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Thomas H. Sands Pennington, Black Pharmacist
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I started out to write a little bit about Dr. Thomas Elkins, one of the most remarkable and accomplished African American residents of Albany. I was challenged by two things: there is so much to say about Dr. Elkins, and much has already been written elsewhere. I may well come back to him, but…
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James Knight Moves His Tavern
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So many things to stare at on this beautiful map of Rexford and Aqueduct Crossing, from somewhere after 1842 when the original Erie Canal was expanded. The first aqueduct, now too narrow for the new specifications, was replaced by an entirely new aqueduct, and the narrow old lock was replaced by a double-lock, the…
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Rochefoucauld visits the Saratoga Battlefield
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I have seen John Schuyler, the eldest son of the General; for a few minutes I had already conversed with him at Skenectady, and was now with him at Saratoga. The journey to this place was extremely painful, on account of the scorching heat, but Saratoga is a township of too great importance to…
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The exciting SPAC lineup, 1976
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The Saratoga Performing Arts Center 1976 summer lineup featured an interesting array of acts. In addition to those fabulous Philadelphians, there was the Third Annual Upstate Jazz Festival, featuring Stan Kenton, Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie, Maynard Ferguson, Lionel Hampton, Oscar Peterson and Ella Fitzgerald all in one weekend. There was the D’oyly Carte Opera…
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Taking the Waters
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So of course the main point to going to Saratoga in the late 1800s was to take the curative waters from its many mineral springs. As Saratoga Illustrated pointed out in 1876, it’s just good science: “The medicinal action of mineral waters differs in almost every respect from that of cathartics and diuretics, or…
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The Springs of Saratoga Springs
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In 1876, people went to Saratoga Springs for the waters. (Unlike Nick in “Casablanca,” they were not misinformed.) “Its mineral waters flow in exhaustless abundance from year to year; and, though given away freely to all who care to ask for them, and, in bottles or barrels, sent to every State, and half over…
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Wandering Saratoga, 1876
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We’ll continue with what “Saratoga Illustrated” had to say about the city of springs in 1876: Saratoga Springs is a village of hotels and dwelling houses. There are few or no manufactories, and its streets seem devoted to elegant leisure or abundant shopping. Its surface is mainly level, except where a shallow valley winds…
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How to Arrive at Saratoga Springs
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Saratoga Illustrated, 1876: In approaching Saratoga Springs, over its one railway, either from the north or south, the traveler meets with a surprise. The change from open farms to close-built town is abrupt, and the cars are among the houses, and at the station, almost before the fields are missed. From the south, the…
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How grand were Saratoga’s grand hotels?
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In 1876: pretty grand. Here’s Congress Hall, just feet from Saratoga’s most celebrated springs. Here’s The United States Hotel. 232 feet fronting Broadway, and 656 feet on Division Street. 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…
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The Hotels of Saratoga Springs
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Saratoga Springs became one of America’s great resorts on the basis of its springs, to which the wealthy and the wishful flocked for their alleged restorative powers. Once they flocked there, they needed somewhere to stay, and the hotels of Saratoga were legendarily grand. “Saratoga Illustrated: A Visitor’s Guide of Saratoga” in 1876 described…