Qualla: Orkney Springs Hotel https://qualla.com/orkney-springs-hotel en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:07 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/z/u/orkney-springs-hotel-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Orkney Springs Hotel https://qualla.com/orkney-springs-hotel Orkney Springs Hotel: Introduction https://qualla.com/orkney-springs-hotel/ Photo credit GreyHoodieLady, CC BY-SA 3.0. Virginia House is a hundred feet by a hundred and sixty-five, four stories of stuccoed frame in the shape of a giant capital H. A three-story verandah wraps the front and inside corners. The whole hotel - 175 bedrooms - was built between 1873 and 1876, when Americans still believed mineral water could cure almost anything and the resorts that sold them that water were among the grandest buildings in the country.

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Image: GreyHoodieLady | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/z/u/orkney-springs-hotel-wp/dnzu-orkney-springs-hotel-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Orkney Springs Hotel: The Springs Came First https://qualla.com/orkney-springs-hotel/ Photo credit GreyHoodieLady, CC BY-SA 3.0. The water came first, the buildings followed. Orkney Springs sits in a fold of the Shenandoah Mountains in northern Virginia, where iron-rich mineral water bubbles up cold from the rock. By the middle of the 19th century, mountain mineral springs were the American answer to Europ...

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Image: GreyHoodieLady | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/z/u/orkney-springs-hotel-wp/dnzu-orkney-springs-hotel-the-springs-came-first.mp3 0:06 2 full Orkney Springs Hotel: An H-Shape Full of Galleries https://qualla.com/orkney-springs-hotel/ Photo credit GreyHoodieLady, CC BY-SA 3.0. Virginia House was designed for hot Shenandoah summers in the era before electricity. The H-shaped footprint meant cross-ventilation through every wing. The wraparound three-story verandah turned the entire facade into an outdoor room, allowing guests to walk, lounge, and sociali...

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Image: GreyHoodieLady | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/z/u/orkney-springs-hotel-wp/dnzu-orkney-springs-hotel-an-h-shape-full-of-galleries.mp3 0:06 3 full Orkney Springs Hotel: The Spa Industry Collapses https://qualla.com/orkney-springs-hotel/ Photo credit GreyHoodieLady, CC BY-SA 3.0. American mineral spring resorts had a brutal 20th century. Modern medicine made their health claims look quaint. Automobiles let visitors travel further than the nearest mountain hollow. Air conditioning replaced the high-altitude breezes that had made the trade possible in the f...

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Image: GreyHoodieLady | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/z/u/orkney-springs-hotel-wp/dnzu-orkney-springs-hotel-the-spa-industry-collapses.mp3 0:06 4 full Orkney Springs Hotel: Listed and Still Standing https://qualla.com/orkney-springs-hotel/ Photo credit GreyHoodieLady, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Orkney Springs Hotel complex was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, just over a century after Virginia House opened. The listing recognized the full ensemble - Maryland House (1853), Pennsylvania House (1867), Virginia House (1873-1876), the seven cott...

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]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/z/u/orkney-springs-hotel-wp/dnzu-orkney-springs-hotel-listed-and-still-standing.mp3 0:06 5 full