San Antonio Historic Sites – Hot Wells Resort | Bandera CBD Store

5503 S Presa St, San Antonio, TX 78223, United States

Hot Wells was a spa, hotel, bathhouse, and health resort along the San Antonio River in the south of San Antonio , Texas, from 1894 to the early 1920s. Plans are underway to restore Hot Wells to the glamor of its heyday in 2015, with U.S. international visitors included. President Theodore Roosevelt and President Porfirio Diaz of Mexico.

Once a hotel frequented by  the rich and famous (including Rudolph Valentino, Theodore Roosevelt, Cecil B. DeMille, Tom Mix, Will Rogers, Charlie Chaplin, and Sarah Bernhardt), all the remains of the Hot Wells Hotel and Space in San Antonio , Texas, are a pile of ruins. Today, the ruins are a popular destination for urban explorers seeking to stumble around what little remains of the once-impressive resort.

The health spa that once stood at this site piped hot, sulphurous water from a well in Edwards to health-inducing baths and swimming pools. The destination became so popular that it continued to grow throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, at a time of almost 200 rooms.

Sulfurous water was discovered in 1892 when the managers of the Southwest Lunatic Asylum drilled outside their building to supply water to a new facility near the San Antonio River. The 104-degree water, which smelled heavily of sulfur, was considered unsuitable for use in asylum, but many people believed that water of this kind had special healing powers. Entrepreneurs quickly took advantage of the well, which spilled 180,000 gallons every day, and the first resort was opened in 1893.

Sulfurous water was discovered in 1892 when the managers of the Southwest Lunatic Asylum drilled outside their building to supply water to a new facility near the San Antonio River. The 104-degree water, which smelled heavily of sulfur, was considered unsuitable for use in asylum, but many people believed that water of this kind had special healing powers. Entrepreneurs quickly took advantage of the well, which spilled 180,000 gallons every day, and the first resort was opened in 1893.

Built by McClellan Shacklett, who leased water from the well for $500 a year, the first resort announced the medicinal benefits of its waters; the guests immediately began to arrive in a crowd. And then it burned to the ground in 1894, only one year after it had opened its doors. But its replacement, a world-class Victorian-style structure, was much more opulent. The hotel, too, burned to the ground, having survived 30 years this time. While it was standing, though, it was incredibly popular.

Built by a team of northern investors who had secured a 25-year lease on the waters of the Asylum, the Victorian resort included a bathhouse and three large swimming pools, each measuring 90 feet in length. Forty-five private rooms featured marble partitions and solid porcelain bathtubs. As years went by, investors continued to expand and improve their resort, adding steam heat, electric and gas lights, and individual phones. Perhaps the most obscure part of the whole business was an ostrich farm that had moved to the San Pedro Springs resort just so that visiting women could easily acquire feathers, an important part of the fashion ladies of the day.

In July 2017, the site is currently under renovation and the site is closed down. Hot Wells Hotel and Spa is now open to the public as a preserved historic park in August 2019.