Taylors in Greenville County, South Carolina — The American South (South Atlantic)
Chick Springs
Photographed By Brian Scott
1. Photo Wanted - Marker Currently Missing
[Front]:
Dr. Burwell Chick opened a resort at these mineral springs in 1840. A spacious hotel and cottages accommodated a large number of summer guests. After Dr. Chick's death, the springs were operated by his sons Pettus and Reuben, and after 1857 by Franklin Talbird and John T. Henery, lowcountry developers. In the 1860s, the war ended the heyday of the resort.
[Reverse]:
After 1885, George Westmoreland began to reestablish the springs as a resort. In 1903, the Chick Springs Company was formed to sell water and maintain a hotel. From this time, J.A. Bull was principal developer. A military academy was located here 1916-17, and Steedly Clinic and Sanitarium 1919-32. An amusement park has been operated at Chick Springs since 1927.
Erected 1972 by Taylors Garden Club. (Marker Number 23-13.)
Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Industry & Commerce • Parks & Recreational Areas • Waterways & Vessels. A significant historical year for this entry is 1840.
Location. Marker has been reported missing. It was located near 34° 55.733′ N, 82° 17.283′ W. Marker was in Taylors, South Carolina, in Greenville County. Marker could be reached
this page online
Other nearby markers. At least 10 other markers are within 4 miles of this location, measured as the crow flies. Southern Bleachery Mill Village / Mill Superintendent House (approx. 0.6 miles away); Taylors First Baptist Church (approx. 1.1 miles away); Suber's Mill (approx. 1.4 miles away); Methodist Men Memorial (approx. 1.9 miles away); Mike Garfield (approx. 2.7 miles away); Gilreath's Mill (approx. 3.1 miles away); Rev. James R. Rosemond (approx. 3.1 miles away); Spring-Wood Park (approx. 3.2 miles away); Early White Settlement / The Massacre of Jacob Hite (approx. 3.3 miles away); Worth Barnett Overpass (approx. 3.3 miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Taylors.
Regarding Chick Springs. Plans are currently underway for a renovation of the park. When I first visited the property five years ago, the two buildings were covered with undergrowth. Now, the property has been cleared and the buildings can be easily seen from the road.
Also see . . .
Historic Postcard, 1921
2. Chick Springs Hotel
Additional commentary.
1. Chick Springs
In the 1830s and 1840s a number of resort hotels opened at mineral springs in the up country where low country planters could "take the waters." Among the most well-known were Limestone Springs near Gaffney and Glenn Springs near Spartanburg. Rivaling them in the antebellum period was Chick Springs in the Greenville District.
As early as 1802 Governor John Drayton had described a sulphur spring flowing from Paris Mountain. In 1838 Dr. Burwell Chick of the Charleston and Newberry Districts was hunting deer near the site of Taylors. He stopped at the home of Asa Crowder, who hired two or three Indians from their village on the Enoree River to guide Chick to Lick Spring where deer often gathered. The Indians told Chick that the ground around the spring would heal sores. In 1840 Chick opened a resort at Lick Spring, some 5 miles east of the village of Greenville.
A large hotel at Chick Springs, as it came to be known, was ready for the summer season in July
Photographed By Brian Scott, August 15, 2009
3. Chick Springs Bathhouse
When Chick died in January 1847, his two sons purchased the property for three thousand dollars. They enhanced the resort by adding billiards and a tenpin alley on the lawn. There were dances in the ballroom, including one in honor of Governor John L. Manning who visited the hotel in 1853. The Chicks sold the property to Franklin Talbird of Beaufort and his brother-in-law, John T. Henery of Charleston, in 1857. The new owners operated a daily stage from Greenville to the hotel and advertised that they would "spare no efforts to make the Springs all that can be desired, whether to the invalid seeking health or those in quest of pleasure." On the eve of the Civil War, Alfred Taylor, the hotel manager, indicated that there were over one hundred guests each day from August 7 to September 7, 1860, with 156 registered on August 17. No doubt the improved economy of the 1850s and the coming of the railroad to Greenville also improved the fortunes of the Chick Springs resort. (Source: Greenville: The History of the City and County in the South Carolina Piedmont by Archie Vernon Huff (1995), pgs 93-94.)
Photographed By Brian Scott, August 15, 2009
4. Chick Springs Gazebo
Photographed By Brian Scott, August 15, 2009
5. Chick Springs
Photographed By Images of America: Greer, SC, circa 1900
6. Chick Springs Hotel -
Children Riding a Mule
Children Riding a Mule
Photographed By Images of America: Greer, SC, circa 1900
7. Chick Springs Lake
Credits. This page was last revised on December 13, 2019. It was originally submitted on September 11, 2009, by Brian Scott of Anderson, South Carolina. This page has been viewed 4,238 times since then and 73 times this year. Photos: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. submitted on September 11, 2009, by Brian Scott of Anderson, South Carolina.
