Hotel Mudlavia

The original Mudlavia Hotel

Hotel Mudlavia (commonly referred to simply as Mudlavia, and originally named the Indiana Springs Company) was a hotel and spa built on the site of a natural spring near the town of Kramer in Warren County, Indiana. The spring was discovered by Samuel Story, a Civil War soldier who, in August 1884, was reputed to have been working in the mud digging a drainage ditch. He drank water from the spring and discovered that his rheumatism symptoms gradually disappeared.

Harry L. Kramer developed the concept and opened the beautiful hotel on December 25, 1890 at a cost of $250,000.[n 1] It served guests for many years and drew visitors from around the world including such famous people as John L. Sullivan, James Bingham, James Whitcomb Riley, Harry Lauder, Captain Jack Crawford, and Paul Dresser. The building was destroyed by fire on February 29, 1920.

A smaller building was constructed and was operated as a rest home and later a restaurant called "Pleasant Valley Lodge". After Pleasant Valley Lodge closed its doors, another returned the building to its original name of Mudlavia Lodge and operated until it burned in 1974.

Later, water from the springs was bottled and sold by Indianapolis-based Cameron Springs company, which was acquired by the Perrier Group of America in 2000 for about $10.5 million.[2] As of 2008 the water was still being sold and was marketed under a variety of names.[3]

Notes

  1. ↑ A $250,000 capital expense in 1890 would be roughly equivalent to $47,000,000 in 2009.[1]

References

  1. ↑ Williamson, Samuel H. (April 2010). Seven Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a U.S. Dollar Amount, 1774 to present. MeasuringWorth. Calculations made using Nominal GDP Per Capita, a measure of capital intensivity, using "the 'average' per-person output of the economy in the prices of the current year." This is a measure of the amount of capital and volume of labor required to reproduce the work over varying production methods, but assuming that money represents a proportion of the economy.
  2. ↑ SEC/National Wine and Spirits Inc. (2000-06-28). "SEC Info – National Wine and Spirits Inc. 10K for 3/31/2000". p. 10. Retrieved 2007-09-30.
  3. ↑ Marimen, Mark; Willis, James A.; Taylor, Troy; Moran, Mark (2008). Weird Indiana: Your Travel Guide to Indiana's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets. New York: Sterling Publishing Company, Inc. p. 231. ISBN 978-1-4027-5452-4.

Bibliography