Tiny Mentone on top of Lookout Mountain in the NE part of Alabama is a town that, in some regards, seems stuck in time. Many of the town's buildings look much as they did when horse-drawn carriages once delivered 19th century tourists to their door. The area has long been a vacation destination in the Southeast for its natural mountaintop beauty.
Mentone Springs Hotel is on the National Register of Historical Places and is one of the oldest hotels in the State of Alabama.
Built in 1884 by Dr. Frank Caldwell of Pennsylvania, the hotel was finished but still lacking a name. Dr. Caldwell was living in the home of John Mason, whose daughter, Alice, had read accounts of Queen Victoria’s visit to a place called Mentone in France. The news item had given the meaning of Mentone as "a musical mountain spring." She suggested the same name be given to this spot where a rippling mountain spring flowed.
