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Thursday, October 6, 2022

Kenilworth Inn, Medicinal Radioactive Springs, to Open to Tourists April, 1923

Kenilworth Inn to be Opened as Hotel in April Next Year. . . Company to Spend Third of Million Remodeling Plant. . . Government will Turn Property Back to Its Owners on January 1, 1923; Workmen Will Begin on Structure at Once. . . To Develop Springs

Kenilworth Inn, which since its completion in 1918 has been operated first as an army hospital and later as a Public Health Service hospital, will revert to its owners on January 1, 1923, according to an announcement by officials. Immediately the entire structure will be remodeled and renovated and will be ready for operation as a tourist hotel on April 1.

Not less than $350,000 will be expended in the remodeling, and fitting the building as a first class hotel. Included in the plan of development is the construction of bath houses in Spring Park. The water of these springs has been found to be radio-active, with valuable medicinal properties.

The announcement will be received with unalloyed pleasure in Asheville where the needs of additional hotel facilities has long been felt. Kenilworth Inn is one of the most attractive hotel structures in the United States, and has a commanding view of the surrounding mountain scenery which is unsurpassed.

Begun in 1916

The present building was begun in 1916, following destruction of its predecessor by fire. Plans were to develop a fine resort hotel, but advent of the war and leasing of the building by the Government for hospital uses interrupted the plans. Since then it has been frequently reported that the hotel was to go back to its owners. Officials now state they have word from the government that the building will be abandoned as a hospital at the close of the present year. The building has 250 guest rooms which will make it the largest tourist hotel in Asheville. From the hotel, a panorama of the Craggy range as well as Pisgah may be had.

The remodeling will be thorough, including the entire building inside and out.

The owners plan to build a 60-foot boulevard from the grounds to Spring Park. This park contains 13 separate and individual springs. One spring in this group has been found to be unusually high in radioactivity. The element occurs in such large quantities that the owners were recently approached by Washington, D.C., capitalists, with an offer to buy the spring at a flattering figure. The hotel company however has decided to develop this spring themselves.

Plan Bath Houses

Plans are under consideration to erect modern tile and marble bath houses, in which will be given radium and other baths. It is the confident belief of officials of the company that the same baths may be given at Kenilworth Springs Park as are now available at the most note-worthy watering places of the world, not excepting those at Hot Springs, Ark., French Lick Springs, Indiana, and Carls Bath Germany.

Definite announcement has been made by officials of the company that Kenilworth Inn will be open for guests during April 1923. Officers of the company are: James M. Chiles, president; Joseph H. Marvel, vice-president and directing manager; Roscoe A. Marvel, secretary and treasurer.

From the front page of The News-Record, Marshall, N.C., “The only newspaper published in Madison County,” Friday, Oct. 6, 1922

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