By 1888, the new town was platted and named Middlesborough, presumably after the English town, either after a local contest selected it as the best entry or after the hometown of the brothers who owned the local English Hotel. The Middlesboro Country Club was founded as part of Arthur's original development. Its nine-hole course is one of the oldest in the United States and it claims to be the oldest continuously-played course in the country. Pianist Ben Harney is also claimed to have originated ragtime music in Middlesboro, where he played in local saloons in the early 1890s. Just south of the Cumberland Gap in the area of the present-day Lincoln Memorial University, a $1-million Four Seasons Hotel was built in 1892 with 500 rooms, a 200-room spa, and a sanitarium.