The mineral springs of Saratoga Springs have drawn crowds for more than a century. Saratoga Spa State Park’s 2,400-acres just south of the bustling downtown hosts nearly a dozen of these bubbling natural wonders.
Often regarded as “an acquired taste,” daring samplers may wince from a modest splash from Hathorn (the park’s most salient and mineral-rich spring), but may relish in the cold, clear, velvety refreshment from the State Seal non-carbonated spring that is rarely without five-gallon containers being filled under its multiple spigots.
The Friends of Saratoga Spa State Park in partnership with the Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation (State Parks), and the statewide non-profit advocacy organization Parks & Trails New York, recently unveiled the newly rehabilitated Coesa Spring and its ca. 1920 spring house. One of the waters bottled by New York State in the early 20th century, Coesa Spring sprouts from Coesa Pond.
In 2021, the Friends were awarded a $75,000 grant matched by over $60,000 in private funding to restore the historic Coesa spring house that has remained dormant for years.
The project not only helped to re-open the structure, but also to provide access to the mineral spring and adorn it with fresh landscaping, paver stones, benches, and interpretive panels detailing the history of the spring.
On August 13, state and local elected officials, NYS Parks staff, members of the Friends of Saratoga, as well as staff from Parks & Trails New York gathered at the Coesa site to officially unveil the improvements. Participants congratulated the Friends and sampled the flowing waters from the new pedestal fountain sculpted of salvaged marble from a bridge support.
The funds were awarded through the Park and Trail Partnership Grants – a $2 million program funded by the Environmental Protection Fund and administered in partnership by Parks & Trails New York and the Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation.
More info about the restoration, including plenty of photos, can be found here.
Photos, from above: Coesa Spring following rehabilitation; and in the ca. 1920s.
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