The Making of American Resorts Saratoga Springs Ballston Spa and Lake George Reviews
The Sans Souci Hotel was a hotel located in Ballston Spa, Saratoga County, New York. It was built in 1803 and torn downward in 1887.
Sans Souci Hotel, Ballston Spa, New York. Manus colored.
Early history Edit
Sans Souci Hotel, Ballston Spa, NY
(George P. Hall & Son, glass negative)
The Sans Souci Hotel was erected by Nicholas Low in 1803. It was designed by Joseph Newton, an architect from New York City. Low was a major property possessor in Ballston Spa and had many commercial interests; the Sans Souci was only one of Low's enterprises during the day. He hired Andrew Berger to run the hotel when it was completed in 1804. Low paid Berger $500 for the first twelvemonth and $ane,000 for the second year.[1]
Ballston Spa, like its neighboring town of Saratoga Springs, independent many mineral springs located throughout the town. Tourists came from early in the 18th century to enjoy the mineral waters. Low sought to capitalize on the tourist merchandise and opened the Sans Souci hotel as a destination resort. The edifice of the hotel was overseen past carpenter James Hawkins.[ii]
The hotel was 156 feet long with a fly extending dorsum from each end at 150 anxiety, all of them three stories high and contained lodging for 250 people. This was an enormous structure during its day, rivaled just by Putnam's Tavern and Boarding Business firm (later the 1000 Union Hotel in Saratoga Springs). The Sans Souci and the M Union Hotel had similar architectural styles in their beginnings, with obviously white clapboard siding and dark shutters ("venetian blinds") with a "verdigrise" (green) pigment. Both hotels were laid out in a "U" shape with an inner courtyard. The Sans Souci building and grounds occupied the unabridged block bounded by Forepart Street, Milton Avenue, Washington Street, and Leap Street.[three] [ total commendation needed ] The Sans Souci'south large piazza was built at the aforementioned fourth dimension as the hotel.
The first floor of the hotel had several parlors and a lxx x 30 ft ballroom. On the get-go floor of one wing were located several private parlors, and on the first floor of the other fly was the expansive dining room. A "temple"[ further caption needed ] was added to the terminate of the eastward wing, which was ii stories tall. The cost of the add-on was $250. Depression then added a like addition to the finish of the other wing of the hotel for a billiards room. Low rented the billiards tables out at $10 per twenty-four hour period and backgammon at $six per day. The front hall was hung with elegant chandeliers; live music played and assurance were geld.
Cost in the showtime year for a stay at the Sans Souci was about $8 per day; poorer lodging in the Ballston Spa expanse could be found for $four per week.
Somewhen the hotel was expanded so that it had 162 anxiety (49 m) of frontage, the two wings 152 feet (46 m) deep. The hotel then had 180 rooms and accommodated 300 guests. A white picket contend wrapped around the property, adjoining the sidewalks.[ii]
The hotel included many outbuildings, including a stable, wash house, manager'southward home, small four-season hotel, bath house, billiards room, and a three-story outhouse that dumped waste into Gordon Creek.
Guests to the Sans Souci included some of the most elite members of politics and economy during the 19th century: Daniel Webster, Henry Dirt, John C. Calhoun, Martin Van Buren, General John E. Wool, James Fenimore Cooper, Franklin Pierce, Commodore Isaac Hull, Commodore Stephen Decatur, Commodore Thomas Macdonough, Andrew Jackson, Stephen Douglas, William Seward, William 50. Marcy, Edward Everett, Silas Wright, and Washington Irving. Joseph Bonaparte, the ex-male monarch of Spain, stayed there in 1821.
The Sans Souci operated simply in the summertime because of the expense of heating it during the off-season.[2]
A travel periodical from guests Mr. Elkanah Watson and Mr. Bayard in 1805 describes the hotel as follows: "We seated ourselves at a sumptuous table, with about a hundred guests of all classes, only generally, from their appearance and deportment, of first respectability, assembled hither from every part of the Matrimony and from Europe, in the pursuit of health and pleasure, or matrimony or vice. This is the about fantabulous watering place in America and is scarcely surpassed in Europe in its dimensions, and the taste and elegance of its arrangement. The building contains nigh 1 hundred apartments, all respectability furnished. The program upon which it is constructed, the architecture, the style of the outbuildings and the gravel walks girded with shrubbery—are all on a magnificent scale… In the evening, nosotros attended a ball in the spacious hall, brilliantly illuminated with chandeliers, and adorned with diverse other appliances of elegance and luxury. Here was congregated a fine exhibition of refinement of the beau monde… Instead of the old-fashioned country dances and 4-hand reels of revolutionary days, I was pleased to notice the accelerate of refined customs, and the introduction of the graces of Paris… There was a large display of servants, amply attired, while the music of a option band enlivened the occasion."[ commendation needed ]
Decline of the hotel Edit
In that location are several reasons cited for the decline of the Sans Souci hotel. The first was the business organization sense of the owner, Nicholas Low. A New York City native, Nicholas Low sought to import goods from merchants that he knew in New York Metropolis and servants from New York City. Very little of the money that the Sans Souci hotel generated during its heyday was used to develop the Town of Ballston Spa.
Low was a major landowner in Ballston Spa, and he leased out (99 year leases) most of the downtown area for commercial pursuits. Depression saw that the town'southward geographical area situated close to the Hudson River would be beneficial for manufacturing and then shipping appurtenances down to New York Metropolis. Consequently, he congenital and leased out many factories and mills along the Kayderosseras Creek beginning in 1790, such equally the "Blue Mill" which he sold to Hezekiah and Michael Middlebrook in 1792.[ii] While these were largely profitable to Low, it had a negative bear upon on the Sans Souci Hotel. The rich and elite did non care to spend their coin and vacation time looking at the backs of factories and mingling with factory workers. That, combined with the success of the hotel industry in nearby Saratoga Springs, meant that almost of the wealthy moved to the large hotels in Saratoga and abandoned the Sans Souci.
Another reason cited for the decline of the Sans Souci was the failing of the mineral springs. The springs were decumbent to block and stop flowing, and tapping into the waters was an expensive endeavor. Furthermore, Low sought to create a monopoly on the springs. Consequently, he arranged and subdivided his state so that the springs were only accessed by private homesteads; this is in contrast to the springs in Saratoga Springs which were frequently located in the centre of roadways and in parks, where they were gratis for the public to use and enjoy. The private nature of the springs in Ballston Spa was a deterrent to vacationers looking for the health benefits of the water.
A recession hit the upstate New York region in 1808 and 1809, and the Sans Souci saw significantly fewer guests that previous years. At the height of summer, the hotel only had 40 guests, which devastated Low.
Law school (1849-1853) Edit
In 1849 the Sans Souci hotel was sold to John W. Fowler, who in that location established the State and National Law School in the hotel. The school opened with a faculty of eminent professors and secured a large pupil body. At the test in 1849, Ex-president Martin Van Buren, Governor Hamilton Fish, Horace Greeley, and Henry Clay were nowadays. Ex-present Tyler was nowadays at the showtime of 1850. Chester Arthur was a pupil of the law schoolhouse. The law school closed its doors later merely three years of operation.[one]
Only July 25, 1860, during the presidential nominee Stephen A. Douglas spoke to a big assembly on the piazza of the Sans Souci. He was introduced by Judge Scott.
Ladies' seminary and afterward years (1853-1887) Edit
The hotel was again opened as a hotel nether the direction of Richard Chase until information technology was sold to Reverend D. W. Smith of Galway Ladies' Seminary for a women'south boarding school in 1863. It ran every bit a boarding school until 1886.
The hotel was opened a third fourth dimension as a hotel and ran as such until 1887 when the property was purchased past Hon. Eugene F. O'Connor of New York.
Demolition Edit
The Sans Souci hotel was torn downwards in 1887 to make room for business blocks.
References Edit
- ^ a b Neglected Watering Places. New York Times, May 3, 1874.
- ^ a b c d Corbett, Theodore. The Making of American Resorts: Saratoga Springs, Ballston Spa, Lake George. ISBN 0-8135-2841-0.
- ^ The Sans Souci: Near Palatial Hotel in Country with Rooms for Over 250 Guests and Immense Dining Room and Dance Hall. Paper Clipping.
Source: https://en.wikidark.org/wiki/Sans_Souci_Hotel_(Ballston_Spa)
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