I LOVED YOU ONCE

I LOVED YOU ONCE ©Tammy Sullivan Poem and Photo

The Tatum Springs hotel was once a thriving vacation spot.  It catered to the elite and wealthy patrons.  I had a neighbor, who told me that, when she was a child, they would travel by horse and carriage to the hotel and spring.  The springs were told to  have healing waters.  That is why In its heyday they would have thousands of visitors.
Later the hotel became a 4-H camp.  Also churches would have camp here.
When I first saw what was left of, the once famous Hotel and spring, It reminded me of a place right out of a western movie.  I could picture women standing on the balcony’s yelling to the men below.  It could have been a brothel in any John Wayne movie. The gingerbread trim in the eves, and the porches wrapping around the face of the hotel.
I made many trips to this spot.  Taking pictures and connecting with it’s originality and beauty.  I had never seen a place as beautiful as here.  I loved it.  And I was heart broken when I heard it had burned to the ground.  All that is left now is the chimneys.  It is so sad to loose this beautiful peace of history.

I loved you once  TammySullivan
I LOVED YOU ONCE ©Tammy Sullivan
(I wrote this about Tatum Springs hotel. The pic was taken, inside the hotel around 1989)
I loved you once, a long time ago.
What has happened since? I don’t know.
I was in a trance, captured by your spell.
The most breathtaking, haunting, magnificent hotel.
You stood like a ghostly, spirit in the evening haze.
Leaving me consumed, excited and dazed.
This is where it all started, My love for the abandon.
It started with you my, wonderful, mansion.
The porches were crumbling, the windows were gone.
I was dreaming of the times and things forgone.
Taking a peek inside, a wonder I saw.
The winding staircase that was about to fall.
Inside this secluded, lonely château.
The connection I felt, that no one would know.
©Tammy Sullivan 2015
http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/history/river-city-retro/2015/07/10/bingham-camp-revived-tatham-springs-resort/29980039/