How grand were Saratoga’s grand hotels?

In 1876: pretty grand. Here’s Congress Hall, just feet from Saratoga’s most celebrated springs.

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Here’s The United States Hotel. 232 feet fronting Broadway, and 656 feet on Division Street.

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Here is the slightly immodest interior courtyard of the United States Hotel. The piazzas around the courtyard were 2,300 feet in length (“for promenades”), and it was ornamented with “beautiful shade-trees, sparkling fountains, graceful lawn-statuary, and meandering walks; and, during the evening, when illuminated with colored lights and lanterns, and enlivened with exquisite music, the scene is brilliant and fascinating in the extreme.”

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Then there was the Grand Union Hotel, which fronted three streets, affording a large number of outside rooms. It overlooked Congress Park from Broadway.