This month we are visiting Schoharie County, New York! The village of Sharon Springs is west of Albany and is near attractions such as Howe Caverns, Adirondack Park, Catskill Park, Fenimore Art Museum and the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Sharon Springs, before European settlement, was frequented by the Iroquois population for the spring’s natural healing waters. Major European settlement began in 1825 with the establishment of a boarding house opened by David Eldredge.
The spring waters have high concentrations of sulfur, magnesia, and salts of iron, and gained large popularity in the 19th century for wealthy visitors including the industry moguls, the Vanderbilt family, and writer Oscar Wilde. The area was also attractive to beer barons due to the large hop belts that extended into the county. Maximilian Schaefer (or F & M Schaefer Brewing Company) and Henry Clausen, apprentice to David Yuengling and eventual founder of H. Clausen & Son Brewing Company, both had summer homes in Sharon Springs.
At the village’s height in popularity, Sharon Springs saw 10,000 visitors a year with a large amount being of European and Judaic visitors. Prohibition and the Great Depression hurt the village and surrounding areas, in which the town has still not recovered.
The village and all 177 of its structures have been places on the National Register of Historic Places as a Mineral Resort Village.
Resources:
“Sharon Springs.” 27, April 2004. Web. https://web.archive.org/web/20130201072916/http:/www.institutionalgreen.org/sharon/
“Sharon Springs Resorts.” Sharon Springs Resorts, 2017. Web. http://www.sharonspringsresort.com/
“Welcome to Sharon Springs.” Sharon Springs Chamber of Commerce, 2015. Web. http://sharonspringschamber.com/