The Healing Springs Hotel, most recently known as the Cascades Inn, stood for generations as a rare survivor of Virginia's nineteenth-century springs-era architecture. Built to serve visitors drawn to the mineral waters that defined the region's early economy and culture, the hotel reflected a time when Bath County's identity centered on health, leisure, and the restorative power of its natural springs. Though altered and adapted over time, the building retained much of its original form and character, making it the last largely intact mid-nineteenth-century springs hotel building remaining in Virginia. Its demolition represents a profound loss — not only of an individual structure, but of a direct architectural link to the era that shaped the region's development. In a county where the springs themselves are foundational to its history, the disappearance of one of the last authentic expressions of that heritage leaves a significant void in the cultural landscape. That loss makes the work of identifying, documenting, and protecting what remains all the more urgent. The buildings and landscapes that survive are no longer part of a larger constellation of springs-era resources — they stand alone, and their vulnerability is greater for it. Preservation in Bath County today is not simply about honoring the past. It is about ensuring that the threads connecting this community to its defining history are not lost one structure at a time.