In this Allegheny Mountain valley, early European settlers learned from Shawnee Indian hunters about a sulphur water spring, and health-seekers soon came to bathe in its waters for relief from the aches of rheumatism. By the 1830s, the resort flourished as reliable stagecoach roads improved access. The Springhouse was built in that decade to honor the resort's central attraction and was designed to reflect the Greek and Roman ancestry of taking the waters to restore health. Visitors gathered there every morning to drink the water, which was considered beneficial for internal organs. The first Bathhouse stood where the Tennis Building sits today. The sulphur water emerges from the ground at 62 degrees, is heated for comfortable bathing, and is still pumped to The Greenbrier Spa. On the Springhouse dome stands a statue of Hebe, the Greek goddess of youth.
