One of the most interesting things about Mudlavia is the dynamic of bringing the luxurious city life to the rural setting of Warren County, Indiana. I like to call it a place where Gatsby meets Griffith.
When I think of The Great Gatsby, I think of millionaire Jay Gatsby and the lavish parties he hosted in his mansion. Gatsby brings to life the roaring twenties, and any Gatsby themed party would include the things of the wealthy social circles of the time; prohibition style cocktails, jazz music, flapper dresses, tuxes, lavish food, and fancy cars.
When I think of Andy Griffith, I think of a kindhearted sheriff helping people in iconic Mayberry. Andy can be found doing small town activities from breaking up family feuds, to teaching his boy Opie moral lessons, to going to town picnics, and playing the guitar on his front porch.
Yet, Mudlavia brings these two different dynamics together.
Mudlavia was built in what Henry Kramer coined as “peaceful valley” Indiana. The hotel was made with the most luxurious materials; mahogany, marble, onyx, Tiffany glass, and oriental tapestries. It had the best modern conveniences of the nineteenth century and was famous for its Mudlavia treatment, which included healing mud baths and lithium water.
There were definite differences between the great Mudlavia Hotel and the surrounding area. Mudlavia hosted dances and balls where quartets would play waltzes, marches, and minuets. In the small town of Kramer, where the married Mudlavia employees lived, the townspeople would host country dances with fiddlers playing “The Virginia Reel” or “Fishers Hornpipe”. While the automobile became popular in the city and Mudlavia was called “autolavia” in 1910 due to the sheer amount of automobiles being driven there, they were not a mainstay in Warren County until the 1930’s.
Nowadays, some people joke that Warren County is about ten years behind the times, and I imagine that when city folk came to visit in the early 1900’s, they might have said the same thing too. It must have been a wonder that such a fancy place existed among the sycamore trees and rolling hills of the Indiana countryside.
I was reading a book about the Titanic and there was a quote from Edith Rosenbaum Russel who said, “There was something about the Titanic, it was so very formal, it was so very stiff. The atmosphere was stiff. The coziness- well you know, that kind of ‘get-together feeling,’ it didn’t exist.”
The cozy “get-together” feeling existed at Mudlavia. I imagine the stiffness and stuffiness that would have existed at other luxury hotels would have been undone by this special place, a place with the same warmth and friendliness as Mayberry.
When visitors first arrived and signed the hotel ledger, they were immediately welcomed as part of the Mudlavia family. A copy of Mudlavia News, a newspaper printed at the hotel, mentions a baseball game played out on the lawn with the employees and the guests. It also mentions the annual field day held on the front lawns. It says the field was "...crowded with guests and employees. Many persons from the little town of Kramer were in evidence and rooted with a good will for their respective candidates. The meet was held to decide a question of long standing as to the supremacy of the office employees and the chef and his lieutenants in the kitchen."
Even wealthy Mr. Kramer had that small town Indiana warmth. He was one of the first people to get an automobile in this part of the state and he would bring it to Attica to give anyone who wanted to a ride around the block!
There were plenty of other fancy hotels and Mudlavia was in the middle of nowhere. I believe what really made it special was the blur of lines between the social classes and the warmth of the people of “peaceful valley”.
