The Bath House-Hotel structure that stands today is an example of a late Georgian style country home or estate. Characterised by a uniformly cut and dressed stone exterior, the structure is approximately 36 metres long by 18 metres wide, cut into the side of a plateau edge running east-west across the property. As such the front of the building appears as 3 stories high, while it is 2 stories at the back. The building is rectangular in plan, with two partial wings (consisting of front and back “towers”) to the east and west of the main section. The exterior exhibits a symmetry and balanced proportion between the wings and central portion of the building, and with the placement of windows and doors, and had a front portico of apparently wooden colonnades shaped in classic style that supported front verandahs on the second and third stories, and the front of a stone vaulted roof.
THE BUILDINGs
THE PEOPLE WHO BUILT IT
Whenever the buildings were erected, it would have been enslaved people who did most, if not all, of the work. John Huggins had a ready labour force; in 1817 he had in his possession seven males and seven females and a share in another 17 whom he jointly owned with his brother Frederick. In his younger years Frederick Huggins had been a blacksmith30 but went into business as a merchant with his brother John.31 Of the 17 individuals the brothers owned, 16 were men and, with an average age of about 38 years, they would have represented an effective gang of workers.
THE BATH hotel STRUCTURE
The Bath House-Hotel structure that stands today is an example of a late Georgian style country home or estate. Characterised by a uniformly cut and dressed stone exterior, the structure is approximately 36 metres long by 18 metres wide, cut into the side of a plateau edge running east-west across the property. As such the front of the building appears as 3 stories high, while it is 2 stories at the back. The building is rectangular in plan, with two partial wings (consisting of front and back “towers”) to the east and west of the main section. The exterior exhibits a symmetry and balanced proportion between the wings and central portion of the building, and with the placement of windows and doors, and had a front portico of apparently wooden colonnades shaped in classic style that supported front verandahs on the second and third stories, and the front of a stone vaulted roof.
Neal Ferris, Department of Anthropology
University of Western Ontario
The Bath House-Hotel structure that stands today is an example of a late Georgian style country home or estate. Characterised by a uniformly cut and dressed stone exterior, the structure is approximately 36 metres long by 18 metres wide, cut into the side of a plateau edge running east-west across the property. As such the front of the building appears as 3 stories high, while it is 2 stories at the back. The building is rectangular in plan, with two partial wings (consisting of front and back “towers”) to the east and west of the main section. The exterior exhibits a symmetry and balanced proportion between the wings and central portion of the building, and with the placement of windows and doors, and had a front portico of apparently wooden colonnades shaped in classic style that supported front verandahs on the second and third stories, and the front of a stone vaulted roof.
Neal Ferris, Department of Anthropology
University of Western Ontario
building exterior
…The house is a large, cool stone building situated on an eminence at a short distance from the town and is constructed of a magnitude sufficiently extensive to accommodate without intermingling, a large number of families. In its economy and arrangements, the property has with great care and attention blended the accommodations requisite for a patient with all the personal conveniences and necessaries of life, without however, intruding on the paramount principle of quiet and retirement for the invalid…
Announcement of Bath House-Hotel Opening
January 14th, 1825 in The St. Christopher Gazette and Charibbean Courier
building INTERIORS
Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Donec a justo quis sapien sollicitudin blandit. Suspendisse tristique turpis mi, eget sodales arcu molestie vel. Nam eu nisi dui. Vestibulum rutrum ultricies tellus a ultrices. Etiam maximus tellus iaculis lorem volutpat, at cursus odio rutrum. Fusce tristique lectus placerat tortor pulvinar elementum. Maecenas scelerisque rutrum molestie. Aenean imperdiet scelerisque porttitor. Etiam non nunc id odio interdum accumsan.
THE LOWER BATH HOUSE STRUCTURE
On the balance of currently available records, the bath house that exists today appears to be a more recent construction than the Bath House-Hotel. It also is likely not the first iteration of the bath house interior, since Paton (1890:290) notes that the house at that time only encompassed one large bath. Moreover, clearly visible architectural remains are present around the bath house which may suggest an earlier structure originally encompassed the baths beneath the outlet of the Spring.
Neal Ferris, Department of Anthropology
University of Western Ontario
CYCLES OF DAMAGE & DISREPAIR
Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Donec a justo quis sapien sollicitudin blandit. Suspendisse tristique turpis mi, eget sodales arcu molestie vel. Nam eu nisi dui. Vestibulum rutrum ultricies tellus a ultrices. Etiam maximus tellus iaculis lorem volutpat, at cursus odio rutrum. Fusce tristique lectus placerat tortor pulvinar elementum. Maecenas scelerisque rutrum molestie. Aenean imperdiet scelerisque porttitor. Etiam non nunc id odio interdum accumsan.
renovations & RESTORATION
Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Donec a justo quis sapien sollicitudin blandit. Suspendisse tristique turpis mi, eget sodales arcu molestie vel. Nam eu nisi dui. Vestibulum rutrum ultricies tellus a ultrices. Etiam maximus tellus iaculis lorem volutpat, at cursus odio rutrum. Fusce tristique lectus placerat tortor pulvinar elementum. Maecenas scelerisque rutrum molestie. Aenean imperdiet scelerisque porttitor. Etiam non nunc id odio interdum accumsan. READ MORE HERE (to restoration page)
PAST SITE PROPOSALS
Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Donec a justo quis sapien sollicitudin blandit. Suspendisse tristique turpis mi, eget sodales arcu molestie vel. Nam eu nisi dui. Vestibulum rutrum ultricies tellus a ultrices. Etiam maximus tellus iaculis lorem volutpat, at cursus odio rutrum. Fusce tristique lectus placerat tortor pulvinar elementum. Maecenas scelerisque rutrum molestie. Aenean imperdiet scelerisque porttitor. Etiam non nunc id odio interdum accumsan.
SALES & TITLE DEEDS
Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Donec a justo quis sapien sollicitudin blandit. Suspendisse tristique turpis mi, eget sodales arcu molestie vel. Nam eu nisi dui. Vestibulum rutrum ultricies tellus a ultrices. Etiam maximus tellus iaculis lorem volutpat, at cursus odio rutrum. Fusce tristique lectus placerat tortor pulvinar elementum. Maecenas scelerisque rutrum molestie. Aenean imperdiet scelerisque porttitor. Etiam non nunc id odio interdum accumsan.
bath hotel on POSTAGE STAMPs
1876 - 1952
The healing properties of the Bath Spring located beside the Bath Hotel structure have been well know for centuries and have even been commemorated on postage stamps. Below are examples of how either the medicial properties of the spring or the building itself have been depicted on several stamps.
