| History | Sprucedale Resort was a well-known and popular vacation place on Bear Creek in Jefferson County during the 19th century. Its original building was a hotel, whose origin Evergreen historians place as being a log bunkhouse for lumber workers in the area, probably dating to the 1860s. By 1872 this was converted into a hotel by Robert H. Stewart, known popularly as "Grandpa Stewart," who homesteaded 120 acres and by the early 1890s had built the institution into a popular resort destination. As of 1893 the resort boasted the hotel and 8 guest cottages, as well as a milk house, ice house, well, grain and vegetable gardens, and a large herd of dairy cows to supply boarders with pure milk, cream and butter. Stewart died in 1897 around the age of 75, and the place was also known as "The Old Stewart Hotel." It was purchased by the Episcopal church and remodeled and converted to the Evergreen Conference. |
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