10 Peculiar and Popular Vacation Hot Spots of the 19th Century

Larry Holzwarth - December 1, 2017

There is no doubt that the American ritual of the summer vacation became de rigeur with the expansion of the Interstate Highway System beginning in the late 1950s. With the new, easily accessible highways with easy-to-find exits came new, easily accessible hotels with easy-to-find rooms and swimming pools. Tourist destinations were suddenly mandatory as tax boosters for all states. Resorts such as Disneyland and later Walt Disney World created destinations for families with kids. Of course, a dissident minority which shunned the crowds and the hoopla sprang up as well, traveling to state and national parks and campgrounds, determined to relax while getting away from it all in the company of their fellow campers.

Although the summer vacation reached its maturity in the post-World War II days along with the baby boom, it wasn’t born then. Well before the 20^th century, Americans traveled for leisure, on necessarily extended breaks from home and work, and they often gathered at communal locales favored by their fellow travelers. They journeyed by rail, coach and boat, enjoying the scenery, the history, and the cuisine of the areas to which they sojourned, and their tours frequently added to the education of their children, and in some instances the readers of their travelogues. Here then are ten travel destinations favored by vacationing Americans (and some foreign tourists) prior to the year 1900.

The Allegheny Portage Railroad

When it opened in 1834, after ten years of construction the Allegheny Portage Railroad, a series of inclines over which canal boats were hauled over the barrier of the Allegheny Mountain Range in Pennsylvania, was an engineering marvel. The Portage reduced the travel time from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh to as little as three days in good weather. While many used it for the convenience of shortening their trip to other destinations, others went to see it as a destination itself.

Originally passengers and cargo being hauled on the canal boats were transferred to portage wagons to be hauled over the inclines using mules and draft horses. The animals were later replaced with stationary steam engines, pulling the cars using wire ropes perfected by John Roebling. He would later use similar cables to build suspension bridges, including one in Brooklyn. Eventually, the canal boats themselves were hauled out of the water, passengers aboard, and returned to the canal on the other side of the incline to continue their journey.

Inns and taverns were soon in place on both sides of the incline, to provide succor and nutrition to tired passengers and off-duty boatmen and workers. The incline operated day and night in season, and tourists flocked to the sight to watch the belching steam engines haul boats up and brake them down on their descent. Other tourists enjoyed the ride, among them Charles Dickens, who left a vivid description of his visit in his American Notes.

The incline was unable to compete when direct railroad connections were completed beginning in the late 1840s, and by the mid-1850s operated no longer, although the canals remained as local infrastructure in many places.

The Allegheny Portage Railroad was one of the first pieces of American infrastructure built to serve ease of travel between destinations which became a travel destination of its own. Parts of it remain today as a National Historic Site favored by hikers and campers.

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Saratoga Springs, New York

Before the railroads began to develop in the early 19^th century, travel was limited to using either primitive roads or inland waterways. The roads meant to travel by horseback – exposed to the elements – or by coach, frequently badly sprung, which combined with unpaved roadways usually offered a rough ride. A destination not too distant was a convenient choice when reasonably comfortable travel was a consideration.

For residents of New York City and Albany, this meant Saratoga Springs, which could be reached by traveling up the Hudson River or along its well-established Post Road. Saratoga and nearby Ballston Spa offered the opportunity to enjoy stunning scenery while taking the healthful waters provided by the many nearby springs.

Taking the waters at Saratoga became a healthful and status awarding summer activity for those with the means to get away. While taking the water was probably healthful, especially compared to consuming the water in the city of New York, it was also less than exciting when resorted to days upon end. Other activities to help while away leisure time developed around Saratoga as diversions.

The Grand Union Hotel opened as a tavern in 1802 and by 1843 consisted of buildings and gardens covering over four acres. In 1853 one of Saratoga’s chefs, at the Moon’s Lake House, reportedly developed a snack food now known as the potato chip in response to a particularly demanding customer. The story is possibly apocryphal, but entertaining to all in the food industry who have dealt with difficult customers.

Saratoga Race Course opened in 1863, a welcome diversion from the horrors of the Civil War then raging at its peak. From the 1870s through the gilded age Saratoga was a major attraction for the monied vacationers from New York, Philadelphia, and other eastern cities, although the wealthy of Boston and the rest of New England preferred to take the waters elsewhere, away from the plebeian Yorkers.

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White Sulfur Springs, Virginia

In 1778, a settler near the springs which came to be known as White Sulfur Springs, in what was then western Virginia, followed the custom of the region’s Native Americans and began drinking the water, which was tinged with sulfur, in the hope that it would alleviate her rheumatism. Whether it helped or not is debatable, but word traveled that it did and the area soon was a destination of resort for those similarly plagued.

By the early 19^th century the Calwell family of Baltimore had purchased most of the land surrounding White Sulfur Springs and had built cottages in the area, for rent or purchase. Henry Clay was a satisfied customer. So was Martin Van Buren. Soon the area was a vacation destination for those who wanted to escape the eastern cities during the hot months of summer, when the miasma resulting from stagnant waterways and thousands of horses and mules made the urban atmosphere unpleasant.

The Calwell family built a resort hotel on the property in the 1850s, which changed hands often between Union and Confederate troops during the Civil War. They named their hotel the Grand Central, although, in the common parlance, it was known simply as The White. After the war, the hotel, which had been badly damaged by the less than gentlemanly Union troops (in Southern eyes) was rebuilt. It was used for numerous reunions of veterans and former politicians from both sides during Reconstruction.

By 1869 the resort attracted visitors of such influence that when its owners lobbied for railroad service to the small town of White Sulfur Springs the response was a direct rail line to the Grand Hotel’s front gate.

Recognizing a profit maker and the value of its politically connected customers, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad eventually purchased the resort property, which is still in operation, though the Chessie is not. Although its heyday as a vacation spot was in the 19^th century, its value as a political tool is still being honed by those of influence in the 21^st. It is now known as The Greenbrier.

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Cities

The United States offered to the world a phenomena not seen before – the birth and growth of cities in almost real-time. London, for example, had been a major settlement as early as 43 AD, while in North America the city of Chicago rose from a newly incorporated town in 1833 to a thriving international city only five decades later.

With the growth of the cities came the growth of services which drew attraction of tourists and professional observers from around the world. Among these were prisons and mental health facilities. Unbelievable as it may seem, cities became tourist attractions in part due to their modern and forward-thinking provisions for the criminally minded and the mentally ill. These were admired by Europeans and Americans alike.

As early as the 1830s guidebooks were published touting the advances in such facilities and recommending sites to be visited by tourists. As the railroads expanded and their schedules became more adaptable to travel planning, tourists flocked to American cities to bask in the nation’s rising status as a leader in the care of the less fortunate.

Many of the new institutions were built in a monumental style rivaling the Gothic cathedrals of Europe in grandeur and enhanced by the natural environment surrounding them. The New York State Prison in Ossining (Sing Sing) was one such attraction, at least to those not compelled to remain as guests. Charles Dickens wrote often, and often admiringly, of American prisons and mental institutions in his travelogue American Notes. In much of the same volume, he was far more critical of other American institutions and architecture.

The fascination with urban growth triggered tourism of cities which rivaled that of America’s natural wonders by the late 19^th century, aided no doubt by the emergence of quality restaurants and hotels. Visiting America’s urban centers as a vacation is nearly as old as the urban centers themselves, particularly the western cities which grew from village to metropolis in the span of half a century.

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Hotel Coronado, San Diego

Coronado Island was little more than a flea-infested sand spit in the 1880s, as San Diego entered what would be the first of many booms in real estate development. The idea of creating a massive luxury hotel on the island to attract tourists, who would become infatuated with the area’s climate and opportunities for growth, seemed to be a good one to a group of investors which included a railroad executive, a piano maker, (Hampton Story of Story & Clark), a banker, and others.

The hotel they built was the Coronado, which opened as the largest resort hotel in the world. It is still the second-largest wooden structure in the United States. It was built for the purpose of being a vacation destination, surrounded by opportunities for leisurely activity, including the nearby beach. It had 399 rooms awaiting the pleasure of the eastern tourists who the owners hoped would soon be visiting.

The owners were disappointed when the city of San Diego entered one of its many real estate busts shortly after the hotel opened, and the massive facility failed to generate a large number of visitors who decided to purchase land in San Diego and remain as residents, the primary purpose for which the hotel had been built.

It quickly became a vacation favorite though, especially for those near the coast, and the owners were forced to offer its luxury accommodations and many amenities for far less than they were worth. San Diego became a tourist attraction throughout the year thanks to its superb climate and the facilities offered by the massive Coronado Hotel.

Eventually, the cycles of boom and bust in the real estate market created the San Diego of today, still a major tourist attraction and the Coronado Hotel remains a major part of the tourism industry. It was one of the first American resorts which focused on tourists spending their vacation time at a beach. Many more followed.

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Railroad Buffalo Hunts

The Transcontinental Railroad, championed by Abraham Lincoln even through the course of the Civil War, was completed in 1869. With the American coasts linked by the iron rails, a new form of American vacation was soon in place. Hunting for sustenance in the East had been largely replaced by hunting for sport, other than in the most rural areas. It was widely believed there that there was no sport hunting like buffalo hunting.

Spurs of track off the mainline were soon projecting north and south, at the same time that the US Army was attempting to control the Plains Indians and remove them to reservations. Control of the Natives’ food supply was part of this effort and the buffalo was the primary source of the Natives’ protein, as well as clothing, shelter, and many other uses.

It wasn’t long before the railroads, with still relatively few cross-country passengers, were offering hunting excursions by rail, endorsed by the army. Hunters from the East signed up to journey into the buffalo country, safe from Indian attack and the perils of the land, to hunt buffalo by train. Occasionally trains would stop to disembark hunters for a short period, picking them up again within days. Most often they did not.

Trains would depart from western stations – Fort Hayes, Kansas was a popular spot – and hunters would shoot from the windows of the trains at the passing herds, killing hundreds of thousands in a single winter. A hunter named Orlando Brown claimed to have killed 6,000 buffalo himself, all from the window of a passing train to the lifelong detriment of his hearing from the repeated firing of a .50 caliber rifle in an enclosed space.

The buffalo hunts were advertised in Eastern papers in cities which were enamored with the tales of the West. Penny papers and dime novels added to the mystique and attracted many an eastern city dweller to a visit to the old West while on vacation from his mundane job in the East. According to figures published by the US Government, by the end of the 19^th century, only three hundred buffalo survived in the wild.

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Chautauqua Camps

Chautauqua Camps were born out of the Methodist Church in part as an answer to a vexing (to Church Leaders) question; how does one reconcile sinful idle hands with the need for time away from labor? By the mid-19^th century, it was generally agreed that rest away from constant labor was essential to mental and spiritual health, but in deeply religious American society idleness brought with it temptation, and thus needed to be avoided.

Chautauqua Camps began at Lake Chautauqua in western New York, near Buffalo, and offered a summer campsite which was originally intended to train Sunday School teachers in a bucolic, restful setting. This format later proved to be popular as a destination for whole families, and other camps, known as Daughter Chautauquas (daughters of the original camp, not necessarily intended for the daughters of clients) began to spring up around the country.

The camps competed to present motivational speakers and the best entertainers available during their sessions, provided the entertainment was of a wholesome nature. Visitors at the camps thus enjoyed a respite from their daily toil as part of their vacation without the trauma of idleness leading them toward the wages of sin.

Local Chautauqua Camps eventually included similar facilities which were in no way affiliated with the founders of the movement, but nonetheless offered similar amenities. Almost universally the camps were established near a lake or river, near a town with reliable and frequent rail services, and well isolated from the temptations offered by cities.

Circuit Chautauquas later appeared, usually as tent cities similar to traveling carnivals, which remained in an area until their operators determined that there was no more profit to be had before folding their tents and moving on. Chautauqua Camps still exist across the country offering a vacation free from carnal pursuits, including the original at Lake Chautauqua, New York.

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Philadelphia Exposition of 1876

In the nation’s centennial year of 1876 a family vacation most likely included a visit to Philadelphia, where the United States officially celebrated its birthday with a six-month exposition dedicated to its past, present and future. The site included more than 200 buildings erected for the purpose, and eventually more than 10 million visitors toured its grounds.

Agricultural, horticulture, and machinery all had huge halls built to demonstrate American superiority and ingenuity in those fields. The Machinery Hall housed among its exhibits a giant Corliss Steam Engine which provided power to the rest of the machinery in the building as well as other exhibits around the site.

The Exposition presented new American products to its visitors, some of them for the first time. Heinz Ketchup and the Remington Typewriter made their debuts at the Exposition, as did Alexander Graham Bell’s new telephone, for which most people thought there was little use beyond entertainment. Hires Root Beer refreshed its consumers for the first time there, washing down another innovation, a new snack called popcorn.

A gift from France, or at least its right arm and torch, was displayed among the exhibits, since there was not yet a permanent home for the Statue of Liberty. Visitors were allowed to climb inside the arm and view the rest of the grounds from the windows in the torch.

The influx of tourists would have swamped Philadelphia’s Hotels, so the planners built temporary lodging near the site which eased the congestion. The Pennsylvania Railroad, and the Philadelphia and Erie added special trains throughout the Exposition and the Philadelphia Streetcar System designated special cars for its visitors. It was not the first great exposition held in the United States but it was to its time the best run, and it provided a vacation destination for the summer of 1876 that was unrivaled for decades.

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Civil War Battlefields

The impact of the American Civil War was such that virtually no American family was without personal acquaintance with someone who had suffered a loss, or the severe injury, of a friend or family member in the war. Shortly after the war ended local groups in the regions of the battlefields began movements to preserve some of the areas of conflict.

In Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Mississippi efforts to preserve battlefields and the burial grounds of troops who had fallen there took hold. These were augmented by family members traveling, occasionally by coach but most often by train or steamship, to honor their dead. The tradition of visiting America’s historical sites during vacation stems from this time.

Visitors to Manassas Virginia could take the time after touring Henry Hill and Bull Run Creek to stop by Monticello, a day’s coach ride away (the mansion was then nearly in ruins). Or they may have visited Mount Vernon, visible from the river, but not a tourist stop as it is today.

Similarly, those spending time on Seminary Ridge outside of Gettysburg could visit the National Cemetery dedicated by Abraham Lincoln to those who gave the “…last full measure of devotion.” Many of those touring the Civil War sites where their loved ones had fallen were appalled at the conditions they found, and took action to see that the sites were preserved, as they are today.

Almost all of the Civil War National Historical Sites and Parks are in the condition they are today because of the tourists in the latter part of the 19^th century, who felt a family link to the places they visited while vacationing, and demanded that their government preserve them for posterity.

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Niagara Falls

New York’s Hudson Valley and the Adirondacks are widely considered to be America’s first vacation playland, as they offered a ready escape from what rapidly became America’s most crowded and hectic city. Niagara Falls was America’s first tourist destination though, selected as a place to visit on its merits and reputation alone. Dickens made sure to include the Falls on his American tour, referring to them in American Notes as “…at once stamped upon my heart, an image of beauty.”

Rail service from Buffalo to the falls was available in the late 1830s, although it was propelled by horse rather than steam. Despite the rough country of the region, intrepid travelers made a point of journeying there when they had leisure to do so. As early as 1801 the first recorded honeymoon trip was made to the Falls, by the daughter of then Vice-President Aaron Burr, Theodosia, and her new husband, Joseph Alston.

British author Fanny Trollope, who in 1832 published a scathing view of Americans entitled Domestic Manners of the Americans, (Mark Twain later observed that she was castigated for telling the truth) was nonetheless enthralled with the Falls after visiting with her two daughters. She wrote of filling as many niches of memory as possible with thoughts of the Falls.

Throughout the 19^th century, a visit to Niagara Falls was a cherished dream for many American vacationers, some of whom no doubt hoped to time their visit with that of one of the many stuntmen who attempted to travel over the falls in a barrel, or leap into the chasm and survive. Advertisements for such events were commonplace in posters and periodicals throughout the 1800s, and certainly added to their allure.

In the 21^st century, Niagara Falls is no longer the top tourist attraction in the United States, nor even in the top twenty, unable to compete with the likes of Times Square (#1) the Las Vegas Strip (#4) or even Chicago’s Navy Pier (#19). Taste in vacation destinations has changed but should the pendulum swing back there is little doubt that Niagara Falls will still be there, waiting for a visit from an American on vacation.

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