Luray Caverns

I remember someone telling me once that caverns were mankind's first concept of architecture. And, a good argument can certainly be made for that. Arches, columns, and natural bridges can all be found exploring them as well as cathedral-like spaces. Cavemen easily come to mind and prehistoric people certainly did inhabit them. My last name itself, Craven, is thought by some scholars to be a variation of "cavern." The Craven Faults in Yorkshire, England, are a rocky place where family lore claims we made our ye olde homes between cliffs once upon a time.

Luray Caverns in Page County, Virginia, not only claims to be the largest system of caves in the eastern United States, it is also one of the most beautiful. Discovered in 1878 by local men who noticed cold air coming up out of a sinkhole, it quickly became famous for natural wonders and rock formations inside spaces 10-stories high including one known as "the ballroom" complete with a pipe organ today. In the early 1900s, a sanatorium was built above Luray Caverns to take advantage of its cold "pure" air as air conditioning for tuberculosis patients.

"They just added on and added on and added on," an employee told me in their gift shop talking about the complex which has grown up over them. While the sanatorium burned down in 1905, a large social hall with rock fireplaces replaced it and then a malt shop, toy store, car museum, hedge maze, and other tourist attractions. Of particular interest to me were their vintage advertisements still in place, wrought iron handles on doors, and a stained glass-like window above a fireplace that was made from cross-sections of cave rock, "showing variety and shades of color in formations in Caverns of Luray."