WKU News

On March 5, the Chalybeate Springs Hotel Springhouse was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This small stone springhouse was likely built in the late 19th century. It stands on the former grounds of the Chalybeate Springs Hotel, a popular mineral springs resort in Smiths Grove, Kentucky, in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The stone springhouse and a reconstructed frame springhouse next to it are the only remnants of the resort. The iron-rich spring for which the resort was named still flows through the buildings.

Current Folk Studies MA student Susanna Pyatt researched and wrote the National Register nomination for the springhouse as part of Dr. Michael Ann Williams' Vernacular Architecture class in fall 2016. Hers is the second completed nomination to come out of the 2016 course: Rachel Haberman was successful in nominating Rock Cabin Camp (Cave City, KY) to the National Register in summer 2017. WKU Folk Studies and Anthropology faculty regularly consult with students in the process of researching, writing, and revising these nominations. Dr. Michael Ann Williams guided the process of developing the Chalybeate Springs nomination, and Dr. Darlene Applegate provided important research and resources on the many mineral spring resorts once located across this region of the state.