MapMuse - Locate Berkeley Springs, WV Near You

...'round festivals, live music and theater.

Friendly people, welcoming mountains and a sense of place mark Berkeley Springs, West Virginia as a vacation getaway for all seasons and tastes.

It is incorporated as Bath, but is referred to by the name of its post office, Berkeley Springs. The population was 663 at the 2000 census.

The town was a popular resort area during the early years of the United States. The mineral springs drew many visitors from metropolitan areas. Notable visitors to the area included George Washington and James Rumsey. Berkeley Springs is a sister city to Bath, Somerset, England and features an authentic British castle that overlooks the town known as "Berkeley Castle".

History

In 1748, George Washington, then just 16 years old, was part of the survey party the surveyed the Eastern Panhandle region for Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron. He later returned several times over the next several years with his half-brother, Laurence, who was ill and hoped that the warm springs might improve his health. The springs, and their rumored medicinal benefits, attracted numerous Native Americans as well as Europeans to the area.

While vacationing in the area in 1767, Washington made note of how busy the town had become. Lord Fairfax had built a summer home there and a "private bath" making the area a popular destination for Virginia's social elite. As the town continued to grow, the Virginia General Assembly decided to formally recognize it. In October 1776, the town was officially named Bath, in honor of England's spa city of Bath. The town's main north-south street was named Washington and the main east-west street was named Fairfax. Also, seven acres (28,000 m²) were set aside for "suffering humanity." When West Virginia gained statehood, that area became West Virginia's first state park, Berkeley Springs State Park.

Bath's population increased during and immediately after the American Revolutionary War as wounded soldiers and others came to the area believing that the warm springs had medicinal qualities. Bath gained a reputation as a somewhat wild town where eating, drinking, dancing and, gambling on the daily horse races were the order of the day.

Bath later became known as Berkeley Springs, primarily because the town's post office took that name (combining Governor Norborne Berkeley's last name with the warm springs found there) to avoid confusion with another post office, located in southeastern Virginia, which was already called Bath. Because the mail was sent to and from Berkeley Springs, that name slowly took precedence.