This area was originally called Crow Spring and later renamed Beaufont (French for "beautiful spring") by its purchaser, James Robertson, when he bought it in 1895.
Robertson developed it commercially the following year and called his company the "Beaufont Lithia Springs Company." Why Lithia? If you look the word up, you find that it is a derivative of the Greek word, "lithos," meaning "stone." From the stones of granite at Beaufont came water that was promoted as having special therapeutic properties.
Robertson and his son were taking their spring water downtown by horse team. From there it was shipped to cities such as Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York. The company changed hands in 1916, and business boomed during Prohibition. The new owner, Frederick Sitterding Sr., added 6-8 flavors of carbonated beverage to his inventory. These "soft drinks" led to the formation of a sister company, Climax Beverages.
Sitterding owned another company called The Home Brewery, which joined forces with Beaufont Springs, adding a brewery and ice plant to the joint venture which lasted until 1933. By then, municipal water systems had improved to the point where bottled water was not in such demand and the water bottling part of the business was shut down in 1940.
The area of Beaufont Springs enjoyed a brief revival in the 1950s when the Sitterding family built a picnic ground and recreation area around the spring. This area was available for rent and for business parties and was quite popular. Volleyball, basketball, horseshoes and a dance pavilion were well-used amenities. Caterers were used to bring in food, but renters were required to purchase their beer and soft drinks through the company.
Upon construction of Chippenham Parkway and the commercial properties in Beaufont and the Boulders office park, the water became muddy, but the springhouse bottling plant and picnic area were preserved by Sigma Development, the developers of the Boulders.