This month we are visiting St. Clair County Michigan, home of the St. Clair Mineral Springs Company. St. Clair was a popular resort town with two luxurious hotels. The Oakland Hotel, built in 1881, and Somerville Hotel, built in 1888, had a combined 119 rooms that housed visitors.
The nearby Salutaris Mineral Springs were directly pumped into the Oakland Hotel for baths. The springs also produced the base for the delicious Hudson Ginger Ale! If you felt like you needed some medical advice during your stay, there was a full time doctor on staff to help with any questions involving the baths. The water even cured deafness! A testimonial claims, “A lady was afflicted with deafness, the effect apparently of taking cold…So she procured some of the St. Clair Water and commenced bathing and rubbing with it that side of her neck and face; also washing out the ear thoroughly with the same…Her hearing gradually improved and is now as good as ever.”
There were private residences by the springs as well: the “Oakland Cottages” were designed to house single families and could be rented year round with access to the springs.
Today, two of the cottages remain as year-round residences and the pump for the springs remains but is inactive.
Sources:
Saint Clair Mineral Springs. (Medical Trade Ephemera Collection) Historical Medical Library of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA.