OWNED AND OPERATED BYTHE BUENA VISTA SPRING IMPROVEMENT CO. ROBERT RENNERT,president How to Reach Buena Vista Spring Hotel NEW YORK, PHILADELPHIA, WASHINGTON, RICHMOND and POINTS SOUTH. FROM Take the Pennsyl- vania Railroad and its connections to meet the Western Maryland Railroad at Union Station, Baltimore, Md., at 4.35 A. M. 8.05 A. M., 3.20 P. M., “Rlue Mountain Express” that runs to the Huena Vista Spring- Hotel Sta- tion in two hours. 4.10 P. M. Buena Vista Spring Hotel can also be reached by the Balti- more & Ohio Railroad and its connections via Baltimore, but time must be allowed for transfer in Balti- more, as the Balti- more & Ohio trains do not run into Union Station. Baltimore & Ohio passengers from the west can reach the Hotel via Hagers- town, on the Western Maryland Railroad, which is but 18 miles from the hotel, as also passengers on the Pennsylvania Rail- road from Pittsburg, and points west may connect at Harrisburg with the Cumberland Valley Railroad to Hagerstown. BUENA VISTA STATION. All Trains of the Western Maryland Railroad Stop at Union Station. OWNED AND OPERATED BVTHE BUENA VISTA SPRING IMPROVEMENT CO. ROBERT RENNERT,president VIEW OF HOTEL FROM VALLEY. BUENA VISTA SPRING MOTEL. What the Catskills and the Adirondacks are to New York, Buena Vista Spring—the most enchanting spot of the Blue Ridge (the Alps of America)—is destined to be to Baltimore and Washington, a resort for the betterment of health, pleasure and recreation. It is easy of access : taking as the starting point, Baltimore, to which railroads from the North, South, East and West converge, the route lies over the Western Maryland Railroad, a line which traverses a section of country charming in the picturesqueness of its undulating lands, and which has been described as the Garden of the State by travellers of discernment. There is not a mile of this territory but has its special features to entrance the eye and leave their pleasant impression. Connection of trains with the Western Maryland Railroad is made from New York, Philadelphia and Washington via Pennsylvania Railroad, at Union Station, Baltimore ; the North and West from Harrisburg via Cumberland Valley Railroad to Hagerstown, and from South and West via N. & W. and B. & O. Railroads at the same point. A prompt connection of trains over the Western Maryland with these systems makes the time required to reach Buena Vista Spring, from the various points named, about as follows : How to Reach it. OFFICE AND FOYER From New York, ..... 6 hours. “ Philadelphia, - - - - - 4 “ “ Wilmington, ..... 3 “ “ Baltimore, - - - - - 2 “ “ Washington, ..... 3 “ “ Richmond, ------ 6>4 “ “ Harrisburg, ..... 3 “ “ Pittsburg, ------ -jYz “ “ Cumberland, - - - - - 3“ Connecting trains leave Broad Street Station, Philadelphia, at about 12.00 M., and Baltimore & Potomac Station, Sixth and B Streets, Washington, at about 2.00 P. M., thence by “Blue Mountain Express,” (with Pullman Parlor Cars) of Western Maryland Railroad from Union Station, Baltimore, at 3.20 P. M. Parlor Car Seats secured by telegraph or letter to General Passenger Agent, Western Maryland Railroad, Baltimore. Seated in these luxuriously appointed parlor cars, the visitors are whirled past towns and villages, pastoral scenes and busy mills, until a faint tint of azure fringes the landscape—the first glimpse of the Blue Ridge. The special “Blue Mountain Express” trains make the distance of seventy-one miles between Baltimore and Buena Vista Spring Station in about two hours. Engineering skill has made the ascent of the Mount- ains easy of accomplishment, and, without an apparent effort the visitor finds himself on the platform of the pretty station of Buena Vista Spring, at an elevation nearly two thousand feet above tide-water. A brief twelve-minutes’ run over a well-laid railway in a comfortable, commodious car, and you are at the hotel door at 5.30 P. M., or, if you prefer to drive, easy conveyances are in waiting, and an even Macadamized road parallels the tramway in its graceful windings. This is Buena Vista Avenue, which intersects and joins other roads, forming a system of excellent mountain drives many miles in extent. The attention of the visitor is engaged from the start by the rugged and wildly picturesque aspect of the scenery. In the deep gorge to the left, a turbulent mountain stream leaps from rock to rock, from ledge to ledge, forming translucent cascades, or a roaring, Buena Vista Avenue. MAIN PARLOR foaming torrent, until, spending its force, it purls in pacific mood among the meads of the distant valley. To the right, some remote convulsive throe of nature has piled up millions of tons of rock, whose serrated edges have been jagged by the teeth of time. Half a mile further, the Buena Vista Horse Shoe Bend is reached—a curve, which, as it rounds the head of Germantown Gorge with its deep ravine and rushing torrent, is a counterpart of the celebrated Horse Shoe Bend of the Alleghanies, except that in this instance the scenery is perhaps even more imposing. A few yards beyond this point is obtained the first glimpse of Buena Vista Spring Hotel, serenely “seated on a heaven-kissing hill,” an alluring hospice in these delightful wilds, where reposeful calm drives care from its citadel and welcomes the reign of peace. Buena Vista Spring Hotel is located on an eminence of South Mountain, in Franklin County, Pennsyl- vania, about one mile north from the Maryland State line, and two and a half miles from Blue Ridge Summit. The hotel is a handsome, imposing structure of the Renaissance style of architecture, with turreted angles rising four stories from a solid rock foundation and substructure of stone masonry. In formation it presents four sides of an octagon, the main building facing nearly due west, and the wings southwest, northwest and south respectively. This main building has a frontage of 132 feet, with a depth of 52 feet; and the three wings a frontage of 120 feet, and a depth of 44 feet, or a total frontage of 492 feet. A raised porch 15 feet wide runs the entire length of the building, thus affording ample room for promenade or an indulgence in that dolce far niente, so grateful to tired brains, shattered nerves or fatigued limbs. On the first floor of the main building are the offices, the foyer, the parlors, reception rooms and Solarium—this last apartment will be found a luxury, which will prove especially pleasing to invalids and others who find a sun bath beneficial. The southwest wing is occupied by the spacious dining-room and the northwest and south wings are used for sleeping apartments. The hotel has accommodations for over five hundred guests; some of the rooms are in suites with private bath-rooms attached. Open fire-places are also pro- vided in most of the apartments. A steam elevator runs to all the floors, and every convenience and comfort which experience can suggest have been furnished to constitute a first-class hotel in every detail. Buena Vista Spring Hotel. SUN PARLOR Ample provision is made against accident of any kind, and a resident physician to insure immunity from physical ills, will always be present at the hotel to render preventive—rather than curative—treatment. The culinary department occupies a distinct building 64 feet square, and another separate structure is the concert hall and ball-room, 83 by 46 feet, where a first-class musical director, with an excellent orchestra, will be the presiding genius. From the roof of the hotel rises an observatory, which has been appropriately named “The Seasons.’' From this elevation a superb range of vision is obtainable, and seen through tinted glass, the surrounding foliage takes on the aspect of the vernal green, the summer gold, the russet and purple of autumn, or the fleecy form of winter. The altitude of Buena Vista Spring Hotel places it above the vapor-line, consequently there are little or no dews, but a pure, dry atmosphere is always prevalent which is so pleasant and healing to persons of weak or affected lungs. Most fortunate is Buena Vista Spring Hotel in possessing an unequalled supply of water for drinking and culinary purposes. The water is derived from the fountain head of the Micawasha Spring, the source of which is near the summit of Green Ridge Mountain—an untraversed spot—distant a little more than two miles from the hotel. The Company has tapped the Spring near its source, at an elevation 75 feet higher than the hotel, and the water is conveyed through a five-inch iron main in more than sufficient quantity to supply the needs ot the house. The pressure is great enough to throw a stream to the roof of the building. This water has been pronounced absolutely pure ; so free is it from mineral or organic matter that the analytical chemists to whom a sample was submitted for examination, expressed astonishment, and stated it was the purest sample of water they had ever been called upon to analyze. We reproduce their letter as evidence of fact. The topographical position of Buena Vista Spring Hotel ensures perfect drainage, a declivity on every side of 1,000 feet, forming a natural water-shed for rains, while the sanitary arrange- ments in the hotel are as thorough as science and good workmanship can make them. All the plumbing was completed under the supervision of the Inspector of Plumbing of Baltimore City. A Dry Atmosphere. Absolutely Pure Water Supply. Perfectly Sanative. DINING ROOM VIEW FROM FRONT OF HOTEL. G. W. LEHMANN, PII. D. Chemist and Metallurgist, Baltimore Copper Works, and Chemist for U. S. Government. W. MAGER, Formerly Chemist at the N. C. Fertilizer Control Station LEHMHNN & MAGER, Analytical and Metallurgical Laboratory, ADDRESS 111 S. GAY STREET. JVo. lj.158. Baltimore, February 27, 1891. RESULT Of Analysis of Samples of “Spring Water” received February 26, 1891, from the Buena Vista Spring Improvement Co., Franklin Co., Pa. ONE GALLON CONTAINS MATTER IN SUSPENSION. NONE : MATTER IN SOLUTION. NONE. The sample of Water is chemically pure. Not a trace of organic or mineral matter (no Chlorine) present, We have never before examined a sample of Water of such remarkable purity. LEHMANN & MAOER. THE ICE SUPPLY FOR THE SEASON IS HARVESTED FROM AN ARTIFICIAL LAKE SUPPLIED WITH WATER FROM THIS SPRING MOUNTAIN STREAM The water generally of this region has been for more than one generation in favorable repute, and has been valued for its hygienic properties. It has been particularly effective in Kidney ailments and torpid condition of the Liver and Stomach, and it is a fact attested to by local physicians, that Diabetes is practically unknown here, while Malaria, that enervating bane of humanity, is completely eradicated from the system after a brief sojourn in this locality. The principal local Spring lies in a northeasterly direction, about 150 yards from the hotel. The clear water gushes up into the basin formed to receive it in a volume of 50 gallons a minute ; passing from the Spring it flows to the bath-houses, where it will be artificially heated, and the guests will have the advan- tage of a tepid bath or a cold plunge, as condition or taste may deem prudent or pleasant. Nature was never more prodical in the display of varied beauty than that seen from the porch of Buena Vista Spring Hotel. In the immediate vicinity, a fountain casting up its irridescent spray, well-kept lawns, flower beds, walks and a sweep ol carriage road. Shade trees, here and there, add to the picture, while a few yards distant two pine groves fill the air with their soothing pun- gency, and echo the whisperings of a thousand zephyrs sounding in their branches. Yonder lies the Giant’s Fallen Column, a shattered obelisk, which, at one time, may have stood majesti- cally on its base—a towering monument to some mountain genius. Beyond, an unobstructed view of thirty miles across the Cumberland Valley presents itself until abruptly terminated on the west by the Alleghany Mountains. Over this wide expanse are scattered cities, hamlets, farms and vine-embowered cottages, from the little town of Rouzerville, nestling at the foot of South Mountain, to Hagerstoum, plainly discernable on a clear day, forming a cosmoramic view, ever changing, ever glorious and sublime. Buena Vista Spring Hotel is most advantageously situated. There are no mountains rising above or near it to shut off the ozone impregnated air. The mountain zephyrs, in all the wantonness of a summer idling, have free and unobstructed access, and freighted with the odors of a thousand mountain blooms and the balsamic aroma of a thousand mountain pines, they refresh while they soothe, and, like patient lovers, woo back the bloom of health to wan and wasted cheeks. Curative Properties of the Water. Superb Scenery. Unobstructed Ventilation. VIEW FROM EAGLE ROCK Beyond Red Run Glen, to the north, are the Hanging Valley and Burn’s Knob, and yet more remote, but not so distant as to render the effects of light and shadow uncertain, is Mt. Alto, whose rugged peaks shut out the line of horizon. To the east, Mt. Dunlap, with its inaccessible Raven Rock, looms threaten- ingly, and to the south, Mt. Quirauk rises in sullen grandeur. Amid this unmatched range of scenery innumerable mountain drives wind tortuously, affording unlimited opportunity for interesting rural excur- sions over mountain and through valley. Among other famous highways is the historic Baltimore and Pittsburg Pike, which skirts the base of Buena Vista Spring. It was along this route that Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia retreated after the disastrous battle of Gettysburg, and the graves of the men who wore the Gray, and some who wore the Blue, each marked by its grass-grown mound under the shadow of South Mountain. Near the first toll-gate, to the east, are the silent sentinels of the spot where Longstreet's wagon train was captured after a sharp but ineffectual resistance. The Devil’s Race Course—an interesting feature of this locality—is but a few hundred yards distant from this remembrance of those days of fratricidal war. It occupies the surface of a long, shal- low depression, being more than a mile in length, by perhaps, an eighth of a mile at its widest part near the southern end, and, in appearance it somewhat resembles an exagger- ated cobble-stone pavement, with stones varying in size from that of a cart body to a peck measure, and all so compactly arranged as to be as solid as the eternal rock bed upon which they rest. Strange to say, this glacial formation, although surrounded by a luxuriant growth of trees and lesser vege- tation, has not so much as a twig that can obtain root amid its crevices, nor do even the fallen leaves find lodgment on its barren surface. A spring has recently been discovered, but its water, delectably cool and pure though it be, is regarded with superstitious awe by the natives, and they will none on’t. More inviting scenes are those which lie below the spring-house before alluded to ; here woodland paths, o’er shadowed by stately chestnuts and maples, lead to spots of sylvan beauty unmatched in all this region in varied attractiveness. This, indeed, may well be named The Fairy Glen in preference to Red Run Gorge, the title it has borne since foot of human first trod these solitudes. The stream itself plunges and roars, swirls and gurgles over its rock-encased bed, or where A Historic Pike. Devil’s Race Course. A Natural Park. RAILROAD AND DRIVEWAY TO STATION. some boulder checks the impetuous course, it grows slow and sullen in its eddying depths wherein the mountain trout—the speckled beauties of the angler’s dream—find shelter from the noon-day sun beneath some jutting ledge of over-hanging rock. This spring, and last, Red Run, was stocked with some 15,000 young trout, and should afford good sport in this connection. Delightful excursions may be arranged from Buena Vista Spring Hotel by railroad or horse conveyance to the famous Battlefields of Gettysburg, which is but 17 miles by pike or 22 miles by railroad, and an excursion train is run daily, except Sunday, to this historic spot, via the New Short Line up Jack’s Mountain, through a section superb in magnificent scenery. The train leaves in the morning and returns early in the evening, giving the excursionists time to visit the National Cemetery, Culp’s Hill, Round Top, and other localities which figured promi- nently in that memorable fight; and round-trip tickets are sold at 80 cents or less. Daily excursions may also be made by rail to Hagerstown, Waynesboro, Chambersburg and Williamsport—famous for the sport it affords the angler. Pen-Mar Park, the popular excursion resort, is but a short distance by rail, or may be reached by drives or a pleasant mile-and-a-half walk over mountain foot-paths, well shaded by forest trees. Buena Vista Spring, richer in relics than some more pretentious resorts, has a history ; it dates back at least to Revolutionary times, and records tell of Washington’s suppression of the first civil war—the Whiskey Riot—of one John McGuire, an inn-keeper, blacksmith, and man of general utility, who, a century ago, set up his road-side tavern and blacksmith shop near the site of the present hotel and beside the old Portage road, over which the emigrant march to the West began to move before liberty was born or the trail of the Indian had been deserted. A section of this old Portage passes within a few feet of the hotel, and winds its way down the mountain side, where it reaches the more modern pike ; there it is lost, until, crossing the valley, it treads its way through the Alleghanies, over Allegrippus, cropping out at Cresson, and onward again until merged in the labyrinth of the beaten tracks of modern civilization. After McGuire had been gathered to mother earth, one Levi Sanders, became owner, and he or his heirs in turn transferred it to V. B. Gilbert, who, for a quarter of a century, held possession until the property was Gettysburg Battlefield. The Old Portage Road. CONE AVENUE, BICYCLE ROADWAY purchased by the Buena Vista Spring Improvement Company. To Mr. Gilbert’s enterprise and labors are due fruit orchards and grain fields, and a prolific vegetable garden, from which all the fruits and vegetables for the hotel table will be raised. The large peach orchard has been singularly productive, and the fruit ot a most delicious flavor. In the Glen, a saw mill, now in a state of picturesque dilapidation, stands on the banks of Red Run, and whose buzzing machinery is yet set in motion by the waters of that stream. The old mill, the lake, sluice gate and mill race, form a picture that an artist might travel far to see equalled, but to single out scenes which please the eye and satisfy the artistic taste is difficult, where the whole region is a natural park of winsome landscape, where every footstep brings new beauties to sight, and where Poets or lovers may listless stroll To find new inspiration. An Old Relic. pot* Teems and Pamphlets, apply op addeess W. JVI. RERJVIEp, Hotel Renneet, Baltimore, |Wd. Aftep dune loth, to Buena Vista Spping Station P. O., Washington County, CTld. BASE BALL AND GOLF GROUNDS. GROUND FLOOR PLAN. MAIN OR OFFICE FLOOR PLAN FIRST, SECOND AND THIRD FLOOR PLANS Press of A. HOEN & CO., BALTIMORE, MD. Hotel Rennert. E'UROPEAN PLAN Saratoga, Cathedral and Liberty Sts. BALTIMORE, MD. ROBERT RENNERT, Proprietor.