TEE AIR OF THE LURAY CAVERNS. 557 



THE AIE OF THE LURAY CAVERNS. 



By guy L. HUNNER, M.D., 



THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY MEDICAL SCHOOL. 



AT Luray, Page County, Virginia, is located a health resort which 

 represents an idea unique in hospital or sanitarium construc- 

 tion. The dwellers in Limair may keep their doors and windows closed 

 summer and winter, and still breathe air as pure as that of the moun- 

 tain side. 



My acquaintance with this institution began in the fall of 1901, 

 when making a vacation drive through the Shenandoah country. After 

 a ramble through the Luray Caverns, our party was shown through 

 the sanitarium and treated to the novel experience of living in the 

 caverns' air, while enjoying a full measure of light and sunshine. 



Limair has an elevation of about one thousand feet above the sea 

 level. It stands on a hill about two hundred feet above the neighbor- 

 ing water courses, and commands a magnificent view of the Page 

 Valley with the enclosing mountain ranges — the Blue Ridge to the east 

 and Massanutten range to the west. These mountains are from three 

 thousand to four thousand feet high, and as seen from the elevation 

 in the center of the valley they present a panorama of never-failing 

 interest. The Page Valley is said to enjoy more sunshine than can be 

 elsewhere found in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. 

 A pine forest of about one hundred and forty acres which covers the 

 Luray Caverns hill affords beautiful walks and drives, and is not the 

 least of the attractive features of the place, when considered as a health 

 resort. 



Mr. T. C, Northcott, builder and proprietor of Limair, is a heating 

 and ventilating engineer of twenty years' experience, and he has de- 

 voted many years to the problem of establishing an institution that 

 would combine the advantages of sunlight and beautiful surroundings 

 with an air supply at once voluminous and pure. After investigating 

 the caves of New York, Ohio and Virginia he secured building and 

 park privileges over the Luray Caverns as a site comprising the greatest 

 number of healthful and attractive features. A reference to the 

 photographs (Figs. 2 and 3) will give an idea of how well the site has 

 been chosen. The drawing (Fig. 1) explains the methods of air 

 supply and ventilation, but only a visit to the institution will demon- 

 strate how completely the theories of the engineer are being worked out 

 in practical results. 



