Sharon Springs, New York

With the weather being bright and sunny I decided to head out east on Route 20 and visit the old spa town of Sharon Springs. Sharon Springs is a village in Schoharie County, New York, United States. It is a small town with a population of only 547 (2000 census). Its name derives from the hometown of the first Colonial settlers, Sharon, Connecticut, and the important springs in the village

The Adler Hotel

Thanks to its sulfur, magnesium, and chalybeate mineral springs, Sharon Springs grew into a highly fashionable spa during the 19th century. At the peak of its popularity, Sharon Springs hosted 10,000 visitors each summer, including members of the Vanderbilt family, Oscar Wilde, the ambassadors of Chile, Portugal, Belgium, and Peru, and multimillionaire Cuban sugar planter Tomas Terry. Direct ferry-to-stagecoach lines connected New York City to Sharon Springs, later rail connected the village to New York City and Boston via Albany and Cobleskill.

Sharon Spring's development as a mineral water spa reputedly began when David Eldredge established a boarding house near the springs in 1825. By 1841, the village had become world famous as the social elite came to take the waters. Magnificent large hotels and forest-like parks graced the village landscape. During the second half of the 19th Century, Sharon Springs was home to over sixty hotels and rooming houses accommodating over 10,000 visitors each summer. By the early 1900s, Sharon's indigenous Christian mix had become distanced from the summer clientele with the influx of European visitors, primarily from Judaic tradition.

The Imperial Baths

The spas that led to success also contributed to its demise. The turnover owners, owing to age, financial troubles, and a series of disastrous fires, meant the new proprietors were not as tied to the town. Other  national factors led to a decline, Prohibition was introduced in the 1920s and the Bank Moratorium brought financial ruin to many local residents during the early years of the Depression. Since then Sharon Springs has been declining year after year. Today despite attempts to rehabilitate some of the buildings, the many hotels and bath house slowly riot away a legacy of a once glorious past.

Abandoned Hotel

Another abandoned hotel