Ponce de Leon Springs was a mineral spring in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States. The spring was a popular tourist destination from the mid-1800s through the early 1900s. Around the turn of the century, the land surrounding the spring was developed into an amusement park. By the 1920s, the amusement park was demolished, and the area was developed for industrial and, later, commercial properties.
Residents of Atlanta had known of the spring, which was located about northeast of downtown Atlanta, since the early 1800s, though it was not until the mid-1800s that they became a popular tourist area as a local destination spa. The mineral content of the water was thought to provide health benefits to drinkers, and the spring was named in reference to the legend of Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León's search for the Fountain of Youth. By the 1870s, there was a streetcar line extending from downtown to the spring, following a route that would later become Ponce de Leon Avenue, one of the city's busiest thoroughfares. In the early 1900s, the spring was sold to developers who created an amusement park on the site, nicknaming it "the Coney Island of Atlanta". By the 1920s, the amusement park's popularity began to wane and the land was eventually sold to Sears, Roebuck and Co., who built their regional distribution and retail headquarters on the site. Today, the building is Ponce City Market, a mixed-use development, and some of the original land that was home to the spring has been developed into the Historic Fourth Ward Park.
History
Early history
In the United States in the 1800s, numerous mineral spas were developed around naturally occurring mineral springs. These locations, such as Saratoga Springs in New York and White Sulphur Springs in Virginia, were very popular tourist locations as destination spas, while the mineral water produced at the springs was sought out for its perceived health effects. In the U.S. state of Georgia, there were eleven such mineral springs that had been commercially developed prior to the American Civil War, though many of those resorts were destroyed during that conflict. In Atlanta, Georgia, around the mid-1800s, there were several natural springs that provided the city's residents with fresh drinking water and leisure areas, such as the Atlanta Mineral Spring. Another spring located in the Atlanta metropolitan area was the Ponce de Leon Springs. This spring was located northeast of the city, about outside of the city limits and away from Downtown Atlanta. The area was a low-lying vale where two creeks met, and the spring itself was surrounded by a grove of beech trees. Not far from the area to the southeast was another well-known spring called Angier Spring. People in the area had known of the Ponce de Leon Springs since at least the early 1800s. Between 1818 and 1820, John Young, a cattle rancher from the area, built a house near the spring, and by the 1830s, the spring was being used as a source of drinking water for some local residents. The water originated from a source rock of gneiss and biotite, with the water being chalybeate. The water was considered medicinal and good for health because of its mineral quality. As a result, in the 1860s, Henry L. Wilson, a retired physician from Atlanta, named the spring the Ponce de Leon Springs as a reference to the legend of Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León and his search for the Fountain of Youth.