Amusement Park and the Flood

The Bulls built a swimming pool fed by Lick Creek, beyond the springhouse. As the Greenville News reported on May 22, 1927, it was enormous: 350 by 150 feet, with a sand bottom, a flow-through sand filter on a 24-hour cycle, 15 feet deep under the 16-meter diving board, capacity 400 to 500 swimmers at a time, with sand shipped in by boxcar. The Chick Springs Ginger Ale Company was incorporated the same year with $10,000 in capital stock.

“Chick Springs Park” arch entrances marked two roads. A dance pavilion had a maple hardwood floor and 300 spectator benches. On May 31, 1929, the Wales Garden Ball Room opened with a “Battle of Music”—Duke Welborn’s Footwarmers against Turk McBee Jr.’s Recording Orchestra. Ted Williamson’s Eleven Piece Dance Band played Thursdays. Spectator admission 50 cents, dancing $1.50. Six weeks later, treasure hunts in the 2.25-acre lake offered prizes of fountain pens and Chick Springs Ginger Ale. Del Padgett and his “Troubles” played Friday dances until 2 AM.

After heavy rains on September 26, 1929, the dammed embankment flooded the entire site. The amusement park and surrounding structures were completely submerged. The springs themselves filled with sand and mud. This was not a natural disaster. The state built a road to modernize the area and destroyed the thing that had made it worth connecting to. The Chick Springs Water Company would take the fight to the South Carolina Supreme Court. Six weeks earlier, the park had been hosting treasure hunts and 2 AM dances.

The Water Company charter was cancelled for failure to pay taxes. The land was deeded to Bull as sole director, sole stockholder, and sole creditor—every other director except Berry was dead. In February 1937, the hotel and 30 acres sold at federal foreclosure auction. R.E. Foil, a Spartanburg car dealer, bought the bondholders’ bid for $15,000. By December 1938, the hotel was operating as cheap rental apartments. In February 1939, Vernon Taylor was liquidating 200-horsepower boilers and a 100,000-gallon water tank at “give away price.” In March 1940, the Greenville News photographed the hotel being razed for what the newspaper called a “$10,000 subdivision”—a handful of parcels carved from the old resort grounds along what is now Hotel Street. Foil carved the old resort grounds into five parcels and sold them off: Dr. J.E. Brunson bought the 27-acre hotel site—with explicit mineral spring rights written into the deed. G.F. Norris took a 5-acre factory parcel. C.E. Patat bought two lots. Mrs. Helen Cofer bought a small lot on Hillview Drive. And J.A. Bull acquired the largest remaining tract. The property that had operated as a single gathering place for a century splintered into deeds held by strangers.