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city in Saratoga County, New York, United States
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Saratoga Springs is a city in Saratoga County, New York, United States. The population was 28,491 at the 2020 census. The name reflects the presence of mineral springs in the area, which has made Saratoga a popular resort destination for over 200 years. It is home to the Saratoga Race Course, a thoroughbred horse racing track operated by the New York Racing Association, and Saratoga Performing Arts Center, a music and dance venue. The city's official slogan is "Health, History, and Horses".
The Mohawk indigenous people used the area that is now Saratoga Springs as prime hunting ground. Some thought of the mineral springs as a gift from Manitou.
The British built Fort Saratoga in 1691 on the west bank of the Hudson River. During the early part of the 1700s, settlers from Europe began to develop the area. Shortly thereafter, British colonists settled the current village of Schuylerville approximately one mile south; it was known as Saratoga until 1831.
In 1767, William Johnson, a colonial British officer who was a hero of the French and Indian War, was brought by Native American friends to the spring to treat his war wounds. (In 1756, Johnson had been appointed British Superintendent of Indian Affairs in the Northeast region due to his success in building alliances with the Mohawk and other Iroquois nations. He had learned the language and created many trading relationships. He achieved great wealth from trading and landholdings, and was knighted for his service to the Crown with the Iroquois.)
The first permanent European-American settler built a dwelling in the area circa 1776. The springs attracted tourists, and Gideon Putnam built the first hotel for travelers. Putnam also laid out the roads and donated land for use as public spaces.
The Battles of Saratoga, the turning point of the Revolutionary War, did not take place in Saratoga Springs. Rather, the battlefield is 15 miles (24 km) to the southeast, in the Town of Stillwater. A museum dedicated to the two battles sits on the former battlefields. The British encampment before the surrender at Saratoga took place 10 miles (16 km) east of the city, in Schuylerville, where several historical markers delineate points of interest. The surrender of the sword of battle took place where Fort Saratoga had been, south of Schuylerville.
Saratoga Springs was established as a settlement in 1819 from a western portion of the Town of Saratoga. Its principal community was incorporated as a village in 1826, and the entire region became a city in 1915.
Tourism was greatly aided by the 1832 arrival of the Saratoga and Schenectady Railroad, which brought thousands of travelers to the famous mineral springs and the resort hotels built to accommodate them. Patronage of the railroad increased after the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company assumed control in 1870 and began running the Empire State Express directly between New York City and the resort.
In the 19th century, doctor Simon Baruch encouraged the development of European-style spas in the United States as centers for health. Due to the presence of mineral waters Saratoga Springs was developed as a spa resort, spurring the construction of several hotels, including the United States Hotel and the Grand Union Hotel. The latter was, in its day, the largest hotel in the world. By 1870, Saratoga Springs was considered a top upscale resort.
These spa resorts had drawn gentlemen gamblers even before the Saratoga Race Course opened in 1863. The race track drew even more gamblers and visitors in general at a time when horse racing was one of the nation's most popular spectator sports.
John Morrissey, one of the partners who built the Saratoga Race Course, went on to open the Saratoga Clubhouse, or, more simply, The Club House, in either 1861 or 1866 or 1870. The casino, renamed the Canfield Casino after James Canfield purchased it and remodeled it along the lines of the gambling houses of Monaco, attracted such notable guests as Chester A. Arthur, Rutherford B. Hayes, Ulysses S. Grant, Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller, and Mark Twain.
Local authorities mostly tolerated these casinos until 1907 when, after years of campaigning from moral crusaders such as Anthony Comstock and pressure from local authorities, Canfield sold the casino to the City, which converted it into a museum.
The Saratoga Springs area was also known for its lake houses, hotels and restaurants located on Saratoga Lake. When first established in the Nineteenth Century these venues offered fine dining in a country atmosphere a short excursion out of town.
A decade after Saratoga Springs shut down its most prominent gambling venues in 1907, organized crime figures began bringing illegal gambling back, beginning in 1917 when notorious gambler Arnold Rothstein opened the Arrowhead Inn after bribing local officials. He opened a second casino and hotel, The Brook Resort, in 1921. Prominent gangsters Charles "Lucky" Luciano, Meyer Lansky and Dutch Schultz all worked for Rothstein at The Brook at various times during the Prohibition era of the 1920s.
Organized crime expanded its presence in Saratoga Springs during the 1930s and 1940s. Luciano ran the Chicago Club for several years while Lansky subsequently took over the Arrowhead Inn and in the early 1930s opened a second Saratoga casino, the Piping Rock Club, in partnership with Joe Adonis and Frank Costello, who later brought his staff from New York's Copacabana Club to work in Saratoga for the summer.
This second era of gambling ended, however, when pressure from Governor Dewey's administration in the 1940s and negative publicity from the Kefauver Committee's hearings concerning organized crime in 1950 ended official toleration of illegal gambling. The Piping Rock burned down in 1954 under suspicious circumstances. Other abandoned clubs and casinos burned down over the next twenty years.
The city became more accessible with the completion of the Adirondack Northway (Interstate 87), which allowed visitors easier access from the north and south. In addition, cultural resources, such as classical and popular music and dance, flourished.
The mineral springs occur along the east side of the Saratoga Fault which allows water trapped in subsurface shale layers to reach the surface. The fault displacement can be seen on the east side of Broadway with the best view of the fault at the High Rock Park cliff.
The Mohawk indigenous peoples who inhabited this area used the springs for several hundred years before the arrival of European settlers. Later drilling technology was employed by settlers to tap into the spring sources, and by 1900, 203 springs were flowing, some of which were tapped for carbon dioxide extraction, as well as mineral water. This proved to be unsustainable, and by 1908, New York State passed restrictions on use to allow the aquifer to recharge. As of 2019, there are only 17 productive springs.
Toward the end of the 19th century, excessive pumping for commercial bottling was threatening to deplete the springs. In 1911, the New York State Reservation, now the Spa State Park, was created to protect the springs, and the Lincoln and Roosevelt bath houses were built. Currently, visitors can soak in the mineral waters at the historic Roosevelt Bath house, which also provides spa treatments.
The water from the springs is high in mineral contents, inclucing iron, magnesium, calcium, lithium, iodine, chromium, sodium, zinc, barium, and with 9 of the springs reporting radium content.
Believed by generations to have healing powers, springs can be found in multiple places around the town. However, scientists dispute any medicinal properties from consuming the water due to the high levels of sodium and radium in some of the spring sources.
Most of the springs are covered by small pavilions and marked by plaques. Others are less conspicuous, sometimes just a spigot in a rock. The springs are famous for their varied and distinct tastes: some are clear freshwater, others are saltier, and some taste strongly of a certain mineral such as sodium bicarbonate or sodium chloride. There is a sulfurous odor, but mineral analysis of the water consistently shows almost no presence of dissolved sulfur. The sulfur is in the form of the gas hydrogen sulfide, which degasses from the water very quickly. Visitors are welcome to bottle the spring water for personal consumption.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 29.1 square miles (75 km2), of which 28.4 square miles (74 km2) is land and 0.6 square miles (1.6 km2) (2.17%) is water.
The Adirondack Northway of New York (Interstate 87) and US Route 9 pass alongside and through the city, respectively. New York State Route 29, New York State Route 50, New York State Route 9N, and New York State Route 9P lead into Saratoga Springs. NY 9N has its southern terminus and NY 9P has its northern terminus in the city. US 9 and NY 50 overlap in the city, joined briefly by NY 29.
Saratoga Lake is slightly south of the city.
As of the 2020 census, Saratoga Springs had a population of 28,491. The median age was 41.9 years; 15.3% of residents were under the age of 18 and 21.1% were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 86.9 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 89.0 males age 18 and over.
There were 12,532 households in Saratoga Springs, of which 19.8% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 39.6% were married-couple households, 22.5% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 30.4% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 39.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 15.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
There were 14,605 housing units, of which 14.2% were vacant. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.9% and the rental vacancy rate was 11.4%.
95.8% of residents lived in urban areas, while 4.2% lived in rural areas.
In 2012, the median income for a household was $141,392, while the median income for a family was $164,560. Males had a median income of $81,582 versus $67,759 for females. About 1.0% of families and 3.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 4.3% of those under age 18 and 1.3% of those age 65 or over.
The Saratoga Spring Water Co. (a division of BlueTriton Brands) is located on Geyser Road. Operating since 1872, this sparkling water has also been served at multiple presidential inaugurations in Washington, D.C., most recently for Barack Obama's second inauguration in 2013. It was also served to participants at the 2023 APEC Summit in San Francisco.
The Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) is a covered outdoor amphitheater located on the grounds of the Saratoga Spa State Park, with a capacity of 5,000 in reserved seating and 20,000+ on its general admission lawn area. SPAC is the summer home of the Philadelphia Orchestra and the New York City Ballet, and has hosted a weekend-long jazz festival since 1978. Since 2006, the Saratoga Native American Festival has been held on SPAC grounds each fall.
Museums in the area include the National Museum of Dance and Hall of Fame, the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, the Tang Teaching Museum and the Saratoga Automobile Museum.The singer Don McLean was a frequent performer there early in his career.
Saratoga Springs is home to Yaddo, a 400-acre (1.62 km2; 0.63 sq mi) artists' community, founded by Wall Street financier Spencer Trask and his wife, author Katrina Trask. Since its inception in 1900, Yaddo has hosted 68 authors who later won the Pulitzer Prize and one Nobel Prize winner, Saul Bellow. Leonard Bernstein, Truman Capote, Aaron Copland, Sylvia Plath, and David Sedaris have all been artists-in-residence.
Over Presidents' Day weekend in February, Saratoga Springs draws more than 5000 attendees for the annual Flurry Festival, which features folk dance and music, including one of the largest contra dances in the United States.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Saratoga Springs, New York”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.