A spa, which was opened in 1854 by Nathaniel Bingham & Lyman Granger, eventually attracted many prominent people to Dansville for the water cure. After a quick series of unsuccessful owners, the "Castle on the Hill" was purchased in September 1858 by new owners who recruited James Caleb Jackson as the physician-in-charge. Jackson was assisted by his wife, known as "Mother Jackson", and their adopted daughter, Dr. Harriet Newell Austin. The health resort was a Jackson family operation for many years; James Hathaway Jackson (son of James Caleb Jackson) and James Arthur Jackson (son of James Hathaway Jackson and grandson of James Caleb Jackson) were both leaders of the facility. The Jacksons originally called it "Our Home on the Hillside", and the family referred to it as the Jackson Sanatorium by 1890. The establishment was also known as the Jackson Health Resort.