The Roman Bath House in Berkeley Springs, a Federal style brick building erected in 1815 on the site of an earlier bathhouse often attributed to James Rumsey, contains nine individual bathing chambers on its first floor, with tubs holding 750 gallons of spring water heated to 102 degrees and open to the public daily year round, while its second floor houses the Museum of the Berkeley Springs, established in 1984, with permanent and changing exhibits on the natural and cultural history of the springs and town. The original bathhouse, built in 1784, was described as having five bathing chambers and dressing rooms, and the building’s upper space has also served as a reading room, doctor’s office, and American Legion hall. From the 18th century into the 20th, the main road entrance to the park and springs ran along Wilkes Street to the Roman Bath House rather than along Washington Street and today’s park front. The warm mineral waters are available for bathing in two park bathhouses, for drinking from a fountain at the 19th century Gentlemen’s Spring House, and from every tap in town because the springs supply the municipal water system, and the water is also commercially bottled. Flowing through the Oriskany sandstone of Warm Springs Ridge and emerging at its base at 74 degrees Fahrenheit, the water is dominated by sulphates, nitrates, and carbonates, mostly magnesium carbonate, has a fresh, clean taste, and flows at rates varying from 750 to 2000 gallons per minute. Since the 1750s, people have taken the water internally for digestive disorders and used it in baths for stress relief, and on August 30, 1761, George Washington wrote to Reverend Charles Green that he thought himself benefitted from the water and hoped it might cure him.
