Restoration completed at Warm Springs Pools.
When Bath County’s Warm Springs Pools (formerly Jefferson Pools) were closed in 2017, the news of their deteriorating condition saddened generations of Virginians for whom visiting the octagonal bathhouses—and floating in the 98 degree natural spring water—is a beloved tradition. Now, after a two-year delay, the Omni Homestead is moving forward to restore the pools with Richmond-based architecture firm 3North spearheading the project.
The first question the architects faced was this: restore the pools to when, exactly? “We decided on the mid-1920s,” says Ed Pillsbury, AIA, a principal with 3North. “It wouldn’t make sense to refer back to Jefferson’s day—the Ladies’ Bathhouse didn’t exist then.”
Built in the 1760s, the Gentlemen’s Bath was enclosed in the 1820s. The domed Ladies’ Bath followed in 1875 with the Reception House added in 1890. “By 1838, we found the earliest reference to people complaining that the pools were in need of repair,” Pillsbury notes. “So we’re part of this 150-year tradition of triaging it.”
Preserving the history and traditions surrounding the pools is a priority: “It’s a rehabilitation, not a reconstruction,” says Pillsbury. “If we don’t have to replace something, we won’t. These were wood buildings, so they should stay wood buildings.”
Also being restored, the name. “The Jefferson Pools was a name made up by a hotel manager in the 1990s,” Pillsbury explains. “So Omni has returned to the original name, the Warm Springs Pools. They deserve a lot of credit for taking steps now to preserve the character of the place.” The pools are reopening on December 17 following a 14-month, $4 million rehabilitation
