1924 – 1940
The Bull family returns to Chick Springs. A 350-foot swimming pool, a ballroom, competing orchestras—and then the state builds a highway through the property and floods it all.
After nearly thirty years on North Main Street, Bull’s grocery business went into federal bankruptcy in 1924. A new operator reopened 309 North Main as “J.A. Bull’s Old Stand.” By 1925, the family had left the city and moved back to the springs. Bull turned his energy to the property he had never let go of. Within two years he would build the swimming pool, incorporate the ginger ale company, and begin the next chapter at Chick Springs.
The state highway department built Highway 29 across the Chick Springs property, installing an inadequate culvert. The road embankment acted as a dam across the natural drainage of Lick Creek. A flood in August 1928 damaged grounds and bridges but the lake’s storm gates held. The property’s flood vulnerability was structural, not accidental—and the state had created it.
The Bulls built a swimming pool fed by Lick Creek, beyond the springhouse. As the Greenville News reported on May 22, 1927, it was enormous: 350 by 150 feet, with a sand bottom, a flow-through sand filter on a 24-hour cycle, 15 feet deep under the 16-meter diving board, capacity 400 to 500 swimmers at a time, with sand shipped in by boxcar. The Chick Springs Ginger Ale Company was incorporated the same year with $10,000 in capital stock.
“Chick Springs Park” arch entrances marked two roads. A dance pavilion had a maple hardwood floor and 300 spectator benches. On May 31, 1929, the Wales Garden Ball Room opened with a “Battle of Music”—Duke Welborn’s Footwarmers against Turk McBee Jr.’s Recording Orchestra. Ted Williamson’s Eleven Piece Dance Band played Thursdays. Spectator admission 50 cents, dancing $1.50. Six weeks later, treasure hunts in the 2.25-acre lake offered prizes of fountain pens and Chick Springs Ginger Ale. Del Padgett and his “Troubles” played Friday dances until 2 AM.
On August 9, 1929, the Greenville News advertised a treasure hunt at the Chick Springs swimming lake—divers competing for fountain pens, bathing suits, cigarette cases, dance tickets, $10 in cash prizes, and bottles of Chick Springs Ginger Ale. Afterward, Del Padgett and his “Troubles” played the Friday night dance from 9:30 until 2:00 in the morning. It was the peak of summer. Seven weeks later, the September 26 flood would bury the amusement park under mud and debris.
After heavy rains on September 26, 1929, the dammed embankment flooded the entire site. The amusement park and surrounding structures were completely submerged. The springs themselves filled with sand and mud. This was not a natural disaster. The state built a road to modernize the area and destroyed the thing that had made it worth connecting to. The Chick Springs Water Company would take the fight to the South Carolina Supreme Court. Six weeks earlier, the park had been hosting treasure hunts and 2 AM dances.
In June 1931, the Chick Springs Water Company sued the State Highway Department, alleging that the Greenville-Greer highway had been built with a culvert inadequate to handle drainage. When heavy rains came on September 26, 1929, the culvert failed and the amusement park flooded—buildings were damaged and the mineral springs filled with mud and sand. The Highway Department argued it was an act of God. The Circuit Court dismissed the case, but the South Carolina Supreme Court reversed: the constitutional right to compensation for property takings is self-executing—no legislative permission needed to sue the state. At trial before Judge T.J. Mauldin, J.A. Bull testified as proprietor. Twelve witnesses were heard over two days; the jury visited the site. The decision was still being cited in law review articles nearly fifty years later. Five days after testimony ended, the park ran a full-page ad for swimming and dancing as usual. The Bulls were not giving up.
After Steedly’s death in January, E.C. Bailey of Greer was appointed receiver. The case was Greer Bank and Trust Company vs. Steedly Clinic and Mrs. F.P. Steedly. The clinic closed in December 1932. “The Great Depression did what war and fire couldn’t do,” Bainbridge wrote. By 1936, the Sunday afternoon concerts and maple-floor dances had ended. The Depression killed what was left of the gathering place.
A letter on House Military Affairs Committee letterhead reported that FDR’s physician, Dr. McIntire, wanted the President to try the water. Bull sent a five-gallon demijohn to the White House. Even as the property crumbled, the water’s reputation traveled.
The Water Company charter was cancelled for failure to pay taxes. The land was deeded to Bull as sole director, sole stockholder, and sole creditor—every other director except Berry was dead. In February 1937, the hotel and 30 acres sold at federal foreclosure auction. R.E. Foil, a Spartanburg car dealer, bought the bondholders’ bid for $15,000. By December 1938, the hotel was operating as cheap rental apartments. In February 1939, Vernon Taylor was liquidating 200-horsepower boilers and a 100,000-gallon water tank at “give away price.” In March 1940, the Greenville News photographed the hotel being razed for what the newspaper called a “$10,000 subdivision”—a handful of parcels carved from the old resort grounds along what is now Hotel Street. Foil carved the old resort grounds into five parcels and sold them off: Dr. J.E. Brunson bought the 27-acre hotel site—with explicit mineral spring rights written into the deed. G.F. Norris took a 5-acre factory parcel. C.E. Patat bought two lots. Mrs. Helen Cofer bought a small lot on Hillview Drive. And J.A. Bull acquired the largest remaining tract. The property that had operated as a single gathering place for a century splintered into deeds held by strangers.
G. Furman Norris opened Norris Manufacturing Company on 5 acres purchased from Foil, making sportswear in the ancillary buildings left from the hospital era. By 1966, the operation had grown to 40,000 square feet, 300 sewing machines, and 350 production employees making “Norris Casuals.” Stone Manufacturing Company acquired it as its eighth plant. The site of the old Chick Springs Hotel became a factory floor.
On March 10, 1940, the Greenville News published a photograph of the Chick Springs Hotel being torn down. The caption noted it had served as hotel, military academy, vocational school, and hospital over its twenty-six-year life. R.E. Foil of Spartanburg was developing the site into a small residential subdivision on the bluff overlooking the Enoree River. The building that had housed 119 guests, trained cadets, and treated the sick was reduced to lumber and scrap. The spring ran on beneath it all.