The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (State Parks) will open an undeveloped section of Saratoga Spa State Park to white tail deer hunting for the 2026-27 season as part of a deer management program. [Read more…] about New Deer Hunting Season at Saratoga Spa State Park
Saratoga Springs
Saratoga Race Course’s Featured Jump Race: Some History
The Jonathan Sheppard Memorial Stakes race is scheduled to be run at Saratoga Race Course on September 2, this season. This Grade 1 steeplechase race, with a purse of $150,000 will kick off the final week of this year’s track season.
The featured jump race at Saratoga was renamed in 2021, and had formerly been the New York Turf Writers Cup, which had been run previously at other racetrack locations in the Empire State. [Read more…] about Saratoga Race Course’s Featured Jump Race: Some History
Equine Eyes: A New Way of Looking at Things
In late July the National Museum of Racing in Saratoga Springs debuted a new one-of-a-kind exhibition, “Equine Eyes,” during an open house.
The exhibit is an interactive, research-driven presentation designed to simulate how horses perceive the world. [Read more…] about Equine Eyes: A New Way of Looking at Things
1925’s Lighter Side of Political History
This stunt, certainly, would have been harder to pull off in the era before Photoshop and artificial intelligence:
“Amherst College students perpetuated a practical joke this afternoon when they sent out news stories and photographs showing United States Senator Frederick H. Gillett (1851-1935) minus his celebrated beard,” The Glens Falls Times reported on June 17, 1925. “Senator Gillett, found by newspaper correspondents, was still wearing the beard.” [Read more…] about 1925’s Lighter Side of Political History
Stewart’s Shops Feuding With Saratoga Historic Preservationists
Saratoga Springs Mayor John Safford is leading a controversial effort to loosen development rules in the city’s historic and architectural districts.
Meanwhile a Stewart’s Shops executive is using his influence and connections to help limit the historic city’s preservation policies, according to a story in the Times Union. [Read more…] about Stewart’s Shops Feuding With Saratoga Historic Preservationists
Three Saratoga ‘Bad Kids’ & 60 Years of SPAC Memories
In 2026, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) marks its sixtieth anniversary of presenting classical and popular entertainment. For six decades it has served as the summer home of the New York City Ballet and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Its stage has welcomed everything from touring Broadway musicals, opera, jazz and reggae festivals to the Grateful Dead.
That curtain was raised for that first time in June 1966 for Governor Nelson Rockefeller’s dedication of the new Arts Center by three young college students, Andy (Yo-Yo), Pat, and Mike from Saratoga Springs. [Read more…] about Three Saratoga ‘Bad Kids’ & 60 Years of SPAC Memories
Old Hudson Valley Churches Now Community Venues
Due to shrinking congregations and finances, many abandoned church buildings in New York’s Hudson Valley have been reused for other purposes. Some are now apartments or condominiums, fraternity houses, museums, historical societies, businesses and vibrant art venues and community centers. [Read more…] about Old Hudson Valley Churches Now Community Venues
Chauncey Olcott: Saratoga & A Song In His Heart
Chauncey Olcott (1858-1932) celebrated his 71st birthday with a legion of friends at his home in Saratoga Springs, Inniscarra, on July 21st, 1931. Greetings arrived by mail, telephone and telegram. Less than a year later Chauncey passed away leaving his wife Rita with a house full of memories and mementos that told the story of his life.
Rita’s book Song in his Heart: The Story of Chauncey Olcott’s Life was published in 1939. In 1947 the biography was adopted as the film My Wild Irish Rose. [Read more…] about Chauncey Olcott: Saratoga & A Song In His Heart
The 1922 ‘Shifters’ Moral Panic
With the 19th Amendment offering greater rights for women, and the nation’s economy recovering from the First World War, the Roaring Twenties opened the door for young and old alike to shake off the Victorian Era restraints of the previous century. This was the era when women were “flappers,” and their men “sheiks.” It also gave rise to the speakeasy and to jazz. It was a time when numerous crazes, such as flagpole sitting and a dance called the Charleston, swept the country.
Another of these crazes was a secret society whose members went by the name of Shifters. The origin of this movement has never been discovered, with theories ranging from a prank by New York City high school girls to a marketing scheme by a novelty jewelry company. [Read more…] about The 1922 ‘Shifters’ Moral Panic
Arnold Rothstein’s Saratoga Club & The 1919 World Series Scandal
Arnold Rothstein was of the most famous of America’s 20th century criminal masterminds, and for more than 20 years, the New York City native spent his summers in Saratoga Springs, gambling on the horses by day – and just plain gambling by night.
He first started coming to Saratoga on a regular basis in 1904, when he was 22 years old, and he largely gave up on Saratoga after 1925 – by then, he was able to make so much money bootlegging liquor that he no longer spent much time gambling at the Saratoga Race Course. [Read more…] about Arnold Rothstein’s Saratoga Club & The 1919 World Series Scandal
Josiah Stratton’s Second Chance at Life
When Josiah Stratton was laid to rest in the Village Cemetery in Galway, NY, in 1904, he left behind a life of service to his county, survival in war, and dedication to family spanning his 94 years on earth.
His story is also one of tragedy and survival that could have ended 30 years too soon. [Read more…] about Josiah Stratton’s Second Chance at Life
Mechanicville’s WWII & Korean War Veterans Photo Collection
The National WW II Museum in New Orleans is home to about 250,000 artifacts, including more than 100,000 photographs ranging from battlefield pictures captured by military and press photographers to individual albums full of wartime snapshots donated by veterans and their families. [Read more…] about Mechanicville’s WWII & Korean War Veterans Photo Collection
Henry Hilton in Saratoga: Power, Ambition, and a Gilded Age Fall
Saratoga Springs is a community shaped by ambition, wealth, and strong personalities. Its streets and landmarks bear the names of early settlers, political leaders, and presidents — Bryan, Clark, Clement, Putnam, Walworth, Waterbury, among others.
One name, however, is notably absent despite its once-towering presence in the city’s history: Henry Hilton. [Read more…] about Henry Hilton in Saratoga: Power, Ambition, and a Gilded Age Fall
Will He Or Won’t He? Charles Evans Hughes in 1906
On January 4, 1906 The Argus of Albany offered its readers a nugget of political wit. “The insurance office boy who receives your card is likely to reply, nowadays, ‘The boss can’t see nobody. He is busy writing his resignation.’”
New York City lawyer Charles Evans Hughes had just completed his work during the investigation of the life insurance industry on behalf of the state’s legislature (part of the Armstrong Investigation). Hughes, born in Glens Falls, was eager to get as far from the Albany quagmire as possible. [Read more…] about Will He Or Won’t He? Charles Evans Hughes in 1906
An 1805 Visitor to the Springs in Ballston and Saratoga
On Friday, August 30th in 1805, Matthew Prendergast set off on horseback from Sharon, Connecticut. Matthew was about 50 years old, a resident of Amenia in Dutchess County, NY, just across the state line from Sharon. He was comfortably well off, but definitely not super rich, and he suffered from rheumatism.
He had a few errands to do on the way, but he was planning on heading north and taking the waters at Ballston Springs, where he had visited in the past. He took his time, stopping several times, including at Kinderhook, Albany and Troy. [Read more…] about An 1805 Visitor to the Springs in Ballston and Saratoga
Early Saratoga County Inventors & The Patent Office Fire
The United States Patent Commission was created on April 10, 1790, to establish a formal method for submitting and indexing patents. Its first three members were Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of War Henry Knox, and Attorney General Edmund Randolph.
As only three people made up the early patent office, the first applications were not closely examined. An inventor simply submitted a written description, a working model, and a $30 fee (equivalent to about $1,000 today). [Read more…] about Early Saratoga County Inventors & The Patent Office Fire
Saratoga Springs’ Nine Horse Racing Tracks
A cursory view of free online aerial imagery displays various race tracks in Saratoga Springs. There are nine locations that appear in the imagery, and each has its own horse racing record.
The overview image displays the nine separate locations, with the track numbering system in chronological order of construction, which represents the geography as we know it now, with illustrations below of what had been. [Read more…] about Saratoga Springs’ Nine Horse Racing Tracks
The Lake George Trip That Inspired ‘Last of the Mohicans’
James Fenimore Cooper’s knowledge of the French and Indian War may have been sketchy, but he was interested enough in its history to contemplate a visit to Lake George, which he finally did with a party of Englishmen in August, 1824.
Lord Edward Stanley (1799-1869), who would later become the 14th Earl of Derby and thrice Great Britain’s Prime Minister during the reign of Queen Victoria, was the leader of that party. His account of the visit to Lake George was committed to his journals, portions of which were published in 1930 in a limited edition of fifty copies commissioned by his grandson. [Read more…] about The Lake George Trip That Inspired ‘Last of the Mohicans’
Solomon Northup at Saratoga Spa State Park
A statue of abolitionist and writer Solomon Northup, whose story of being kidnapped into slavery was told in his memoir and the Academy Award-winning film Twelve Years a Slave, has provided a space for reflection at Saratoga Spa State Park this summer.
The 13-foot bronze “Hope Out of Darkness” sculpture was unveiled during a recent ceremony attended by Northup descendants, area officials and community members on the lawn in front of the Lincoln Bathhouse. [Read more…] about Solomon Northup at Saratoga Spa State Park
Saratoga Race Course: An Architectural History
A day at the races at Saratoga Race Course is one of the highly anticipated ways to spend a summer day. For fans of the thoroughbred horse, there is plenty of sport, yet a real pleasure is visiting the facility itself.
The grounds have a special heritage fostered across the years and generations, which is easily perceived, and a pleasure to combine with a visitor’s personal experiences forming an emotional connection to that communal place of competition. [Read more…] about Saratoga Race Course: An Architectural History