EDITOR’S NOTE: The following article, which originally appeared in The Pilot in 1994, was reprinted from "The American Monthly Illustrated Review of Reviews, January 1901.

Many years ago, a pen tipped with light wrote a new and deeper meaning into the word patriotism than it had ever had before. "The Man Without A Country" went into many tongues, bearing its messages.

The pen that wrote the story has lately written of a matter which bears a close relationship to the life of the individual instead of the life of the nation.

It is in this clear-cut Saxon fashion that Edward Everett Hale writes of his experiences at a North Carolina health resort: "Ever since I returned home, I have been saying to tired people and worried people who have notes to meet: ‘Why don’t you go to Pinehurst? At Pinehurst,’ I have said, ‘there is no care. At Pinehurst you do as you choose. At Pinehurst you simply breathe sweet air and drink pure water, and walk under the blue sky and meet pleasant people, and you do not know that there is any worry in the world.’"

This expresses with rare aptness the sentiment toward Pinehurst which is held by rapidly growing numbers of refined people in all parts of the country. The causes for it may be worth discovering.

In the first place, Pinehurst stands for something very wholesome and fine — for an ideal that is full of the life of outdoors. The village is the physical embodiment of a businessman’s dream. Some years ago, James W. Tufts, of Boston, conceived the plan of a resort in the South where people from the North could go in the winter (not merely for a day or a week, but for a season) and find the sort of rest that builds up and makes new again. The plan found a place in the long leaf pine region of North Carolina, on the Piedmont plateau, midway between the wet coast and the cold mountains. Nature having done so much for the region in equable climate, dry and pine-laden air, pleasing landscape, and winter blossoms, it only remained for man to make the spot habitable, to furnish the necessary appurtenances and comforts for a desirable home. The sanitary advantages of the long leaf pine district had long been conceded. With the establishment and development of Pinehurst, they were made available for people needing just that sort of resort.

Here Tufts bought 6,000 acres of pineland, and began zealously to put his plan into visible form, so men could see and pass judgment on it. That was six years ago. Today, the beautiful and stately Carolina, the largest hotel in the state; the comfortable Holly Inn, the Berkshire, and many other places of sojourn, grading down in size to the 50 attractive cottages — some of them as small as three rooms — appear as evidence that something worthwhile has been done. These hotels and cottages are in a setting designed by the famous landscape architects, the Olmsteads, who worked out, as they have always done, a treatment that was in full harmony with the surroundings. The result is highly satisfactory and artistic.

The town site is laid out in the form of a beautiful park, with gracefully winding streets, thousands of semi-tropical shade trees, and a profusion of ornamental plants and shrubbery. In this setting, beside the buildings named, there are a handsome casino, a department store, a village hall, and a schoolhouse — something over six buildings in all — the entire tract remaining under Tufts ownership, no land or houses being for sale.

All about are the endless stretches of rolling country, fresh with the bracing odor of the pines. The dry air, the pure water from cool springs, the clear skies, all give zest to life. It is this rare combination of outdoor pleasures and indoor comforts that makes the charm of Pinehurst, and that is drawing so many people to it each winter.

It was the owner’s original idea to furnish winter guests with the privacy of home life; and, with this in view, some 50 artistic cottages were built and completely furnished with the necessities for housekeeping, excepting table and bed linen. But soon Pinehurst’s popularity became so great and so far-reaching that there came the demand for hotel life, with its luxuries and its freedom from care and responsibility. To meet this demand the three fine hotels named about have been erected.

The Holly Inn is a picturesque and homelike house in the center of the village. It is built in the form of a hollow square, thus supplying all the rooms with plenty of fresh air, and has accommodations for more than 200 guests, its capacity each season being taxed to the utmost. The Holly Inn has modern conveniences, bathrooms, electric lights, call-bells, steam-heat and open fires.

The music room, an attractive addition to the Inn, is octagon in form, 40 feet in width, affording fine facilities for dancing and entertainments. The Cecilia orchestra from Boston furnishes music mornings and evenings.

A billiard room, a smoking room, and an apartment for whist, dominoes, and other games add to the guests’ enjoyment. The Inn is managed by James K. Hyde, from the Hyde Manor, at Sudbury, Vt., a hotel filled every summer with fastidious guests. Rates are $3 per day and upward; $14 to $28 per week.

Another popular hotel is the Berkshire, a comfortable and attractive structure accommodating more than a hundred visitors. Its light and airy rooms and broad veranda look out upon grounds planted with ornamental shrubs, and with some fine specimens of transplanted box upward of 60 years old. Within doors, steam heat, electricity, open fireplaces, and homelike rooms make for the comfort of guests. The parlor is one of the handsomest rooms in the village, its walls and ceiling being decorated in Louis XIV style. Like all Pinehurst hostelries, the Berkshire has an especially bright and cheerful dining room. This one is finished in North Carolina pine, is roomy and light, and has a large brick fireplace where big pine logs add to the cheer on cool days. The house boasts an excellent cuisine, and has a most popular landlord in F.B. Kimball of the Eagle Inn, at Orwell, Vt. The rates are $2 a day and upward, and from $10 a week up.

The newest guesthouse at Pinehurst is the Carolina, only completed this year. This is a magnificent building, the largest hotel in the state of North Carolina, and the equal of any of the great tourist hotels of the South in elegance, comfort, and sanitary provisions. It has accommodations for 400 people, and no less than 49 suites, with baths. The entire first floor is finished in oak, with frescoed ceiling. The lobby is 60 by 70 feet, and the bright, cheerful dining room, with large windows on all four sides, will seat 500 guests. A music pavilion, billiard room, three sun parlors, a Dutch room, and three broad piazzas are pleasant features. The house has a fine cuisine and all modern comforts, including a telephone in every room. Trolley cars carry passengers from the railroad station to the door of the inn.

At the Carolina one can live at one of the finest hotels in America, every comfort provided, every want anticipated; and then, with all this luxury and comfort — the outdoors, the "piney woods."

The hotel will open Jan. 1, under the management of H.W. Priest, well known as manager of the Highland Park Hotel at Aiken, S.C.; the Magnolia, at Magnolia, Mass.; the Preston Hotel, at Beach Bluff, Mass., and the Pine Forest Inn, at Summerville, S.C. Trev Sharp, for the past four years at Hotel Coronado, Calif., has direction of the orchestra. The rates at the Carolina range upward from $4 a day, or $21 per week.

The Casino Café is under the management of a competent New Englander, Here table board is provided at very reasonable rates. A bakery connected with the café furnishes families with supplies.

The cottages of the town are rented entire or in suites of rooms for light housekeeping.

The village is supplied with running water from Pinehurst Spring, which has proved an attraction to people suffering from rheumatism, weak digestion, and kidney trouble. Large quantities of this water are shipped North.

Sports are a particular feature at Pinehurst. The 18-hole golf course, covering nearly 150 acres, is by general recognition the finest in the South. Harry Vardon, the champion golfer of the world, after playing over it a number of times last spring, said: "It is a course it will be a great pleasure to any golfer to play over, and, in my judgment, one which will compare favorably with any of the Eastern courses." The game has grown to a great popularity at Pinehurst. At any time of the day a sight of the links would give a Scotchman’s heart a good, loyal thump. Many tournaments are held during a season, and attractive prizes offered. The course is divided into 6, 9, or 18 holes, so that all grades of strength and skill can have a test. Donald Ross, a professional player of worldwide reputation, has charge of the links this season. At the beginning of the course is a comfortable clubhouse, with a large reception room, retiring rooms, lockers, and everything necessary for the pleasure of the golfer. The links are about 10 minutes walk from the hotels. A special car on the trolley road makes frequent trips, connecting all the hotels directly with the clubhouse on the links.

But golf, although easily in the lead in popular favor, is by no means the only sport enjoyed. Bicycle riding, tennis, croquet, quail shooting, riding to hounds, riding, driving, and walking over the excellent roads are other excellent recreations much indulged in. About the Casino are croquet and tennis courts, and a fine bowling alley, and in the Casino, a restaurant, a music room, and a reading room where the leading daily papers and magazines are on file. There is a large hall in the village where many entertainments are provided during the winter, and where Sunday school and church services are held every Sabbath.

Pinehurst is divided in the line of travel between the East and the South, on a short branch of the Southern Railway, which leaves the main road at High Point. It is about 300 miles south of Washington, and is easily and directly reached from any direction by the through trains of the Southern Railway. An electric trolley line, six miles long, through an attractive country, runs to Pinehurst from Southern Pines, a station on the Seaboard Air Line.

Pinehurst, though a natural sanitarium, has no hospital features. It is not intended, in any respect, as a retreat for hopeless invalids.

To avoid all danger of contagion, no consumptives are received.

It is designed for persons who desire to escape the severity of the Northern winter; for golfers, and lovers of out of doors generally; and for people of imperfect health in whom disease has not progressed beyond expectation of recovery. To all of these Pinehurst offers a pleasant, health giving atmosphere, the comforts of good living, plenty of amusement, and the genial, sunny Southern climate.

Pamphlets and further information may be had by addressing Resident Manager, Pinehurst.