Saratoga Springs

Saratoga Springs was developed as a spa in the early nineteenth century, in conscious imitation of the watering places of England and Continental Europe. It is the only town that has a grand piano in the waiting room of its railway station to provide an introduction to its rich musical life, and to bring the cultural and therapeutic ambience of European spas to New York. This most European-like spa has provided the setting for both an operetta and a musical. Visitors in the Saratoga crave tunes that are easy on the ear and seductive, to distract them from the stress of business. By the 1820s, Saratoga Spring was emerging as the preeminent watering place in the United States, and people were coming in significant numbers for cures that were prescribed by doctors.

Art · Art history · Imitation · Musical · Piano · Spring (device) · Visual arts · American Environmental and Regional History · Archaeology and Natural History · Engineering · History · Psychology · Social Psychology