The many lives of Tallapoosa’s grand hotel

A home with too many callers

Reporter Kate Smith described residents using only a few rooms on the first two floors. Mrs. Gilmore said sightseers had become so numerous that the household put up a sign asking them to stay away. Someone always remained home because of the fire risk. [1]

Smith reported that the Gilmores had visited Tallapoosa on their honeymoon and found the hotel romantic. Years later, they returned to make it their home. That gives the building’s later years a human scale: a household carrying on inside an enormous former resort. [1]

How did a hotel built to welcome visitors become a place whose residents needed a little peace? The records lead back to a town with large ambitions, and a building whose future was uncertain even before it opened.

An auction before the grand opening

In May 1891, the Savannah Morning News reprinted a Tallapoosa Journal report about preparations to resume work on the Lithia Springs Hotel. J. H. Plummer, an official of the Georgia-Alabama Investment and Development Company, had returned from the East, and contractor Keller of Bluffton was preparing to push the building toward completion. [2]

Eleven months later, the story had taken another turn. An April 17, 1892 report said the unfinished hotel had been sold at auction to Mrs. Matilda Goodwin of New York for $18,000. A receiver still had matters to settle, but a completion contract had been signed and money deposited at the Merchants’ and Miners’ Bank. The contract called for finishing the hotel within ten weeks. [3]

That $18,000 was the reported auction price. The deed and court papers remain to be found. Still, the newspaper supplies a named purchaser and a financial interruption that belong in the hotel’s story.

What the hotel offered

The National Register history describes a 175-room hotel operating in 1892, with a ballroom, mineral springs and recreation grounds. Tallapoosa was trying to draw visitors as well as investment, and the resort was part of that ambition. [4]

By 1897, a Rand McNally guide listed Lithia Springs Hotel with a $3 rate and room for 250 guests. The listing put Tallapoosa before a national traveling public, offering a stop along a much larger journey. [5]

The 1908 photograph reproduced here preserves something a list of amenities cannot: the turrets, porches and wooded setting of the hotel itself. Its exact photography date is not given. [6]

Closed, then open again

Tallapoosa’s 1908 promotional booklet makes a surprisingly frank admission about Hotel Lithia: “At present it is not being operated.” It adds that there were prospects for a winter season. The hope mattered to the writer, but it was still a hope. [6]

An April 1909 newspaper notice reported that Mr. and Mrs. D. L. Kline of Newark, New Jersey, were examining the property with a view to leasing and running it. Whether they reached an agreement remains unknown. [7]

By summer 1910, the record becomes firmer. An advertisement signed W. H. Jackson, Tallapoosa, announced that Lithia Springs Hotel was open for the season. It offered shady walks, drives, summer amusements and reasonable rates. [8]

Then came an event beyond the advertisement: the Dalton Argus reported a banquet at Lithia Hotel during an August 1910 state convention. Together, the notices show renewed activity after the 1908 closure. They make it difficult to tell this history as a single closing followed by decades of silence. [9]

The dancing continued

Tallapoosa society columns in July 1915 and March 1916 mention dances at the Lithia Hotel. These short notices do not establish that paying overnight guests were still being received, but they do show people gathering there. [10] [11]

The National Register account carries that social life forward to July 4, 1935, when it describes a formal dance with an orchestra and floorshow at the Lithia Hotel, then a private residence. The original invitation, program or contemporary report would be a welcome find. [4]

What became of the hotel?

Later accounts place its dismantling in the early 1940s, but they disagree on the year. The historical society’s walking tour gives 1942. The National Register history and a later Georgia Archives description give 1943. A dated demolition notice or contract could help resolve that difference. [4] [12] [13]

The walking tour says heart pine went into local houses, furnishings passed into residents’ hands, and copper from the roof went to the U.S. Navy. The National Register uses the cautious word “reputedly” for lumber reuse. Those accounts are worth following, though specific houses, objects and the Navy transfer still need documentation. [4] [12]

One complication is already visible: Smith’s 1941 feature says some living-room furnishings came with the family from Chicago. An item associated with the residents was not necessarily original hotel furniture. [1]

The part a neighbor may still hold

The West Georgia Museum of Tallapoosa has a replica of the hotel. In a 2019 oral-history interview, museum founder Bud Jones said original plans had been found and used by a contractor in developing the model. Finding those drawings would let us look much more closely at the building. [14] [15]

There may also be a smaller record in a family album or drawer: an invitation, a room receipt, a letter, a photograph with names on the back, or a bill for lumber. It need not be spectacular to be useful.

A hotel can disappear while connections to it remain. The task now is to give those connections names, dates and a record that the next curious neighbor can follow.

Sources and further reading

Sources reviewed October 18, 2026. Bracketed numbers lead to the supporting records below. Dates and measurements describe the historical record.

1. Kate Smith — “Three Live in 150-Room House,” July 31, 1941
   Jackson Herald, page 6; credited to the Atlanta Journal. Original scan checked. The Journal’s original publication date has not been established.
2. Morning News — construction report, May 17, 1891
   Page 12, reprinting the Tallapoosa Journal. Names J. H. Plummer and contractor Keller of Bluffton; describes preparations to resume construction.
3. Morning News — hotel auction report, April 17, 1892
   Page 12, reprinting the Tallapoosa Journal. Original scan confirms Matilda Goodwin and $18,000. The underlying deed, court file and completion contract have not been inspected.
4. National Register — North Tallapoosa Residential Historic District
   Later preservation history, printed pages 22, 27 and 29. Describes hotel facilities, a 1935 dance and reputed lumber reuse. It gives 1943 for dismantling; the underlying dance and salvage records remain to be checked.
5. Rand, McNally & Co. — Handy Guide to the Southeastern States, 1897
   Page 129 lists Lithia Springs Hotel at $3 with capacity for 250 guests. Title-page date and passage checked in the digitized text. A published listing does not establish actual occupancy.
6. Tallapoosa, Georgia: Its Past, Present and Future — 1908 booklet
   L. Burd, publisher. Hotel photograph on PDF page 8; hotel operating status on printed page 20, PDF page 28. Published to promote the town. Photograph reproduced from the Library of Congress copy digitized by Internet Archive.
7. Atlanta Semi-Weekly Journal — proposed lease, April 16, 1909
   Page 9, State News in Brief. The Klines were considering a lease; the report does not establish a completed agreement. Scan checked.
8. Atlanta Georgian and News — opening advertisement, July 5, 1910
   Page 13, Hotels classifieds. Scan checked. Similar advertisements also appeared in June, July and September; those repetitions are one campaign, not independent accounts.
9. Dalton Argus — Tallapoosa convention and banquet, August 18, 1910
   Image 7, report datelined Tallapoosa, August 12. Describes a banquet at Lithia Hotel for the state council of the Junior Order of American Mechanics. Scan checked.
10. Atlanta Georgian — Tallapoosa society news, July 18, 1915
    The Tallapoosa column reports a Thursday-evening dance at Lithia Hotel. The archive image number is 159; it is not a printed page number.
11. Atlanta Georgian — Tallapoosa society news, March 19, 1916
    Tallapoosa column, archive image 178. Another dance notice; social use alone does not establish lodging service.
12. Tallapoosa Historical Society — Historic District Walking Tour
    Explore Georgia-hosted brochure, final PDF page. Gives 1942 and accounts of heart pine, furnishings and Navy copper. No inspected receipt or chain of custody confirms the individual transfers.
13. Georgia Archives / Digital Library of Georgia — hotel postcard, circa 1910
    Vanishing Georgia, hrl039-84. A descriptive note added in 2003 gives 1943 for demolition. The archival postcard is linked, not reproduced here.
14. Bud Jones oral history — February 11, 2019
    University of West Georgia interview by Michael Camp, around 01:03:12. Jones describes finding plans and using them for the museum model. The drawings themselves have not been examined.
15. Explore Georgia — West Georgia Museum
    Museum listing includes the hotel replica. Confirm current visiting arrangements with the museum before traveling.