Hotel Riverside, Riverside Inn, The Inn at Riverside, and simply the Riverside: Since it opened in May 1877, locals and guests at the Cambridge Springs hotel in northwestern Pennsylvania have known her by all of these names. She was the first before all other eleven hotels and over thirty cottages that were to follow during the mineral water boom years of the 1880-1920s. She was the last to still serve as a hotel in the community and in the grandest fashion. Conceived as a sanitarium,...
More DescriptionHotel Riverside, Riverside Inn, The Inn at Riverside, and simply the Riverside: Since it opened in May 1877, locals and guests at the Cambridge Springs hotel in northwestern Pennsylvania have known her by all of these names. She was the first before all other eleven hotels and over thirty cottages that were to follow during the mineral water boom years of the 1880-1920s. She was the last to still serve as a hotel in the community and in the grandest fashion. Conceived as a sanitarium, revamped as a health spa, and transitioned into a hotel and resort, Riverside provided hospitality to the wealthy and for the common man as well as employment for thousands for 130 glorious years. That all ended in one devastating night of May 2, 2017, when fire took her to the ground by morning.This text by the members of the Cambridge Springs Heritage Society sets down the Riverside¿s story from the discovery of Dr. John H. Gray¿s mineral spring in 1859 through the changes in ownership and trends of the day to that unimaginable night of the fire. Through their research and photographs, the Heritage Society members endeavor to share the facts and images such that the Riverside will never be forgotten.