrymen there. Both sides claimed victory in the skirmish, during which many of the outlying buildings were burned, but the hotel remained and flourished again after the war.

In 1903 a syndicate purchased the springs and added a new four-story hotel with steam heat, electric lights, and a sewer system. Other improvements included a thirty-five-acre fishing lake and a golf course. The hotel's popularity diminished with the availability of better transportation to other vacation sites. Judge James P Lewis purchased the property for use as a farm, and the buildings housed a Baptist school. On September 30, 1946, the site was broken into parcels and sold.

Source: J. Winston Coleman, Jr., The Springs of Kentucky (Lexington, Ky., 1955); J.A. Richards, An Illustrated History Of Bath County, Kentucky (Yuma, Ariz., 1961).