Mineral water springs feeding into Barren Creek here were known by Native Americans before settlers came in the 1600s. After the Revolutionary War, a veteran built a small tavern beside the largest spring at a site that was one of the main stage stops on the main road from points north to the county seat, Princess Anne. By the mid-1800s, the tavern had become a large hotel that attracted travelers and vacationers who came to take the waters, and the village had become a mineral water spa town. An attractive structure was then built directly over the spring, with benches inside the Victorian summer house seating 25 persons as they drank the water, soaked their feet, and enjoyed themselves. In the later 1800s, villagers began bottling and shipping the water to cities throughout the mid-Atlantic. The business boom collapsed in the Depression, and the Spring House became a curiosity. In the mid-1900s, the owner put a brick veneer on the building, but the spring still trickles.