The springs at Barren Creek were a watering place for the Native American Puckamees (Nanticokes), who lived here, hunted deer and other wildlife, fished the stream, and traded furs to the earliest European settlers in the mid-1600s. They later provided cool refreshment for travelers and hotel guests from the days of the Revolutionary War through the 20th century, with the first spring house appearing in the 1800s before mid-century. After the Civil War, the structure was given a Victorian-style facelift and the form seen today. The springs became the focus of the town of Barren Creek Springs as a mineral water spa, attracting thousands of visitors from the mid-Atlantic region to take the waters and enjoy the area's recreational opportunities from the Civil War through the early 1900s. This brought commercial prosperity and growth and inspired a new name for the town in 1893, when local businessmen began bottling and shipping Mardela Springs Mineral Water far and wide until the strains of the Great Depression ended it.
