Saratoga Springs: the city of mineral springs and horse racing through the eyes of a Russian-speaking guide

Saratoga Springs is a resort city in eastern New York State at the foot of the Adirondack mountain range, 50 km north of Albany. The name comes from the Iroquois "sarach-togue", which means "hill by the river", referring to the Hudson River.

The resort town boasts of its healing mineral springs. The water in the springs has a chloride-sodium and carbonic-alkaline composition. The Indians knew and used the springs for many hundreds, if not thousands of years.

The first European to see the High Rock mineral spring was an English officer, Sir William Johnson. The Mohawks, as a good friend, brought an Englishman to the stream in 1771 to heal him of all his illnesses. It is from this place that the city of Saratoga Springs originates.

The stream beats from the middle of the stone, which has the shape of a cone, and upon closer examination, you understand that millions of years ago this stone was an ordinary tree that rotted and water made its way up through its empty core. The stump left from the tree appears to have petrified over time.

In total, there are 19 active mineral springs in the city, but there are no specialists who would know what, from what, how much and when to drink. In the photo below is a “Ukrainian-patriotic, yellow-black” hydrant, which, I think, is about 80-100 years old. Haven't seen this anywhere before. And it stands on Broadway, the main street of the city of Saratoga.

A photo of the sundial was taken at 12:15 pm, but it shows 11:15 am, because, you know, this clock “does not understand” the transfer of hands to summer time.

On the subject: Top 7 Best National Parks in New York

Victorian style

One of the bright pearls of the city is the Victorian estate The Batcheller Inn. George Batcheller, born in Batchellerville, 20 miles from Saratoga Springs, built his estate in 1873. After several resales over the past 70 years, the home is now owned by Victor Karen, senior vice president and chief technology officer of General Electric.

Everything in the house has been preserved from the time of the Batcheller family. The estate operates as a Bad & Breakfast and provides 8 bedrooms for tourists. All rooms are nominal: “George” - the founder of the estate; “Kate" - his daughter; “Maria Pia”- presumably the Italian princess Maria Pia of Savoy; “Grant” - in 1875, President Grant was a guest of the estate when he came to offer the owner of the house the post of ambassador to Cairo; “Amelia” – a relative of the family who lived for many years in the estate.

The estate has many paintings painted by one hand. It is not known only whose hand it is, when it was written and how it got into the house. The only tour guide to tour the estate, Hollis Palmer, might know...

The two most significant paintings for me are:

• The first is "G. Washington and His First Cabinet, 1789” - the first Cabinet of the 1st President. The painting depicts Secretary of State Jefferson, Secretary of the Treasury Hamilton, Secretary of War Henry Knox, and Attorney General Edmund Randolph.
• The second is “First Stars & Stripes Captain Paul Jones Unfurling His Flag on the “Ranger”, July 4, 1777″.

Indeed, Captain John Paul Jones was the first to unfurl the new Stars and Stripes American Flag aboard his ship, the Ranger, three weeks after the flag was established by the 2nd Continental Congress. For some time in 1787, Captain Jones served the Empress Catherine, and his name was then Paul de Jones.

I was also struck by the famous painting by the artist Georges Seurat “Sunday Afternoon on the Island of la Grande Jaffe”. This replica was created in 1996 by local Saratoga artist Stuart Williams. The original painting is in the Chicago Art Museum.

congress park

Across the road from the Victorian estate of Batcheler is Congress Park, or rather its summit. A very small park resembling an isosceles triangle in shape. Only 400 meters long and 200 meters wide, but how many sights this tiny oasis of nature contains!

If you move from the Batcheller estate, that is, from the top of the park triangle, then immediately to the left is the Katrina Trask Memorial Stairway in honor of Katrina Trask, who fairly shared her income for the development of the city of Saratoga. Her husband, Spencer Trask, is an entrepreneur and philanthropist.

The couple handed over their luxurious Yaddo estate to the city as a place for rest, tranquility and creative work of creative people. They come to Yaddo from all over the country to this day.

Further, three mineral springs Columbian Spring, Deer Park and Congress. In 1792, 2 congressmen approached the source, which was beating out of the ground, and gave it the name Congress Spring - in honor of the United States Congress formed in 1789. The same name - Congress - was given to the park itself. There are 19 active mineral springs in Saratoga Springs.

Three ponds with fountains, an Italian garden. On the left edge of the middle of the park is a memorial fountain in honor of Katrina's husband - Spencer Trask Memorial Fountain. Spencer Trask invested a lot in new technologies and inventions, including those of Thomas Edison. The fountain is decorated with the sculpture “The Spirit of Life”. Its author is Daniel Chester French, who also created the famous "Lincoln" in Washington and a number of sculptures in New York.

On the same level on the other side of the park is Canfield's Casino. It was an underground casino from 1870 to 1903. Today, the building houses the Saratoga Historical Museum. And in the park there is an old carousel “M.S. Illions” 1904, made by the master Markus Illions, an immigrant from Latvia. Markus has been learning woodcarving since the age of 8. After immigrating to America, he founded the company Marcus Illions & Sons Carousels. Together with his sons, Marcus created several carousels across America, including in the Flushing area of ​​Queens and the Coney Island carousel in Brooklyn.

The original column can be read at Evgeny Ushomirsky's Facebook page.