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(Virginia Department of Historic Resources)
Situated on the shores of one of the highest natural lakes in the southern Appalachians, Mountain Lake Resort was established as a recreational destination in the mid-nineteenth century by Henley Chapman. After the Mountain Lake and Salt Sulphur Springs Turnpike (now VA 700) was developed in the 1850s, substantial resort accommodations at the lake were not far behind. The current hotel, the third on the site, is a three-story, local sandstone, Arts and Crafts–inspired building erected in the 1930s. Its richly textured exterior is emphasized by the voids created by deeply recessed arcaded stone porches. The hotel was featured in the film Dirty Dancing (1986) as the fictional Kellerman's Resort. Several small frame cottages, predating c. 1889, and, later, log cottages are also situated on the property. A lakeside gazebo and modern cottage rows, detailed with board-and-batten exteriors, are the most recent additions to the resort's extensive range of accommodations. In the early twenty-first century, as in the late eighteenth century, the lake began to recede during dry seasons.