
A relic of the mineral springs' era of the 1880s, the Riverside Inn is a simple frame structure distinguished by its mansard-roofed tower at the connection of three gable-roofed wings. Bracketed eaves and first-story verandas with sawn ornament enliven the three-story hotel. The remains of a long boardwalk, which once led to the original springhouse for the “curative” waters of Cambridge Springs across lowlying land northwest of the hotel and adjacent to French Creek, are still visible. The inn sparked the local mineral water boom. An international clientele arrived by train and trolley to use seven kinds of baths and electrical and X-ray treatments as cures. Three hundred guests would fill the old inn; today there are seventy-four guest rooms. In the early 1900s, a casino and a bowling alley were added, joined to the hotel by a one-story breezeway.