This Pile of Rubble Used to Be a Luxury Hotel in Florida

Trends come and go in all areas of life. Whether it is clothing, style, music, movies or more. For instance, mullets were all the rage in the 80 and some of the 90’s, but in the modern day, you rarely see a mullet that isn’t worn ironically. And when it comes to clothing, bell bottoms were once worn with pride by millions, but now, have thankfully been retired.

But these trends go far beyond things like I have mentioned, in fact, entire countries and industries can also go through major trends. For example, the hospitality industry went through a very interesting trend throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s. The trend was known as the health spa trend.

This was a time when health spas were all the rage and were popping up everywhere. If you are unfamiliar with what a health spa is, let me get you up to speed. The health spa craze was during a time before most of the large advancements in modern medicine had been made. At this time, it was common for people with diseases or any other kinds of physical ailments to visit these health spas, and it was believed that the mineral water could be the cure for just about everything.

One of the best of these health spas in all of Florida was none other than the Hotel Hampton in Taylor County, which was originally built in 1908. This location was a 70 room, two story resort that touted the many benefits of the water they had there, and even bottled their water so people from far and wide could enjoy their healing effects.

And not only was this resort for sick people who wanted to get better, it was a great destination spot for anyone who just wanted to relax and take a load off. The resort was even luxurious and high class for today’s standards as it has tennis courts, a ballroom, a golf course, pools, and even its own farm and power plant. In fact, a number of extremely famous guests even stayed at the hotel, including Theodore Roosevelt.

And while the Great Depression caused the end of many of these health spas across the country, this resort actually managed to stay open throughout the Depression and even served as a military barracks in the 30s and 40s for soldiers. So if it could survive the Great Depression and a World War, what would be the thing that takes down this hotel.

Well, as it turns out, the answer was fire. A brutal fire engulfed the hotel in 1945 and it was no more. All that was left behind was the ruins of what used to be. The brilliant hotel was reduced to almost nothing, after nearly half a century of being in operation.

Seeing these ruins, you would never have guessed how grand the building that used to sit on this location was. However, despite it only being ruins, it is a popular tourist location as many people travel there to learn more about the hotel and check out what’s left of it.