Farewell My Lovely, The Beginning

The mineral springs of Saratoga were one of the many reasons visitors flocked to the small city over the years. The race course and illegal gambling helped too, as did the Queen of Spas' reputation as the place to see and be seen during the gilded age. The influx of the rich and famous contributed to the construction of many beautiful hotels on Broadway, among them the Grand Union and United States.

The original United States Hotel burned to the ground in 1865. In 1874 the hotel reopened, the second incarnation a five-story Victorian inspired hotel encompassing seven acres. In addition to the 768 guest rooms, there were cottages and suites with anywhere from one to seven bedrooms. Not much remains of the United States; in 1946 it was demolished. Some of the few surviving photographs can be seen here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. The hotel still survives in print and on film thanks to American novelist Edna Ferber. In 1945 she wrote a novel, Saratoga Trunk, which preserved the United States Hotel in all her glory. The novel was also made into a film starring Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman.

The Grand Union was equally spectacular and at one time was the world's largest hotel. It began as a tavern and boarding house, built by Gideon Putnam in 1802. Gideon Putnam was also one of the founders of Saratoga. The Grand Union had an opera house, and during the 150 years it stood was run by W. Edgar Woolley, the father of famous actor Monty Woolley. Pictures of the Grand Union can be seen here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. The hotel was demolished piecemeal between 1952 and 1953, 150 years after it was first built. Pictures of the auction can be found here and here. The Gideon Putnam Hotel, located in the Saratoga State Park, carries on the Putnam name.

The Adelphi Hotel opened on July 5th, 1877. While it wasn't as grand in scale as the Grand Union or United States, it was still beautiful and popular with the celebrity crowd, including John Morrissey, William Travers, and Cornelius Vanderbilt. Early pictures of the Adelphi can be found here, here, here, here, and here.

Located between the United States Hotel and the Grand Union, it was originally the site of the Old Adelphia Hotel. The Old Adelphi was started by the family of the wife of William McCaffery, a conductor on the Rensselaer and Saratoga Railroad. When he and his wife inherited the hotel, he decided to tear down the old hotel and build a new one. The Old Adelphia's claim to fame was a saloon called The Blue Hen's Chicken. It was the only bar on Broadway that sold liquor by the glass. The new hotel was smaller than her neighbors but just as lovely.

In the spirit of it's all connected, the name Blue Hen's Chicken can be traced back to the Revolutionary War, when soldiers from the area near the Delaware River were given that nickname due to the popularity of staging cock fights for amusement. The Kent County Blue Hen had a reputation for ferocity and fighting success, and the regiment of men from Kent County soon earned the nickname 'Blue Hen's Chickens' for their own successes. 

Coincidentally, in September of 1814, a little over 63 years before the new Adelphi Hotel opened on the site of the old Blue Hen's Chicken saloon, Captain Thomas MacDonough Jr., son of Revolutionary War officer Thomas MacDonough Sr., captained the corvette Saratoga in a successful campaign against the British on Lake Champlain during the War of 1812. On page 135 of Katharine Pyle's Once Upon A Time in Delaware (1911) she mentions an interesting tidbit re the captain on his ship and the Blue Hen's Chickens as they prepared for battle.

Next post we'll begin a tour of the inside.