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What’s that smell?

Spring means stink at library’s bathhouse fountain

News Photo by Julie Riddle Alpena residents Perrin Wilson, 4, and her sister, Hadley, 3, hold their brand-new library cards on Tuesday at the George N. Fletcher Library.

ALPENA — Spring brings many things: flowers, butterflies, and, in Alpena, the smell of rotten eggs outside the Alpena County George N. Fletcher Public Library.

The library’s many loyal patrons have, over the years, grown accustomed to the sulphuric smell produced by the library’s fountain, which recently sprang back to life after a winter’s hiatus.

The fountain, despite its accomplaying aroma, is a piece of Alpena’s history, an enduring remnant of a different age.

On what is now the library’s site once stood a magnificent bathhouse, drawing visitors from far and wide to bathe in mineral waters, drawn from deep underground and purported to have curative properties.

The bathhouse, built in 1892 and described by newspapers of its time as “one of the most perfect and complete bathhouses in the United States,” housed 40 large bathing rooms in the basement, along with “three ladies’ and three gents’ reception rooms.” Water from a “magnetic stream,” according to news of the time, was pumped from 1,267 feet below ground and was said to cure rheumatism, paralysis, neuralgia, St. Vitus Dance (also known as Sydenham’s chorea a disorder causing jerking movements primarily in the face, hands and feet), gout, and dyspepsia.

At first a bustling tourist destination, the bathhouse decreased in popularity during the Great Depression and eventually closed. In the years that followed, the building was home to a succession of businesses, including Alpena Business College, Fletcher Power Co., and Fletcher Paper Co. It also briefly housed several county offices after the courthouse burned in 1932.

The stately building, which can be seen in a framed photo in the library’s overpass, was destroyed by fire in 1936. The property was sold to the City of Alpena for $100 in 1939 by Grace Fletcher King, with the stipulation that it be used for a library named after her late husband, or as a city park. The sale also required that the well to the mineral springs be maintained as long as flowage continues, wafting the scent of years past to today’s passersby.

The water’s odor comes from sulfate and carbonate washed from ancient sea beds, according to a report generated by Grand Valley State University. Colorful bacteria make their home in the water, growing with vigour in the water’s sulfate — and causing the distinct rotten egg smell.

The same bacteria, said to resemble microbial mats present at Earth’s beginning, are found in the underwater sinkhole off Middle Island near Rockport State Park, and are studied regularly by scientists from Grand Valley and the University of Michigan.

As it did in its heyday, the underground reservoir still provides what some people see as healing waters. Members of the public sometimes stop by for a jug of the strongly-scented water to take home, according to library staff, presumably in hopes that it still offers a cure for achy bodies.

Patron Susan Plowman, who volunteers as a tutor at the library, said she’s noticed the smell in her many visits, but it doesn’t take long to get used to the scent.

“It would never deter me from coming to the library,” Plowman said. “It’d have to be something really bad to do that.

“It’s part of the history, too, with using it to bathe,” she added. “To me, it’s a perfect fit.”

Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693 or jriddle@thealpenanews.com.

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