Railroad Station: Railroad Pl. and Division St. for Delaware & Hudson R.R.
Bus Stations: 351 Broadway for Hudson Transportation Line, L.B.K. Lines, Inc., Saratoga-Corinth Line, Champlain Coach Lines, and suburban busses; Adelphi Hotel, Broadway, for Adirondack Transit Co.
Airport: Municipal airport, 2.5 m. SW. on West Ave.; no scheduled service.
Streetcars: Interurban to Schenectady and intermediate points.
Busses: Fare 10¢.
Taxis: 25¢ in city; 50¢ a person maximum in Aug.
Accommodations: 27 hotels, 8 open all year; boarding houses, inns, and rooming houses during June, July, and Aug.
Information Service: Booth on Broadway in front of Congress Park, May to Oct.; Chamber of Commerce, Arcade, 374 Broadway.
Theaters and Motion Picture Houses: Spa Theatre in the Simon Baruch Research Institute, New York State Reservation, stock productions, July-Aug.; 2 motion picture houses.
Swimming: Saratoga Springs Reservation, outdoor pool; adults 75¢, children 35¢; Aug., $1 and 50¢.
Golf: Saratoga Springs Reservation, greens fee $1, including clubhouse privileges $1.50; McGregor Course, on US 9, 3 m. N. of city, greens fee $1.50, $2 in Aug.
Tennis: Saratoga Springs Reservation, hard court, per hour, 50¢ singles, 75¢ doubles; clay court, per hour, 75¢ singles, $1 doubles; locker, soap, and towel, 25¢.
Horse Racing: Saratoga Race Track, Union Ave.; grandstand and paddock, $1.50; field, $1.10; clubhouse, $4.
Annual Events: Winter Carnival with Carnival Ball and Eastern States Speed Skating Championship Races, mid-Jan.; Horse Racing, Saratoga Track, Union Ave., Aug.; Wildwood Kennel Dog Show, McGregor Golf Links, 3d wk. in Aug.; St. Michael’s Day Italian Celebration, Sept. 29.
SARATOGA SPRINGS (330 alt., 13, 169 pop.), resort city of the Adirondack foothills, famed for its mineral springs, its horse racing, and its old hotels, for eight months of the year is just another central New York State town. It stirs with anticipation in June, swings into preparatory activity in July, and rushes headlong into the full tumult of its summer season in August. In September the decline begins. In October the town resumes its character as a sectional trading center, settling into its winter normality, which is broken only by occasional social functions at Skidmore College and a winter sports carnival.
In August, the month of the races, Saratoga’s population increases fourfold, beyond the resources of its numerous hotels and uncounted rooming houses. The main industry of the permanent inhabitants becomes the renting of homes, ranging in size and character from the unpretentious dwellings of Congress Street to the palatial mansions of Union Avenue, and of garages, automobiles, saddle horses, and what-not by the day, week, or month.
Horse racing, rich in turf tradition since the 1850’s, draws thousands of summer visitors of every class. In the paddock, socialites rub elbows with stable boys, politicians prognosticate with rustics, and the famous mingle with the infamous. Night life during the racing season is gay and diversified. Entertainment ranges from black and tan revues in back-alley cafes to radio and stage headliners amid swank splendor. Until recent years gambling flourished: ivory balls clicked on the numbered slots of spinning roulette wheels; case cards flipped on faro layouts; no-limit dice games and table-stake poker were on tap in gambling halls, night clubs, and near-by roadhouses.
With the running of the final race on ‘getaway day,’ the exodus from Saratoga comes with startling abruptness. For a few hours the streets are congested, and then the town is deserted.
In September most of the large hotels close. A few of the smaller ones, clustered about the city’s southern entrance, remain open, and their patrons make daily pilgrimages to the near-by Spa, where a monumental group of buildings houses the baths on a landscaped tract above the Vale of Springs. In this quieter atmosphere historic Saratoga comes into its own. Broadway, the wide main thoroughfare, is transformed from a ‘Gay White Way’ to a small town ‘Main Street,’ its ancient elm trees half revealing, half concealing the rambling old hotels of outmoded design flanked by more modern business buildings. An occasional horse-drawn hack hunts dejectedly for fares. The Grand Union and the United States hotels recall something of the spacious grandeur of the post-Civil War period; Canfield’s Casino, citadel of chance during the halcyon days of the Gay Nineties, rests in quiet dignity on the green carpet of Congress Park; and Yaddo broods above the hushed beauty of its terraced, timber-guarded grounds.
The growth and development of Saratoga has been closely associated with its mineral springs, the waters of which have been in systematic use since 1774. Large numbers of wild animals, attracted by the saline properties of the water, made this section a favorite hunting ground for the Indians, who called it Saraghoga (place of swift water). The Mohawk and the Oneida built hunting lodges at the springs each summer, and the Saraghoga of that era was as well known to the Indians as the modern Saratoga is to the white man today. For many centuries High Rock Spring was called by the Indians the Medicine Spring of the Great Spirit.
Father Isaac Jogues, Jesuit missionary and explorer, is believed to have visited the springs in 1643. In 1767 Mohawk braves are said to have carried Sir William Johnson to the springs on a stretcher, that he might benefit from the waters. Johnson’s strength was improved and he returned several times. In 1775 Dirck Schouten built a cabin near High Rock Spring, but he heeded Indian warnings and moved away from that beneficent abode of the Great Spirit. The Revolutionary War delayed settlement further, but the curative powers of the waters were recognized and the resultant value of the land was foreseen by many colonists. In 1783 George Washington attempted to buy High Rock and adjacent springs.
The development that has made Saratoga a place of international reputation began with arrival of the pioneer Gideon Putnam in 1789. In 1802 he bought the land around the present Congress Spring, cleared the heavy timber, and built the three-story frame Union Hall,’ the first commodious hotel erected at the springs for the accommodation of visitors.’ People were attracted to the spot, and when they came to settle they found Putnam ready to sell them lots around his inn. Thus Saratoga Springs was built around a hotel. In 1811, during the construction of Congress Hall, his second venture, Putnam was fatally injured.
The first United States Hotel was built in 1824. The second railroad in New York State, the Schenectady & Saratoga, was opened in 1832. Saratoga soon surpassed the earlier popular Ballston Spa, which had the seeming advantage of a more solid foundation in industry and commerce, by devoting itself wholeheartedly to the service of its visitors. To its natural attractions for people who were health-bent, Saratoga added man-made attractions for those who were pleasure-bent, and the spa became the social and sporting center of the country. In 1841 a guidebook described the clientele of the hotels as a mingling of ‘gentlemen of the turf, connoisseurs of the odd trick, and the amateurs of poker.’
In the Civil War period the Leland Opera House and the Grand Union Hotel were the centers of the North’s social world. General U.S. Grant attended the grand ball that opened the opera house in July 1865. He held receptions at the Grand Union while President of the United States. Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt brought his bride to the springs in 1869. Jay Gould and Mr. and Mrs. John Wanamaker were frequent visitors.
‘Aunt Kate’ Weeks, cook in a hotel on Saratoga Lake, one day attempted to make perfectly crisped French fried potatoes, but evolved instead the tidbit known for years as ‘Saratoga Chips,’ since grown widely popular under the name of ‘potato chips.’
The Saratoga Association for the Improvement of the Breed of Horses was incorporated in 1865 by a group of sportsmen that included William R. Travers, Leonard W. Jerome, and Cornelius Vanderbilt, and the present track was built in the same year. On the older Horse Haven track, harness races had been held in the 1850’s. The Association was subsequently taken over by John Morrissey, heavyweight bare-knuckle boxing champion of the United States, member of Congress, and State senator, who also erected in 1870 the first section of the present Casino, later made world-famous by the debonair patron of art, Richard Canfield.
For mid-Victorian America, Saratoga was the ‘Queen of the Spas.’ ‘For gayety it was not to be surpassed on this continent, however gauche it may have appeared to visiting foreigners; the racing season, the gambling palaces, the “flirting and dancing” as advertised in one guide book, and the countless numbers of marriageable daughters, all displayed by their fond mothers like vegetables in a market stall, were but a part of Saratoga’s charm . . . for the gossips there were the endless hotel verandas, for dancers bands playing Lanner and Strauss waltzes almost without stop.’
In 1890 discovery of a process for the extraction of carbonic gas from the waters of the springs brought a period of exploitation that for several years threatened the spa with eventual destruction. Wells were operated by pumps until the output reached 150,000,000 gallons a year and the levels of the springs were lowered to such a point that many ceased to spout. To prevent wholesale despoliation of its natural resources, the State in 1910 began a program of conservation and development which has resulted in the purchase of 163 springs and 1,000 acres of land surrounding them, and the construction of baths, a research institute, a Hall of Springs, and a hotel, the Gideon Putnam, at the center of the State reservation. The completion of the project was made possible by a loan of $3,200,000 from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation in 1933. A prime mover in the development of the Spa was George Foster Peabody (1852–1938).
POINTS OF INTEREST
1. HIGH ROCK SPRING, High Rock Ave. opposite Rock St., now inactive, was the first Saratoga mineral spring known to white men. According to tradition, in 1767, when Sir William Johnson was desperately ill, his friends, the Mohawk Indians, carried him to this ‘Medicine Spring of the Great Spirit’ to be cured. At that time the spring appeared a few feet down in the hollow core of a truncated cone-shaped rock, which still stands within a wired enclosure. Geologists have estimated that it took about 4,000 years for the cone to be formed by the precipitation of salts from the highly mineralized water. George Washington, Philip Schuyler, and Alexander Hamilton visited High Rock Spring in 1783 with the possibility of its exploitation in mind.
2. The UNITED STATES HOTEL (open Aug. only), Broadway and Division St., erected in 1875, is an imposing historic souvenir of the heyday of Saratoga. Occupying a site of several acres, the building, designed in the manner of the General Grant period, is a five-story brick structure laid out in the form of an irregular pentagon. The exterior is enriched by an elaborately bracketed three-story porch. The large interior court is ornamented with shade trees, fountains, and walks. The elegance of the period in which it was built is reflected in the marble fireplaces, the massive mirrors, the carved woodwork, and the highly polished wainscoting.
3. The GRAND UNION HOTEL (open June-Sept.), Broadway between Washington and Congress Sts., occupies almost an entire city block. Similar in style to the United States Hotel, it has pavilions, towers, and mansard roofs. A graceful piazza, three stories high, extends across the entire Broadway front. The interior courtyard has a promenade veranda running along three of its sides. The original structure, called Union Hall, a much smaller building but so pretentious for its day as to be labeled ‘Putnam’s Folly,’ was erected by Gideon Putnam in 1802. In 1872 the property was purchased by A.T. Stewart of New York, who enlarged and renovated the building and gave it its present name. Once the center of Saratoga’s social and political life, where Victor Herbert conducted daily concerts, the hotel still preserves an imposing appearance, though, like the United States Hotel, it represents an outmoded era.
4. The STATE DRINK HALL (adm. 10¢), corner of Spring and Putnam Sts., a high, one-story frame building, contains a public drinking room with free water and table service.
5. CONGRESS PARK, Broadway between Circular and Spring Sts., is approximately 10 acres in area. The SPENCER TRASK MEMORIAL FOUNTAIN was erected by the citizens of Saratoga in tribute to Spencer Trask (1844–1909), broker and banker who after his retirement from business became chairman of the Saratoga Springs Reservation. The statue is by Daniel Chester French. Standing on a granite pedestal in an oblong pool against a background of evergreens, a winged bronze figure holding a cup of healing waters typifies the spirit of awakened life in the waters of the springs. The KATRINA TRASK PEABODY MEMORIAL, a granite stairway, is in memory of Katrina Trask, wife of Spencer Trask, who married George Foster Peabody after Trask’s death. She died in 1922. The memorial was given by her family and the household of Yaddo.
The CASINO (open 9–5 daily during Aug.) is a conspicuous red brick building near the center of the park. Formerly owned by Richard Canfield and famed as a gambling house, it now provides quarters for the Saratoga County Historical Society. The middle section, originally a fashionable restaurant, has been converted into a convention hall; the adornments are elaborate, with columns, carvings, and fixtures.
The Casino dates to 1870, when John Morrissey (1831–78) erected it as an adjunct to the racing attractions and named it the Saratoga Club. Morrissey spent his boyhood in Troy. In his early twenties, he married and moved to New York, where he became a runner for a boarding house, his duty being to entice immigrants to his employer’s establishment. Competition was keen, fist-fights were frequent, and Morrissey soon became adept as a rough-and-tumble fighter. He joined the ranks of professional boxers and in 1858 won the American bare-knuckle heavyweight championship by defeating J.C. Heenan in 11 rounds at Long Point, Canada. He retired undefeated. In 1866 Morrissey was elected to Congress from the sixth New York district and served two terms, 1867–71. During his last year as Congressman he opened his clubhouse in Saratoga. In 1875, despite the opposition of the antigambling group, he was elected State senator from the fourth New York district; in 1877 he was re-elected from the seventh district.
In 1894 Richard Canfield (1865–1914) purchased the Saratoga Club for $450,000 and changed its name to the Casino. In renovating the building Canfield outdid himself in lavish and ostentatious decoration. One room, its curved white ceiling flanked by stained glass windows and reflecting the light of a thousand carbon bulbs, is said to have been the world’s first example of indirect lighting. Stanford White landscaped the grounds, for which Italian garden accessories were imported. In the Casino fabulous sums were won and lost in ‘sky-limit’ games, and many ‘Monte Carlo suicides’ are said to have occurred. Canfield solitaire was originated in the Casino’s gaming rooms, and the club sandwich in its kitchen. Public disapproval and politics closed the place in 1907.
KEY FOR SARATOGA SPRINGS MAP
1. High Rock Spring 2. United States Hotel 3. Grand Union Hotel 4. State Drink Hall 5. Congress Park 6. Skidmore College 7. Saratoga Race Track 8. Yaddo SARATOGA SPRINGS RESERVATION 9. Washington Baths 10. Lincoln Baths 11. Bottling Plant 12. Simon Baruch Research Institute 13. Hall of Springs 14. Roosevelt Baths 15. Recreation Unit 16. Gideon Putnam Hotel 17. Hayes Spring and Geyser 18. Orinda Spring 19. Karista Spring 20. Ferndale Glen 21. New York State Tree Nursery
6. SKIDMORE COLLEGE, Circular St. between Union Ave. and Spring St., one of the younger colleges for women, was incorporated under its present name in 1922, but its origin can be traced back to 1903 when its founder, Lucy Skidmore Scribner, began her activities in the interest of creative education for women. The college combines liberal arts with specialized courses in the fields of fine and applied arts, health and physical education, home economics, music, nursing, and secretarial science. The campus covers about 10 acres and has 26 buildings. The enrollment averages 750 students. In the STUDIO BUILDING (open 9–5 weekdays) are exhibits of etchings, prints, pottery, and glass.
7. The SARATOGA RACE TRACK (open free, 9–5 daily except during August races), Union Ave. between Nelson and East Aves., is the scene of internationally famous horse races during August. The flower-decked grandstand, sprawling in the center of a 45-acre landscaped park, extends from the clubhouse to the ‘Field’ enclosure. The long arcade beneath the long rows of seats contains telegraph offices, refreshment stands, a bar, and a restaurant. A top-deck promenade extends along the upper level. Betting is by pari-mutuel machines.
Beyond the lawn, which extends the full length of the grandstand, is the racing strip, a 1⅛-mile oval. Within the main track is a steeplechase course that includes brush and water jumps. The infield contains an artificial lake on which swans glide beneath the high-arching spray of a fountain. Beyond the track and the trees bordering it is a large group of stables.
Across Union Avenue is Horse Haven, a small village of stables and training quarters. The roadways here carry the names of famous past champions. There are Man O’War Avenue, Roamer Place, and Campfire Court, in memory of the ‘departed great whose hoofs have drummed the ancient turf of this testing ground for thoroughbreds.’ Beyond Horse Haven is the Oklahoma training track, which is used for morning workouts and which also contains a jumping course. Directly across East Avenue are the sales stables of the Fasig Tipton Company, scene of the annual yearling auctions. Held several evenings during the race meeting, the auctions bring together a heterogeneous gathering ranging from socialites in evening dress to racetrack ‘swipes,’ come to witness the bidding on future champions and ‘also-rans.’
Most colorful feature of the Saratoga track is the custom of watching the thoroughbreds being saddled just before post time under towering elms in a large natural paddock. Among annual renewals of traditional races run each August are the Travers, dating back to 1869 and known as the ‘laurel wreath of the turf,’ and the Hopeful, a $60,000 futurity test for two-year-olds. The colors of practically every prominent racing stable in the United States and Canada are represented in stake events.
8. YADDO (grounds always open), Union Ave., ¼ mile SE. of the race track, is a private estate dedicated to hospitality for creative artists. The land was first settled by Jacobus Barhyte in 1784. The increasing number of guests who came to partake of his notable trout dinners made necessary the erection of more commodious quarters in 1820. Edgar Allan Poe was a visitor at Barhyte’s in 1843 and is said to have written the first draft of The Raven during his sojourn.
The estate, which includes 500 acres of land and four lakes, was later purchased and occupied by the Spencer Trasks; it was their young daughter Christina who gave it its name, which she said rhymed with shadow and’ made poetry.’
The landscaped grounds, hidden from the road by a dense wood, are ornamented with memorial statues, fountains, and a columned pergola. An Italian garden with more than 100 varieties of roses is at its best in June and early July. On a gentle slope in the background are sequestered studios and the Spencer Trask Mansion, a bulky, rock-cut stone building with tower and parapet suggestive of Norman architecture.
After the death of their children, Mr. and Mrs. Trask established the estate as a place where creative artists might ‘find the Sacred Fire and light their torches at its flame.’ The corporation of Yaddo was formed in 1922 and the first group of artists came in 1926. Among contemporary writers who have worked at Yaddo are Josephine Herbst, Lola Ridge, Evelyn Scott, Albert Halper, Newton Arvin, Raymond Holden, Louis Adamic, and Malcolm Cowley.
SARATOGA SPRINGS RESERVATION
The SARATOGA SPRINGS RESERVATION, a 1,300-acre tract between South Broadway and Ballston Ave., south of the Avenue of Pines, comprises the Washington and Lincoln Baths, a newer group of Georgian Colonial buildings completed in 1935–6, and Geyser Park.
9. The WASHINGTON BATHS (open 8–5 weekdays; treatments, $1.50–$3), S. Broadway at the Avenue of Pines, were among the first to provide facilities for mineral water treatments. The single-story structure of half-timber and stucco marks the northern boundary of the Reservation. The wings are equipped with electric bath cabinets, Turkish baths, and Baruch control tables. There are 108 rooms for natural mineral water baths.
10. The LINCOLN BATHS (open 8–5 weekdays; treatments $1.25–$1.50), S. Broadway directly S. of the Washington Baths, were erected in 1930. The two-story building is designed in a modified Renaissance style. The grounds are uniformly landscaped with evergreens, shrubs, and walks. There are 10 electric bath cabinets and four Baruch control tables, as well as extensive facilities for mineral water baths.
The AVENUE OF PINES, a one-mile stretch of macadamized road flanked by a thick canopy of pine trees, leads from S. Broadway to the newer section of the spa. Bridle paths parallel the road.
11. The BOTTLING PLANT (open 8–5 daily), corner of Marrin and Ballston Aves., is of red brick in the Georgian Colonial style. Here are bottled the four most widely used waters, Hathorn, Coesa, Geyser, and State Seal. The first three are sparkling and highly mineralized: Hathorn is highly laxative, Coesa less so but valuable in mild cases of catarrh of the digestive tract; Geyser, a table water, is anti-acid and a digestive aid. State Seal is non-sparkling, non-mineral, and approximates distilled water. Visitors watch the bottling processes from a platform.
12. The SIMON BARUCH RESEARCH INSTITUTE (not open to public), S. of Marrin Ave. at traffic oval, was named for Dr. Simon Baruch, developer of the Saratoga system of cardiac therapy, and houses the laboratories, a library, a little theater, an auditorium, and the administration offices of the entire spa. It is here that experiments are conducted in an effort to discover new ways to utilize mineral waters in the treatment of disease, as well as to explain the origin and efficacy of the waters.
Built of Harvard brick with limestone trim and high, steep slate hipped roofs, the structure is Georgian in style. The dominant feature is a Roman Doric portico with pediment. Open arcades lead to end pavilions on both sides. The group of buildings facing the esplanade, of which the institute is one, was designed by Joseph H. Freedlander.
13. The HALL OF SPRINGS (open 9–9 daily, adm. free, 10¢ for water), directly across the esplanade, balances the Baruch Institute and harmonizes in exterior design. In the interior, the limestone walls are broken by 16 Casota limestone columns rising from the main floor to the mezzanine. From the ceiling of the main hall are suspended three great silver and crystal chandeliers. At the fountains, Geyser, Hathorn, and Coesa waters are served. Concerts are given during the summer season.
14. The ROOSEVELT BATHS (open 8–5 weekdays; treatments by appointment, $3), S. of the Institute and the Hall of Springs, complete the group along the esplanade. Georgian in style, with entrance loggias, the two one-story red brick buildings embody the most modern advances in curative work, and are so planned that wings can be added to increase their capacity to any desired extent.
The East House has 20 private mineral bathrooms. Some of the rooms have especially designed apparatus with which crippled patients are lifted in and out of tubs. Besides the usual hydrotherapy and electrotherapy sections, the East House has a mudpack section, in which mud of exceptional properties and heat-retaining quality found on the reservation is used for baths. The West House contains 40 mineral bathrooms; in the south wing are the inhalation and mechanotherapy sections.
15. The RECREATION UNIT (open 9–9 daily; inner court 25¢), S. of Marrin Ave., is a symmetrical group of four buildings in the Georgian Colonial style surrounding an interior court 150 feet by 220 feet. The swimming pool (adults 75¢; children under 16, 35¢; Aug. $1 and 50¢; lessons $2 per hr.) contains filtered and heated water. A water sports program is presented occasionally during the season. Directly across from the administration building is a gymnasium (adm. 25¢; suit 50¢), with complete units for men and women. On the north side is the bathhouse. There are also eight tennis courts, facilities for archery (75¢ per hr.), and a nine-hole therapeutic golf course designed to provide medically approved exercise.
16. The GIDEON PUTNAM HOTEL, Marrin Ave. N. of the Recreation Unit, named in honor of Saratoga’s pioneer hotel builder, was erected by the Saratoga Springs Authority but is privately operated. It comprises fewer than 100 rooms. Designed in the Georgian Colonial style by Marcus T. Reynolds, the structure is of red brick with white wood trim. Its main feature is the front loggia with six Corinthian columns rising three stories and supporting a roof terrace. Murals depict early Saratoga events and scenes from the spa; the style of the furnishings and decorations is extremely modern.
The GEYSER PARK section of the spa lies south of the bottling plant. The park is skillfully landscaped without formality. Its beauty is enhanced by the tumbling waters of Geyser Creek, which winds through growths of conifers and birches. Miles of shaded walks and bridle paths lead through groves and vales and past spouting springs.
17. HAYES SPRING and ISLAND SPOUTER are west of the concrete bridge spanning Geyser Creek. On the knoll above the fountain is a summer house available for luncheon parties. A footpath leads to the Champion Geyser and the falls of Geyser Creek.
18. ORINDA SPRING, N. of Hayes Spring, with covered picnic site opposite, is a secluded spot in a rustic setting.
19. The water of KARISTA SPRING, S. of Hayes Spring, tastes somewhat of iron and is not highly gaseous.
20. FERNDALE GLEN, on the east bank of Geyser Brook, is a winding lane with small rustic bridges crossing the narrow brooklet which the path follows. It ends at a natural non-mineralized spring at the summit of a knoll. The path is shaded by a canopy of giant trees and bordered with ferns and flowers.
21. The NEW YORK STATE TREE NURSERY (always open), Marrin Ave. E. of the Gideon Putnam Hotel, is the largest nursery of its type in the United States. The project, started under the auspices of the New York State Conservation Department at Coesa Spring in 1910, now embraces a 230-acre plot with an average of 65,000,000 seedlings annually, which are marketed commercially and used to reforest idle lands in the State. Young trees can be obtained for the reforestation of private lands in the State at little or no cost.
POINTS OF INTEREST IN ENVIRONS
Saratoga Lake, 4 m.; Grant Cottage, 9.1 m.; Lake George, 28 m. (see Tour 21). Saratoga Monument, Schuylerville, 10.6 m.; Stark’s Knob, 11.4 m.; Saratoga Battlefield, 20.1 m. (see Tour 22).
