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The story below is an excerpt from our January/February 2018 issue. For the rest of this story and more like it subscribe today, log in to read our digital edition or download our FREE iOS app. Thank you!
Caverns’ owner T. C. Northcott was obsessed with the 54-degree cave air, and was convinced of its restorative benefits.
At the turn of the 20th century, the founder of the Luray Caverns Corporation, T.C. Northcott, erected what amounted to the nation’s first air-conditioned building, atop the summit of Cave Hill in Luray, Virginia. Northcott was a heating and ventilation engineer, and the project was the culmination of his 20-year obsession with cave air, which he believed could provide miraculous restorative benefits for those suffering from respiratory illness.
“After investigating the caves of New York, Ohio and Virginia, he secured building and park privileges over the Luray Caverns as a site comprising the greatest number of healthful and attractive features,” wrote Dr. Guy L. Hunner, a surgeon at the John Hopkins University Medical School, who visited Northcott’s Limair Sanatorium in 1901.
In addition to its location directly above the caverns, the site looked out on the Page Valley and was surrounded by a panorama of mountains—the Massanutten range to the west and the Blue Ridge to the east.
Drilling through the rock into a cavern chamber, Northcott installed a ventilation shaft five feet in diameter and equipped it with a fan powered by a five-horsepower steam engine, enabling him to pump cave air into the sanatorium 24 hours a day. Thus, convalescents could breathe a continuous supply of curative air while enjoying abundant sunlight and great views.
During the summers, there was an additional benefit: “The air drawn from the caverns being about 54 degrees, when forced into the building, cools the rooms to any degree comfort may demand, however intense the heat prevailing outside,” observed Hunner. In winter, the air was warmed by passing through a series of coils filled with boiling water. Humidity was regulated by a series of condensers.
