In the beginning of the 20th century, the Hot Wells Hotel and Spa was the place to stay for anyone stopping in San Antonio. With fine dining, lavish decor, and celebrity guests to match—ranging from movie star Charlie Chaplin to director Cecil B. DeMille to former president Theodore Roosevelt—Hot Wells drew folks from around the world to soak in its sulfur water baths and stay in its luxurious rooms on the Southside of San Antonio. However, the property fell to ruin after the hotel burned in 1925, and the spa burned in the ’80s and ’90s. The famed resort was lost to history.
Hot Sulphur Baths first attracted health seekers to San Antonio in 1892 when Charles Scheuermeyer first used the 103 degree water from a nearby well to fill an indoor pool. In 1893, the well supplied an elaborate bathhouse near the San Antonio River and the Railroad Tracks… After a fire, it was replaced in 1901 by a local brewer and called the Hot Wells Hotel and Bathhouse…
In 2015, the property was donated to Bexar County and in April 2019, the remains of the Hot Wells Hotel and Spa were reincarnated as Hot Wells of Bexar County, a new public park with free access to observe the fenced-off ruin, its remaining cream brick walls detailed with rows of windows.