Congress Park - Saratoga Springs, NY
Posted by: Groundspeak Premium Member Marine Biologist
Assisted by: Groundspeak Regular Member Biologist Marine
N 43° 04.703 W 073° 47.126
18T E 598872 N 4770234
Congress Park in Saratoga Springs, New York, includes a landscape design by Frederick Law Olmsted. The Park, and the old Canfield Casino within it, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.
Waymark Code: WMA5HP
Location: New York, United States
Date Posted: 11/20/2010
Published By:Groundspeak Premium Member silverquill
Views: 5
Created From:
 Canfield Casino and Congress Park - Saratoga Springs, NY - posted by Biologist Marine

"Canfield Casino and Congress Park is a 17-acre (6.9 ha) site in Saratoga Springs, New York, United States. It was the site of the former Congress Spring Bottling Plant and the former Congress Hall, a large resort hotel, which together brought Saratoga Springs international fame as a health spa and gambling site. At the peak of its popularity it was a place where the wealthy, major gamblers and stars of the entertainment world mingled. The park's artwork includes a statue by Daniel Chester French and a landscape design by Frederick Law Olmsted, among others.

It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987 after having originally been submitted and listed as the Casino-Congress Park-Circular Street Historic District in 1972. The later listing excluded some of the property outside the park and halved the overall size of the district.

Congress Park is currently operated by the City of Saratoga Springs as a park, bounded by Broadway, Spring Street, and Circular Street in Saratoga Springs. The Canfield Casino building, built in 1870, houses the Saratoga Springs History Museum. Gambling was ended by reformers in 1907.

The basin-shaped park contains Grecian pavilions around the springs, Italian gardens, groves of trees and lawns. A Doric columned pavilion has been built over the site of the original Congress Spring, with water piped in from another spring. To its west is the Columbian Spring tapped by Gideon Putnam, the founder of Saratoga Springs, restored in 1983 and topped with a similarly Greek-inspired domed pavilion. The Congress 3 spring to the south was bottled and distributed worldwide in the 19th century, and the Freshwater Spring is still popular with city residents.

The water from the springs has been channeled into streams and fountains. One surrounds The Spirit of Life, a statue by Daniel Chester French memorializing Spencer Trask, a great benefactor of the Saratoga area who founded the Yaddo writers' colony. It sits on the south side of the large lagoon in the park. Two vases, Night and Day, by Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen, are positioned on the lawn in front of the casino.

In 1913, the present park was created. Henry Bacon and Charles Leavitt were hired to do further work on its landscape."

-- Source

Name: Congress Park

Street Location: 1 East Congress Street

Local Municipality: Saratoga Springs

State/Province, etc.: New York

Country: USA

Web Site: [Web Link]

Date Established: 1913

Picnic Facilities: Benches

Recreational Facilities:
Walking trails, carousel


Monuments/Statues: The Spirit of Life (at Trask Fountain, Seventy-Seventh Infantry Regiment Monument

Fountains: Spencer Trask Memorial Fountain, Congress Spring, Columbian Springs, Deer Park Spring, Hathorn #1

Traditional Geocaches:
GC27HTD


Memorial/Commemoration: Not listed

Art (murals/sculpture, etc.): Not listed

Ponds/Lakes/Streams/Rivers/Beach: Not listed

Special Events: Not listed

Visit Instructions:
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Add any additional information that you may have about this park. A GPSr photo is NOT required.
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Recent Visits/Logs:
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muffy53 visited Congress Park - Saratoga Springs, NY 08/18/2013 muffy53 visited it
TheDeathlyHallows visited Congress Park - Saratoga Springs, NY 01/28/2012 TheDeathlyHallows visited it

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