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…

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…

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…

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…

Apparently, Saratoga’s Avenue of the Pines has been such for quite some time. It’s unclear when this lovely postcard was made. The name of the avenue can be found in reports of the State Conservation Commission going back into the 1920s. A 1922 report to the Legislature told of the efforts to repave the…

In time for track season, more horsies. There has been racing in Saratoga since at least 1847, with thoroughbred racing beginning in 1863. This cursory reading of the Saratoga Race Course Wikipedia entry exhausts Hoxsie’s knowledge of, and interest in, the sport of kings. Another early 20th-century postcard from the Boston Public Library’s collection.

It’s Hoxsie’s understanding that some sort of horse racing takes place up in Saratoga Springs most summers. Since Saratoga has become one of those places that’s so crowded that no one goes there anymore, we’re not entirely sure. But if so, this old painted postcard, from the collection of the Boston Public Library, would…