Greeting's From Huntsville, Hotel Monte Sano
Cameron Sandusky, Fall 2024
The Hotel Monte Sano was a 233-room hotel built in 1887 by the North Alabama Improvement Company (NAIC) from funding provided by Micheal and James O’Shaughnessy during the reconstruction period of the South after the Civil War. The hotel opened on June 1st, 1887 to serve as a health resort on the Monte Sano Mountain and was one of the top hotels in Huntsville and would provide a scenic view of the mountain to the people who purchased rooms. The attractive scenery and location attracted many wealthy vacationers to the hotel from across the nation from Helen Keller to the Vanderbilt family who all stayed in the hotel. For the hotel to transport the guests between Huntsville and the location there was a special 7-mile long railroad built between them. This helped the Spa become one of the nation's leading spas with well over 1000 guests by August. The Monte Sano Hotel served as the epitome of class and luxury and class on the Monte Sano until 1900.
In 1900 the hotel shut down for the first time due to a plethora of reasons. Due to a lack of maintenance, the road leading to the hotel had fallen into such disrepair that guests could no longer get to the hotel without significant struggle. Ultimately, this led to an accident with a carriage that had frightened future guests from coming back up the road causing them to shut down. This led to the hotel being in a weird state of investors and groups trying to revamp the hotel and open back up, while also letting the grounds of the hotel fall into total mayhem with animals running wild upon the grounds. In 1909 the hotel was sold to Lena Garth for $20,000 for everything. Later, in November of 1916, it was announced that the hotel was being prepared for a grand reopening as a country club. The new Monte Sano Hotel was one of the largest and most select country club’s in the nation with many activities. They intended to construct a gold course, tennis and fishing would be available, a celebrated pack of fox hounds so they could be hunted, horse stables, and many indoor pursuits from bowling to dancing. This new club would be open all year and provide rooms for overnight guests. The original date of reopening was set for January 1st; however, plumbing and electrical wiring needed to be redone before the club could be opened up to its members. Ultimately, the grand reopening became more informal and the club was opened infrequently. When the club needed investment in 1917 they found themself out of luck due to the war so they never formally opened. In 1944 the building was sold for salvage causing it to get torn down and only a chimney of the hotel is left now. This chimney is very easy to find if you drive down Old Chimney Road right outside of Huntsville aptly named after the last remains of the once grandiose hotel that lay there before the road.
Bibliography
Sandusky, Cameron, Hotel Monte Sano Chimney. October 9, 2024
Watson, Raymond C, "The Huntsville Historical Review, Vol. 41, No. 2, Fall-Winter 2016." Huntsville Historical Review 41, no. 2: Article 1. Accessed [October 5th, 2024]. https://louis.uah.edu/huntsville-historical-review/vol41/iss2/1.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Professor Grimsley and the honors college at the University of Alabama in Huntsville for the opportunity to write this paper. I would like to also thank Krisna for driving me to the site. I would like to send a further thanks to Dr. James McMurray for allowing us to go onto his property to take a picture of the site.
