For 18th and 19th century Americans who could afford it, “taking the waters” meant a curative retreat to restore mind, body and spirit. East Coasters often withdrew from polluted and sweltering urban life to grand resorts in the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia, and they sometimes remained for an entire summer. These Victorians believed natural spring waters, fresh air and languid days of pamper and play cured or benefited everything from stomach distress to rheumatism.
Some of these old resorts have done better than merely surviving demise and irrelevance, having rejuvenated and extended their life beyond the past two centuries, and the 2,200-acre Bedford Springs Resort in Western Pennsylvania is among them.
The resort recently emerged from a $120 million restoration to welcome guests interested in not only the waters but also contemporary retreat and recreation. Now IACC-approved, Bedford offers the all-inclusive Benchmark Conference Plan, 20,000 square feet of function space, 216 guest rooms, and several dining outlets.
Plumbing, Wi-Fi and ergonomic chairs have no resemblance to past installs, and neither do the plush comfy beds, whirlpool bathtubs and marble-tiled baths. Yet delightful traces remain from when Bedford welcomed U.S. presidents and the celebrities of the day.
A few panes of window glass hold names of brides who etched their names there for posterity—to prove their diamonds were real. Wraparound porches and bentwood rocking chairs that provide an ideal vantage point of mountain vistas are still plentiful. Wall art throughout the resort’s halls and lobbies chronicle those bygone days: framed postcard greetings to relatives back home, vintage photographs of well-dressed Victorians in repose, and scenes of lawn bowling and croquet. Antique hats and hotel registries from the early days occupy display cases. Natural spring water that feeds a turn-of-the-20th-century pool still soothes guests inside the new Spring Eternal Spa wing of the hotel, and pathways lead to seven natural springs in the surrounding mountains.
Bedford’s restored 1895 golf course, with design elements by Spencer Oldham, A.W. Tillinghast and Donald Ross, offers plenty of new challenges with its renovated bunkers, tees and greens. Tennis, hiking, biking, river rafting, fishing on local streams and lakes, and touring historic covered bridges, homes and villages in the vicinity are still part of the Bedford scene.
For business groups, there’s even more good news. Bedford feels remote, but isn’t. It’s near the Pennsylvania Turnpike, within a three-hour drive or less from Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.
