Hotel Monte Sano

Monte Sano (Spanish for “Mountain of Health”), is a tranquil mountain overlooking Huntsville, Alabama. In the late 1800s, the North Alabama Improvement Company built a 233-room health spa and hotel on the mountain.

Not long after its opening, the Monte Sano Hotel became one of the top spas in the nation with registered guests including some famous names like the Vanderbilt family, William Waldorf Astor, Helen Keller, and Jay Gould. While operating it was known as the epitome of class and extravagance in Huntsville. It closed in 1900 but reopened in 1917 before closing once again and being torn down for salvage in 1944.

All that remains of the hotel is the brick chimney with little to show of the extravagance of its heyday.