The Niagara of the South – a Gilded Age Retreat

by Denise Weimer 

I first discovered Tallulah Gorge in Northeast Georgia when I was a student at Toccoa Falls College, only a couple years before the area was designated a state park. It was a perfect place for hiking or overlooking the thousand-foot-deep canyon. As a young mom, I moved to Habersham County and learned over twenty lavish resorts had clung to the rim of the gorge during Gilded Age and Edwardian times. In fact, Tallulah Gorge with its series of six spectacular falls had drawn people from all over the nation and been dubbed “The Niagara of the South.” To power the city of Atlanta, Georgia Power Company dammed the river and constructed a large hydroelectric facility in 1912, greatly reducing the water flow. In 1921, a fire destroyed most of the hotels and brought an end to the glamorous tourist era. 

But let’s take a look at that time that sparked the writing of my first-ever novella, Redeeming Grace, re-released in July as A Summer at the Niagara of the South. 

Apart from early traders to the Cherokees, white men were not common in the area until Clarkesville, twelve miles south, served as a base for adventurous travelers. Some early settlers opened their homes as lodging, but it was not until 1870 that James P. Shirley built the first modern hotel a mile from the gorge.

In 1871, construction started on a rail line that reached Tallulah Falls in 1882 after the erection of several high wooden trestle bridges. The town was incorporated in 1885 with around a hundred year-round residents. The railroad continued north under the Tallulah Falls Railway Company, reaching Clayton in 1904 and Franklin, North Carolina, in 1907.

 

A number of hotels and cottages had been constructed by the 1880s. These included: 

• Young’s Hotel (1876) with 100 rooms and 3,000 feet of veranda, on the brink of the upper gorge above Indian Arrow Rapids. Nightly dancing, billiards and cards, horse and carriage rentals, tenpins, hunting, mineral springs. $3 per day in 1885.
• The Grand View (1886), two stories with a cupola and Victorian architecture, an expansive park to the south rim offering observation points of the middle gorge, mineral springs, bathing pool.
• The Cliff House (1882) on forty acres, over ninety rooms expanded to 140, dining room that could seat 250. Controlled popular access points to the upper gorge, including Witch’s Head and Devil’s Pulpit rock formations. Boardwalks and five-story observation tower at 76-foot Tempesta Falls. Lawn tennis, bowling, billiards, ping-pong, cards, band from Athens.
• Tallulah Lodge (1890s), a white Colonial structure with stately columns, featured views of the North Carolina mountains and a two-story lobby with willow chairs and a rock fireplace. Located a mile southeast of town. Over 150 rooms, fifty of which offered private baths.
• Tallulah Falls also boasted multiple boarding houses and cottages for rent, including the Robinson House, the Willard House, and Glenbrook Cottage.

Cliff House Porch

Observation Tower

 

Learn about the colorful real-life individuals from Tallulah Falls my heroine encounters in A Summer at the Niagara of the South in my next post!

Breaking under the stress as a rising opera star, Grace Galveston travels to Tallulah Falls in search of reprieve. With its multiple waterfalls, spectacular gorge, and lavish resorts, "The Niagara of the South," seems the perfect place. Local minister Daniel Monroe seems the perfect tour guide—until his heart gets entangled with the red-haired beauty with an angel’s voice. The trip sheds light on the secret pain in Grace’s heart. Can the possibility of love guide her toward healing, or will the call of her life back in New York mean even greater heartbreak?

https://www.amazon.com/Summer-Niagara-Romance-Gilded-Resorts-ebook/dp/B0CV91YK6Q/

Denise Weimer writes historical and contemporary romance from her home in North Georgia and also serves as a freelance editor and the Acquisitions & Editorial Liaison for Wild Heart Books. A mother of two wonderful young adult daughters, she always pauses for coffee, chocolate, and old houses.

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