The hotel opened on June 1, 1887 as a luxury health resort. It was built by the North Alabama Improvement Company with funding from Michael and James O'Shaughnessy. The hotel closed in 1900 and was demolished in 1944.
The O'Shaughnessy Place, nicknamed "Castle Delight," was built in 1885 by Col. James and Lucy O'Shaughnessy. It was a two-story Queen Anne-style house with four chimneys, gas lights, water lines, and indoor plumbing. Col. O'Shaughnessy was a cotton and real estate broker, seaport and railroad developer, and co-owner of the Huntsville Hotel, Huntsville Opera House, Hotel Monte Sano, and the Monte Sano Railway and Turnpike. The house burned in March 1890 and was demolished in the 1920s.
