Funding for historic views of the Spa City has been provided by membership support and by the MT Endowment Fund by Stuart Shops.

They are closer to you with a history of commitment to enhance each local Stuart shop community by the Adirondack Trust Company, offering a full range of services to meet your financial needs.

The Bank of Saratoga and by Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York.

Celebrating 75 years of excellence in the liberal arts and sciences.

There is.

Saratoga Springs is a city with history, pageantry, and more than a bit of magic.

So let's have a nice send off here for is what you call USA.

Today.

The track is the first thing that comes to mind when we think of Saratoga Springs, but as the name implies, the city really owes its existence to the natural mineral springs.

If it were not for the fact that the springs are located here, the mineral springs Saratoga would probably not be here as it is today.

The waters are here.

Naturally, they are naturally carbonated and they contain natural minerals.

And it's interesting that the minerals that are contained in the waters are exactly the same minerals that are contained in the human body and in all living cells.

The source of these minerals probably is trees, historic animals and plants which were laid down in fossil form in the early rock.

So the area doctor, Grace Maguire Swaner, is a true believer in the therapeutic value of the waters.

Absolutely.

I've seen so much evidence of it that I can't help but believe in it, because I've seen so many, Draculas results from these waters, both from the bathing and the, drinking.

Saratoga water has been bottled and sold since the 1820s.

This was the bottling operation at the Spa State Park.

Saratoga water is bottled today on the same spot where a private company started business in 1872.

Some of the original features are still here, including the Victorian porch where visitors strolled and sampled the waters.

The same porch was featured on the cover of Harper's Weekly in 1890.

The company produced Saratoga Vichy, which won awards for excellence.

Now, more than a century later, the tradition continues.

As early as 1833, Saratoga Springs was linked to the outside world by its first railway line.

By the 1840s, Broadway had developed into a tree lined row of hotels with large colonnaded porches called piazzas.

They were essential features for Saratoga's favorite pastime, networking with those who were well-connected.

Another new pastime was gambling.

The most elegant casino in town was right in Congress Park.

Today, it houses the archives and Museum of the Historical Society of Saratoga Springs.

This is our famous Canfield Casino.

The taller part of the building was built by John Morris in 1870.

Now, of course, John Morrissey was from Troy, New York, which means he was a neighbor of ours.

He grew up in a rough section of Troy and was rather a rough diamond, but he was very successful in making money in Saratoga Springs.

In 1863, of course, he founded the racetrack with 2 or 3 other men of means of enterprise and foresight.

And he had such fun taking money from the people during the day with the horses.

He decided to try his luck at getting money out of them at night.

And indeed, there were many new millionaires in America back then who were willing to spend their money.

When John Morrissey opened the casino in 1870.

Saratoga was a boomtown.

The track was already well established, and outside the casino you could see a long procession of carriages going to the races.

It was the height of the gilded Victorian age.

Behind me is the bachelor house, which today is a bed and breakfast.

We're awfully lucky to have this place, which is probably the most photographed building in Saratoga Springs.

It was literally within 36 hours of being torn down.

The condemnation notice was on the steps and the place was crumbling.

But thanks to local people and outsiders, over the years, it has been carefully and lovingly restored.

The bachelor mansion in is on Circular Street, which was laid out by Doctor John Clark, the man who sold all that Congress spring water.

He built his home in the Greek Revival style, which was popular in America before 1850.

Across town on the west side.

You can find many fine examples of Greek Revival on Franklin Square, but whether it's Greek Revival or Victorian, the streets of Saratoga are an architectural feast.

In the 1870s and 80s.

Saratoga's grand hotels were rebuilt on a lavish scale.

There was the United States Congress Hall and the grandmother of them all.

The Grand Union, which was hailed as the largest hotel in the world.

Sadly, that former Saratoga landmark was demolished in the early 1950s.

In its place, there's a parking lot in a shopping mall.

The only dinosaurs left are the Rip Van Dam and the Adelphi.

The Rip Van Dam is the oldest and dates from 1840.

It's changed a lot over the years, but it still has a fine Saratoga porch where people can watch the world go by.

Though on this day they seem more focused on the daily racing form.

Next door is the Adelphi, which has its own magnificent piazza.

The Adelphi still has the original front desk from 1877, and the interior has been painstakingly restored to reflect all the excesses of the Gilded Age.

As the 19th century rolled on, yet the pavilions became more and more ornate.

The crowds became larger, the people that came in tended to be nouveau riche, and the very rich were soon followed by the wannabes.

The Vanderbilts began coming very early.

Cornelius Vanderbilt came, who was a self-made man, came very early, and he was enormously powerful.

So in his train, so to speak, came a lot of lesser, millionaires who, all wanted to be like Vanderbilt.

Cornelius Vanderbilt was perhaps the richest man in America.

He made his fortune in steamboats and railroads.

Vanderbilt son, William, the one with the mutton chops, could be seen on the piazza of the United States Hotel, making deals with other men of means and causing the stock market to rise and fall.

Piazzas continued to be essential architectural features, and the hotels created their own pleasure gardens and promenades.

Other diversions included the customary carriage drive to Saratoga Lake, where you could stop at Moon's Lake house for drinks, and the famous Saratoga chips.

The predecessor to the potato chip, which Saratoga ins claim were invented here, also on the lake.

Tourists could enjoy the boat regattas.

A special grandstand was built for the spectators, who literally jammed the streets of Saratoga for the event.

Many of the Ivy League colleges participated in this race, which was hailed as the first intercollegiate athletic event in the country.

By the opulent 1890s.

Saratoga was well established as a gambling Paradise in 1894.

Nellie Bly, a journalist for the New York World, descended upon the springs to do a little muckraking.

She came in 1894, and the effect of this column was tremendous because it was in a huge national newspaper, the New York World.

It portrayed Saratoga as the most sinful city in the country and went on and on and on.

Our wickedest summer resort.

Money mad.

By day and by night.

Crazed by the mania for gold.

This town has gone mad.

With the mania of gambling from the Carlsbad of America.

Saratoga has become its monte Carlo from one of the most reputable and most exclusive of American watering places.

It has been transformed into the wickedest and the wildest.

There was always this tension and conflict in Saratoga, always has been between the gamblers and the Puritans who were anti-gambling forces.

You may not want to call them the Puritans, but against gambling and various other vices.

And for the most part, over those years through the 19th century, in fact, well into this century, the gamblers won through for a variety of reasons, but mainly because the place was so well run, so respectable, so popular among the wealthy and the powerful, that the authorities look the other way.

The horses come and go like clockwork in Saratoga Springs, and all kinds of horses can be found here.

From February through November, you can see harness racing at the Saratoga Equine Sports Center.

Trotting races are an old tradition in Saratoga with a longer history than thoroughbred racing.

You find them inside and find it on.

Marco Polo also has a long tradition in Saratoga.

William Collins Whitney established the Saratoga Polo Club in 1898.

The Whitney Field was abandoned in the 1930s, but in recent years has been revived.

By.

Horse.

Oh.

And all the way around to the very last.

With just 000.

She almost made it to Saint Clemens.

Saratoga Horse Show is one of the premier equestrian jumping events in the northeast.

The Saratoga Cup attracts some of the best competitors.

Strong track plays show Joanna Stockton.

At the annual classic carriage driving competition.

You can find horses of all sizes from the smallest to the biggest.

An event like this harkens back to the horsey days of the 1800s.

Even the clothes that competitors wear take their cue from a bygone era.

This horse is an 18 hand great run mayor.

She's bred right now for fall next spring.

She's part of a team, but her make isn't here today.

We drive for single and double, and we use her in multiple hitches.

This is an Amish made draft show.

Cart comes from Pennsylvania.

It's fun to be up here and to go down the road and feel the horse going.

And she loves what she's doing.

She can't wait to get in harness and start driving.

Again.

You have to have a really good hand, because the only thing that controls this horse are your hands.

Right here.

There's a quite a quite a skill to it.

You have to think of a hundred things at once to really look at a good picture, you know, to make it look good.

Aside from elegance and poise, judges look at the ability of the horse to execute maneuvers and the handling expertise of the driver.

The carriage competition is just one of the dressage events that takes place each spring.

It's a benefit for the local association of retarded Citizens.

The Grand Prix Freestyle is the highest level performed in dressage competition.

Right now they're doing ten meter canter circle side by side and then meeting up on the center line.

And again, the timing of this is very, very difficult as both riders need to keep a very close eye on each other.

And getting the horses to move, equally, distance is again a very difficult procedure in the Grand Prix competition.

Horses and riders are judged on artistic and technical merits.

Points scored here in Saratoga can qualify riders for World Cup competition.

Many experts believe that dressage is the ultimate in horsemanship.

A lot of people have the wrong idea of dressage.

Dressage simply means to train.

That is all it translates to.

And the basic training, if it's done correctly and properly, carries you through to the Grand Prix.

It's an athletic performance from the horse and rider when the horse is correctly ridden.

It looks effortless.

And let me tell you, it is not effortless.

It takes a long time to train and perform.

To do this.

All right.

Now I want to know if you're playing very.

Competitive.

I don't know very much how to make money for another type of horse at Saratoga is the untested yearling.

You can bid on them at the Tipton Sale, which has been an annual event here since the early 1900s, except for a brief respite during both World wars.

The stakes in this bidding game are high, and it's all over in a matter of minutes.

2021, 38, 81, 71, 88, 209 82 and you might think that this is 2373 divided by five 375 seven.

That's right.

375 the classic tipped and sale at Saratoga is another world where they watch these horses that have never raced before.

I mean, we're talking about yearlings that have no one has any idea of what these horses are going to do other than bloodline are being paraded in there.

A guy with a voice like the tobacco auctioneers executive has some lovely English clipped to it is is running down these horses, and people are making the most discreet maneuvers with their finger, which means another $50,000.

You probably, if you made a movie about it, nobody believe it because it when people would say, what you know this is this can't be happening.

This is really something out of another century.

Which of course it is.

I mean, it is true, as Red Smith said, that to get to Saratoga, you drive 100 miles north of New York City, turn left and go back 100 years.

Back in 1918, the famous man of war was sold at fairs.

Tipton.

He had a bright chestnut color, and track regulars called him big Red.

A mineral spring next to the track was named after him.

The New York Times called him the Ty Cobb of the track.

You know, this was the period of Luke Rockne and in sports and of Ty Cobb and of and of some of the great moments of the golden age of American sports.

And man of war was right up there with him.

Man of War is a fitting intro to our main horsey event.

The one that transforms the city each summer.

Yeah, I've heard that too.

Oh my God, I back me.

So that is all I got.

For.

Us.

I. Was.

Here.

Coming back for the race track.

Super chill.

Now on the outside.

Prepped and ready for the best.

But not bad.

Get hurt on the outside in front of the.

Oh, no.

The first car down the road.

That.

Okay, let's go for it.

You know, answer.

I got I. It's time.

Not here.

Time to learn.

There is so.

No one here for the thoroughbred racing season traces its history back to 1863.

But horse racing in Saratoga had already been going on for decades.

There was no track, so they used the roads.

Yeah, there was so much racing going on in the 1820s around town, right in the streets.

It's a little bit like hot rodding today that it was considered dangerous and it was called drag racing back then.

A lot of the terms today that we applied to automobiles were used, in fact, back in the horse and buggy days.

But there was so much, match racing going on around town or people just driving their horses madly through the streets.

That they said, no more of this.

This is banned.

In spite of the ban, the match races continued.

Trotting races were also popular.

The Saratoga Trotting Course opened in 1847 for the first formal races in Saratoga history.

They took place on this historic site, known as Horse Haven, directly across from today's track on Union Avenue.

That same summer, Saratoga's first official thoroughbred race took place on this track.

Next time on historic views of the Spa City, the creation of the Spa State Park.

An interview with Hattie Mosley Austin, the founder of Hattie's Chicken Shack, and folk musician Dave Van Ronk, remembers Lena Spencer and the early days at Cafe Lena.

You can purchase a copy of Historic Views of the Spa City or any program in the historic View series from Shop WMT.

The program, which contains additional material not seen in this broadcast, is 1995 plus shipping and can be ordered by calling 1-800-950-9648 or visit us online@bookshop.org.

Please mention item code Spa City when ordering the.

Funding for historic views of the Spa City has been provided by membership support and by the WMR Endowment Fund by Stuart Shops.

They are closer to you with a history of commitment to enhance each local Stuart shop community by the Adirondack Trust Company, offering a full range of services to meet your financial needs.

The Bank of Saratoga and by Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York.

Celebrating 75 years of excellence in the liberal arts and sciences.