Sharon Springs, New York
Encyclopedia
Sharon Springs is a village
in Schoharie County
, New York
, United States
. The population was 547 at the 2000 census. Its name derives from the hometown of the first Colonial settlers, Sharon, Connecticut
, and the important spring
s in the village. Sharon Springs, Kansas
likewise was settled by former residents of this Upstate New York village.
The Village of Sharon Springs sits in the northwest part of the Town of Sharon, New York
, approximately 50 miles (80.5 km) west of Albany, the state capital. Surrounded by rolling hills and nestled in a winding valley, the tidy village is near some of New York State's most popular attractions. Howe Caverns
is 15 miles (24.1 km) to the south while The Mohawk River
and Erie Canal
are only 10 miles (16.1 km) to the north. The Adirondack Park is further north, about an hour away. Cooperstown, New York
, home to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
, The Farmer's Museum and The Fenimore Art Museum
, is 30 miles (48.3 km) to the west and the Catskill Park is 50 miles (80.5 km) to the south.
Sharon Springs, recognized by both the National Register of Historic Places
as well as New York State's Register of Historic Places as a historic spa village, boasts some attractions of her own. Many of its historic spa-related structures were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994 as the Sharon Springs Historic District
. In addition to the collection of fully and partially restored 19th century structures which can be enjoyed year-round, Sharon Springs also plays host to these seasonal events: the annual Father's Day Tractor & Antique Power Show in June (since 1992); the Summer Concerts Series, every Wednesday night in July and August (since 1994); the annual Harvest Festival in September (since 2009); and the Garden Party festival in May (since 2010).
Since the middle-to-late 1980s, Sharon Springs has gained increased local attention and prominence in Schoharie County. As entrepreneurs from outside the region started businesses and restored its structures, regional and New York City media have tracked its progress. It then gained the attention of Korean spa investors with large, although still unrealized plans. Businessmen and women continued to come to the village. As a result, Sharon Springs was recently featured on a cable reality television series, and provided a backdrop for a memoir by a nationally recognized gay author.
Now, The Town of Sharon, of which Sharon Springs is the primary village, is being discovered by natural gas companies and their scouts determined to take advantage of its location on the edges of the Marcellus Shale Formation. With multiple town residents signing natural gas exploration contracts, the future of the village as a tourist destination lies in the balance as we learn more about the effects of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing ("fracking").
, Sharon Springs was frequented by the indigenous Iroquois population for its healing waters. Following Britain's Royal Proclamation of 1763
, the Crown formed Tryon County, New York
in 1772, which lay at the westernmost reaches of the original Thirteen Colonies
. Sharon Springs, then known as the town of New Dorlach, was settled around 1780. Stretching from the Adirondack Mountains
to the Delaware River
, Tryon County boasted a pre-Revolutionary War farming community of 10,000 and was known as the "Breadbasket of the Colonies".
During the American Revolution
, the Town of Sharon, New York
saw limited fighting. The Battle of Sharon was fought on July 10, 1781. After burning down 12 homes in a small Canajoharie River settlement and claiming victory in the Battle of Currytown on July 9, approximately 300 British and Iroquois troops commanded by John Doxtader encamped later that day at the Sharon Springs Swamp, near the present-day intersection of Route 20 and County Road 34. Colonel Marius Willett of the American forces headed to their camp with a force of 150 men, attacking the redcoats in the dense swamp, killing 40. Doxtader's men fled and Willett claimed The Battle of Sharon as an American victory.
During and after the Revolution, Sharon Springs was part of the Town of Schoharie in Tryon County. In 1784, Tryon County was renamed Montgomery County, New York
to honor General Richard Montgomery, an American war hero who gave his life trying to capture the city of Quebec. In 1791, Otsego County, New York
broke off from Montgomery County, and in 1795, Schoharie County, New York
was formed from adjoining parts of Otsego and Albany Counties. The Town of Sharon was formed shortly after in 1797, and Sharon Springs set itself apart from the Town of Sharon in 1871 by incorporating as a village. In the process, it absorbed the neighboring community of Rockville.
Thanks to its sulfur
, magnesium
, and chalybeate
mineral spring
s, 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
(who gave a lecture at the now-demolished Pavilion Hotel on 11 August 1882), the ambassadors of Chile
, Portugal
, Belgium
, and Peru
, and multimillionaire Cuban
sugar planter Tomas Terry
(grandfather of the French designer Emilio Terry
). Direct ferry-to-stagecoach lines connected New York City to Sharon Springs, followed by rail lines connecting the village to New York City and Boston through connections in Albany and Cobleskill.
The most famous of the springs in the village, then as now, was the so-called Gardner Spring, which was owned by the owner of the Pavilion Hotel. As reported in the New York Times on 30 August 1875, "So prodigious is the amount of sulfur-gas in the Gardner Spring that the waters of this creek are rendered as white as milk, and the stones are covered with a thick deposit. All the objects which have been thrown into the stream from above—old shoes, tin pails, and other things of a similar nature—become transmuted by the mineral. Some of them become a snowy white, and others are turned to a deep black. The green weeds that grow upon the sides and bottoms of such creeks are here perfectly white, and at first one can hardly tell their nature, but mistakes them for long films of the sulphur deposit."
According to an article published in The New York Times
(26 August 2000), Sharon Springs lost its fashionable Social Register
set to the horse-racing attractions of Saratoga Springs. Wealthy Jewish families of German origin, who were unwelcome at Saratoga due to the prevailing social bias of the time, filled the void and "made Sharon Springs a refuge of their own." Eventually, these families moved on to other, more modern resorts, and the village began to fade economically. Other factors that exacerbated the village's early 20th century decline were Prohibition
(which reduced the need for the local hop
harvest) and the opening of the New York State Thruway
(which routed traffic away from the area).
From the 1920s to the 1960s kuchaleyans flourished. These were self-catered boarding houses, and in Yiddish the name means "cook-alones." They were a more affordable alternative to the larger more expensive hotels and were especially popular during the depression and, later, with poorer post-war European refugees. Though none operated past the 1980s, one of them, "The Brustman House" on Union Street, survives as a retreat for the owners' descendants. This house's story is typical of the kuchaleyans.
As the cited New York Times article went on to explain, "After World War II, Sharon Springs got a second wind from the West German government, which paid medical care reparations to Holocaust survivors, holding that therapeutic spa vacations were a legitimate part of the medical package." In the summer of 1946, one of the busboys at the Spanish Colonial Revival style Adler Hotel
was Edward I. Koch, the future mayor of New York City
.
The 1970s through the 1990s saw the succession of secular Jewish tourists to Sharon Springs by Hasidim and ultra-Orthodox Jewish visitors, fed in part by a parallel displacement in the nearby Borsht Belt. Their time in Sharon Springs is documented in "The Short Season of Sharon Springs," published by Cornell University Press in 1980. A host of Hasidim-owned and frequented hotels flourished in the village, bridging Sharon Springs' shining past as a world-class resort for the rich and famous and its recent ascent as a regional travel and weekend destination. A concurrent migration of weekend hunters and union trade workers discovering rural weekending from the Downstate New York City suburbs began coming to Sharon Springs and Schoharie County in the 1970s. As suburban and urban hunters chased the deer, they also introduced the once-endangered wild turkey to this and other rural areas. Unlike the Hasidim tourists, who have mostly moved on to other destinations and have dwindled in numbers, the first wave of suburban weekenders have added to the community by building their families and relocating their full-time lives to their former part-time escape.
The restoration of The American Hotel on Main Street was among the first completed projects in Sharon Springs' rebirth. Purchased as a collapsing, abandoned structure in 1996, buyers Doug Plummer and Garth Roberts refurbished the three-story Greek Revival (c. 1847) into a functioning hotel with a full-service restaurant. Prior to The American Hotel, the former residents of New York City operated a bakery for two years, The Rockville Cafe, renting the space from Robert and Kathleen Lehnert who began renovating the dilapidated property they purchased in 1986. Plummer and Roberts also restored their home on Pavilion Avenue as well as two former Hasidim guest houses across Main Street from the American.
Renovated in 2005, one of the guest houses houses Finishing Touch, a shop for women's fashion and home decor, and McGillicuddy's Soaps, for homemade soaps and grooming products. Joe Todd Campbell, owner of The Finishing Touch, is a respected decorator who has consulted on many interior spaces in the village. Joe has also initiated and organized many village events. Debbie McGillicuddy has perfected her soapmaking craft and has helped Beekman 1802, another village business, gain traction with their lifestyle brand through their first marketed product, homemade goat milk soap. The other former guest house across from the American is home to the Black Cat Cafe & Bakery, which also offers cooking classes and cookbooks. Tony Daou, the proprietor, arrived in Sharon Springs in 2003 and he and his cafe have become permanent fixtures in the village, known throughout the surrounding area as an inviting place to dine and catch up on the local news.
One of the grandest structures in the village's Spa heyday is The Roseboro. Dennis Giacomo, owner of the Roseboro, and Dawne Belloise, a former president of the Sharon Historical Society, saved the 150-room Roseboro from demolition and began a massive restoration. While never completing the restoration, the Roseboro Hotel did afford shop space and since 2000, has operated as a functioning restaurant, banquet and retail space. Today, it is home to Mercantile, the retail store for Beekman 1802. A lifestyle brand
, Beekman 1802, was founded in Sharon Springs in 2008 by Dr. Brent Ridge and author Josh Kilmer-Purcell
. The business, which markets artisanal beauty, food, and decor products, has been featured in multiple publications and on The Martha Stewart Show. A Planet Green cable network reality television series, "The Fabulous Beekman Boys," followed the couple and efforts to build a rural business in 2010 and 2011. The show is notable for its cameo appearances by Martha Stewart, Rosie O'Donnnell and other celebrities.
One of the Giacomo/Belloise team's fully completed collaborations is the Klinkhart Homestead, the 1859 Italianate family home of a former proprietor of the Roseboro and prominent Sharon Springs citizen, restored in the late 1990s. They also fully restored the Brimstonia Cottage next door, which has been lodging visitors since 1997. Nearly a decade later, Giacomo brought back the large Victorian home adjacent to the Klinkhart Homestead, fully restoring it in 2003.
Ms. Belloise led a successful 1996 application to list the 177 structures in the village on the National Register of Historic Places as a mineral resort. She also won a grant from the New York State Council for the Humanities to establish a self-guided walking tour through Sharon Springs in 1997. Today, one can walk this tour by following the plaques that line Main Street. The historic photos and the informative text on these plaques help visitors to imagine the extent of the town's grandeur in its heyday, as many structures no longer stand today.
The boutique trade in bed and breakfast type inns has done particularly well for those properties situated to take advantage of the sweeping valley and rolling high geography of the community. In particular has been the magnificent although well aged Clausen Farm with its much expanded farm house from the late 18th century, its Victorian
stables and carriage barns and rare gentlemen's retreat a shingle style two story "casino", erected in 1892 with an open turret on the 3rd floor to afford wide views. The casino features its own 19th century kegelbahn, a German-style bowling alley. The estate, acquired by Henry L Clausen Jr. a successful beer maker in 1890, served a Bed and Breakfast
until the end of 2008. It was one of the first successful businesses in the early years of Sharon Springs' resurgence, and had remained in the Clausen family (fifth generation) until 2009. Two other historic Sharon Springs inns fully restored to their original state include the Edwardian Edgefield http://www.edgefieldbb.com at 153 Washington Street and the Victorian New Yorker B&B, at 110 Center Street. Several other inns, beds and breakfast, and houses offering rooms for rent are currently operating in and near the village.
Two arts venues in the village also operate out of fully restored structures. The Village Hall Galleries, at 187 Main Street, is run by proprietor and photographer, Leila Durkin. Ms. Durkin renovated the former fire house in 2009, relocating her art gallery from spaces further south on Main Street. The gallery fosters a growing list of exclusive artists working in the region and hosts art events throughout the year. A formal garden is being added behind the Galleries in 2011. Chartwell Studios, an operating artists studio offering drawing classes and gallery space showcasing local fine and decorative arts, operates out of a fully restored 1871 Victorian former drug store on Route 20. Peter Cozzolino and Marguerite MacFarlane won the 2007 Historic Preservation Award for Otsego and Schoharie Counties in the Rehabilitation category for their work on the Studios.
As the village gained traction and attention from its neighboring towns, and word of its rebirth spread through the county and region in the mid-first decade of the 21st century, other entrepreneurs moved to the village and town and have contributed to its continued revival. Margi Neary, a Westchester County transplant, traded a corporate job for a cafe, My Sister's Place, which features a zen tea house and garden labyrinth. She also produces award-winning home-made onion jams from her village kitchen. Tom Jessen started and operated Foxglove Press, a fine letterpress print shop, in Sharon Springs from 2006–2010, before relocating his operations to Maine. His cards can now be found Beekman 1802's Mercantile store, online, and in the Village Hall Galleries. Village Hall Galleries also carries other print pieces from Tom, and represents him as a fine artist, exclusively offering Mr. Jessen's paintings.
Mu Mu Muesli a locally produced European style breakfast cereal which was established in 2008 by Lisa Zaccaglini and Mike Shuster. The two artists moved from NYC in 1999 and found an Italian boarding house formally known as the Imperiale Gardens which had been abandoned for over 50 years. This was the couple's perfect "art project" and they immediately began work on restoring the house and gardens. The couple has always been passionate about the link between diet and health but they also attribute Sharon Springs' rich history of being a healing mecca for the inspiration of Mu Mu Muesli. Muesli
was originally developed by a Swiss physician as a healthy alternative to the late 19th century diet and was served in "health retreats" all around Europe, not unlike Sharon Springs in the turn of the century. Mu Mu Muesli is nationally recognized by Vegetarian Times as 1 of 5 "Most Scrumptious Cereals" in the country and is rapidly gaining popularity across the Northeast.
series The Fabulous Beekman Boys
on Planet Green television network. During the last 10 years, Sharon Springs has also figured prominently in episodes of The Food Network's $40 A Day and Rachael Ray's Tasty Travels series. Charles Kuralt also filmed a brief segment of his On The Road series here, tracking a rare bluebird only found on the stretch of Route 20 between Albany and the Town of Sharon.
Sharon Springs provided backdrops for two feature films. The first is a Thelma Ritter 1951 classic, The Model and the Marriage Broker. One scene in the movie has Scott Brady, an eligible bachelor, meeting up with a matchmaker in Sharon Springs played by Jeanne Crain. The other, more cited movie, is 1970's horror cult classic, I Drink Your Blood
, now available on DVD. Almost all of scenes were filmed on location in the village.
The 150-room Adler Hotel on the northern edge of the village with its Spanish style architecture was the last great hotel built prior to the great depression. The five-story hotel opened in 1927, but closed after the 2004 summer season.
In April 2007 the Investment group ("Sharon Springs Inc.") held a press conference and outlined a $12 million plan to restore both the Imperial Baths and the Adler Hotel in an 18-month project and bring in a projected 700 visitors a day when completed. Harold Shin, project manager for Manhattan-based architectural firm DeArch LLC, described how the Adler would be restored, and how the Imperial Baths would include both traditional baths and modern spa facilities.
However, those plans since 2007 have changed from restoration of the existing historic hotels into "a possible $350 million plan to erect two 11-story hotels — including one with a helipad — a golf course, condominiums and a spa with a bathhouse and a day care center."
Demolition and work on the properties was planned to start in 2008 according to the principal partner, Q Sung Cho. The timeline for completion would be between five to seven years once the project begins. However, no work has commenced as of September 2011, and the purchased historic structures remain in quickly deteriorating condition. While buildings such as the Adler and Imperial Baths were in use recently before the purchase, it has gotten to the point where most structures owned by the group are in need of immediate emergency stabilization.
With virtually no maintenance or care during its current ownership, the future of some of Sharon Spring's most significant buildings remains at risk.
On September 2, 2009 Restore New York / Empire State Development's Communities Initiative - Round 3 - announced they were granting $1,000,000 for The Imperial Spa by Sharon Springs Inc. The project funding is anticipated to create 100 new jobs. The project aims to rehabilitate the historic Imperial Bathhouse (circa 1927) into a modern luxury spa. Further the project aims to re-establish Sharon Springs as a spa destination. So far, the group's standstill on the projects leaves the potential restoration of the Imperial Baths uncertain. In the mean time, the condition of the historic bathhouses continue to deteriorate.
Per the Empire State Development press release: "The rehabilitation will create spa and therapy areas of" 41200 square feet (3,827.6 m²) and 6400 square feet (594.6 m²) "for outdoor bathing facilities. The total renovated square footage, including amenities such as restaurants and gift shops, will be" 50000 square feet (4,645.2 m²).
According to the United States Census Bureau
, the village has a total area of 1.8 square miles (4.7 km²), all of it land.
Sharon Springs is located on New York State Route 10
(Main Street) immediately north of US Route 20. Bowmaker Pond and Clausen Pond are two small lakes south of the village.
of 2000, there were 547 people, 204 households, and 130 families residing in the village. The population density
was 299.5 people per square mile (115.4/km²). There were 270 housing units at an average density of 147.8 per square mile (57.0/km²). The racial makeup of the village was 97.62% White, 0.73% African American, 0.18% Native American, and 1.46% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.83% of the population.
There were 204 households out of which 30.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.9% were married couples
living together, 6.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.8% were non-families. 29.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.42 and the average family size was 3.03.
In the village the population was spread out with 23.4% under the age of 18, 5.7% from 18 to 24, 27.1% from 25 to 44, 20.5% from 45 to 64, and 23.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females there were 89.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 83.0 males.
The median income for a household in the village was $37,969, and the median income for a family was $45,000. Males had a median income of $36,563 versus $28,125 for females. The per capita income
for the village was $24,664. About 8.5% of families and 12.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 23.4% of those under age 18 and 4.3% of those age 65 or over.
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
in Schoharie County
Schoharie County, New York
As of the census of 2000, there were 31,582 people, 11,991 households and 8,177 families residing in the county. The population density was 51 people per square mile . There were 15,915 housing units at an average density of 26 per square mile...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The population was 547 at the 2000 census. Its name derives from the hometown of the first Colonial settlers, Sharon, Connecticut
Sharon, Connecticut
Sharon is a town located in Litchfield County, Connecticut, in the northwest corner of the state. It is bounded on the north by Salisbury, on the east by the Housatonic River, on the south by Kent, and on the west by Dutchess County, New York...
, and the important spring
Spring (hydrosphere)
A spring—also known as a rising or resurgence—is a component of the hydrosphere. Specifically, it is any natural situation where water flows to the surface of the earth from underground...
s in the village. Sharon Springs, Kansas
Sharon Springs, Kansas
Sharon Springs is a city in and the county seat of Wallace County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 748.-History:The community is named after Sharon Springs, New York, some of whose families founded its Kansas namesake....
likewise was settled by former residents of this Upstate New York village.
The Village of Sharon Springs sits in the northwest part of the Town of Sharon, New York
Sharon, New York
Sharon is a town in Schoharie County, New York, United States. The population was 1,843 at the 2000 census. The town is named after a location in Connecticut, from where some early settlers came....
, approximately 50 miles (80.5 km) west of Albany, the state capital. Surrounded by rolling hills and nestled in a winding valley, the tidy village is near some of New York State's most popular attractions. Howe Caverns
Howe Caverns
Howe Caverns is a cave in Howes Cave, Schoharie County, New York.-Geology:Geologists believe that the formation of the cave, which lies below ground, began several million years ago...
is 15 miles (24.1 km) to the south while The Mohawk River
Mohawk River
The Mohawk River is a river in the U.S. state of New York. It is the largest tributary of the Hudson River. The Mohawk flows into the Hudson in the Capital District, a few miles north of the city of Albany. The river is named for the Mohawk Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy...
and Erie Canal
Erie Canal
The Erie Canal is a waterway in New York that runs about from Albany, New York, on the Hudson River to Buffalo, New York, at Lake Erie, completing a navigable water route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes. The canal contains 36 locks and encompasses a total elevation differential of...
are only 10 miles (16.1 km) to the north. The Adirondack Park is further north, about an hour away. Cooperstown, New York
Cooperstown, New York
Cooperstown is a village in Otsego County, New York, USA. It is located in the Town of Otsego. The population was estimated to be 1,852 at the 2010 census.The Village of Cooperstown is the county seat of Otsego County, New York...
, home to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 25 Main Street in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests serving as the central point for the study of the history of baseball in the United States and beyond, the display of...
, The Farmer's Museum and The Fenimore Art Museum
Fenimore Art Museum
The Fenimore Art Museum is a museum located in Cooperstown, New York, USA, operating under the auspices of the New York State Historical Association...
, is 30 miles (48.3 km) to the west and the Catskill Park is 50 miles (80.5 km) to the south.
Sharon Springs, recognized by both the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
as well as New York State's Register of Historic Places as a historic spa village, boasts some attractions of her own. Many of its historic spa-related structures were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994 as the Sharon Springs Historic District
Sharon Springs Historic District
Sharon Springs Historic District is a national historic district located at Sharon Springs in Schoharie County, New York. The district includes 167 contributing buildings and nine contributing structures...
. In addition to the collection of fully and partially restored 19th century structures which can be enjoyed year-round, Sharon Springs also plays host to these seasonal events: the annual Father's Day Tractor & Antique Power Show in June (since 1992); the Summer Concerts Series, every Wednesday night in July and August (since 1994); the annual Harvest Festival in September (since 2009); and the Garden Party festival in May (since 2010).
Since the middle-to-late 1980s, Sharon Springs has gained increased local attention and prominence in Schoharie County. As entrepreneurs from outside the region started businesses and restored its structures, regional and New York City media have tracked its progress. It then gained the attention of Korean spa investors with large, although still unrealized plans. Businessmen and women continued to come to the village. As a result, Sharon Springs was recently featured on a cable reality television series, and provided a backdrop for a memoir by a nationally recognized gay author.
Now, The Town of Sharon, of which Sharon Springs is the primary village, is being discovered by natural gas companies and their scouts determined to take advantage of its location on the edges of the Marcellus Shale Formation. With multiple town residents signing natural gas exploration contracts, the future of the village as a tourist destination lies in the balance as we learn more about the effects of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing ("fracking").
History
Prior to being claimed and settled by Great Britain as part of its Province of New YorkProvince of New York
The Province of New York was an English and later British crown territory that originally included all of the present U.S. states of New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Vermont, along with inland portions of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Maine, as well as eastern Pennsylvania...
, Sharon Springs was frequented by the indigenous Iroquois population for its healing waters. Following Britain's Royal Proclamation of 1763
Royal Proclamation of 1763
The Royal Proclamation of 1763 was issued October 7, 1763, by King George III following Great Britain's acquisition of French territory in North America after the end of the French and Indian War/Seven Years' War...
, the Crown formed Tryon County, New York
Tryon County, New York
Tryon County, New York was a county in the colonial Province of New York in the British American colonies. It was created from Albany County on March 24, 1772. It was named for William Tryon, the last provincial governor of New York. Its boundaries extended far further than any current county...
in 1772, which lay at the westernmost reaches of the original Thirteen Colonies
Thirteen Colonies
The Thirteen Colonies were English and later British colonies established on the Atlantic coast of North America between 1607 and 1733. They declared their independence in the American Revolution and formed the United States of America...
. Sharon Springs, then known as the town of New Dorlach, was settled around 1780. Stretching from the Adirondack Mountains
Adirondack Mountains
The Adirondack Mountains are a mountain range located in the northeastern part of New York, that runs through Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Herkimer, Lewis, Saint Lawrence, Saratoga, Warren, and Washington counties....
to the Delaware River
Delaware River
The Delaware River is a major river on the Atlantic coast of the United States.A Dutch expedition led by Henry Hudson in 1609 first mapped the river. The river was christened the South River in the New Netherland colony that followed, in contrast to the North River, as the Hudson River was then...
, Tryon County boasted a pre-Revolutionary War farming community of 10,000 and was known as the "Breadbasket of the Colonies".
During the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
, the Town of Sharon, New York
Sharon, New York
Sharon is a town in Schoharie County, New York, United States. The population was 1,843 at the 2000 census. The town is named after a location in Connecticut, from where some early settlers came....
saw limited fighting. The Battle of Sharon was fought on July 10, 1781. After burning down 12 homes in a small Canajoharie River settlement and claiming victory in the Battle of Currytown on July 9, approximately 300 British and Iroquois troops commanded by John Doxtader encamped later that day at the Sharon Springs Swamp, near the present-day intersection of Route 20 and County Road 34. Colonel Marius Willett of the American forces headed to their camp with a force of 150 men, attacking the redcoats in the dense swamp, killing 40. Doxtader's men fled and Willett claimed The Battle of Sharon as an American victory.
During and after the Revolution, Sharon Springs was part of the Town of Schoharie in Tryon County. In 1784, Tryon County was renamed Montgomery County, New York
Montgomery County, New York
As of the census of 2000, there were 49,708 people, 20,038 households, and 13,104 families residing in the county. The population density was 123 people per square mile . There were 22,522 housing units at an average density of 56 per square mile...
to honor General Richard Montgomery, an American war hero who gave his life trying to capture the city of Quebec. In 1791, Otsego County, New York
Otsego County, New York
Otsego County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. The 2010 population was 62,259. The county seat is Cooperstown. The name Otsego is from a Mohawk word meaning "place of the rock."-History:...
broke off from Montgomery County, and in 1795, Schoharie County, New York
Schoharie County, New York
As of the census of 2000, there were 31,582 people, 11,991 households and 8,177 families residing in the county. The population density was 51 people per square mile . There were 15,915 housing units at an average density of 26 per square mile...
was formed from adjoining parts of Otsego and Albany Counties. The Town of Sharon was formed shortly after in 1797, and Sharon Springs set itself apart from the Town of Sharon in 1871 by incorporating as a village. In the process, it absorbed the neighboring community of Rockville.
Thanks to its sulfur
Sulfur
Sulfur or sulphur is the chemical element with atomic number 16. In the periodic table it is represented by the symbol S. It is an abundant, multivalent non-metal. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with chemical formula S8. Elemental sulfur is a bright yellow...
, magnesium
Magnesium
Magnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg, atomic number 12, and common oxidation number +2. It is an alkaline earth metal and the eighth most abundant element in the Earth's crust and ninth in the known universe as a whole...
, and chalybeate
Chalybeate
Chalybeate waters, also known as ferruginous waters, are mineral spring waters containing salts of iron.-Name:The word "chalybeate" is derived from the Latin word for steel, "chalybs", which follows from the Greek word "khalups"...
mineral spring
Mineral spring
Mineral springs are naturally occurring springs that produce water containing minerals, or other dissolved substances, that alter its taste or give it a purported therapeutic value...
s, Sharon Springs grew into a highly fashionable spa
Spa town
A spa town is a town situated around a mineral spa . Patrons resorted to spas to "take the waters" for their purported health benefits. The word comes from the Belgian town Spa. In continental Europe a spa was known as a ville d'eau...
during the 19th century. At the peak of its popularity, Sharon Springs hosted 10,000 visitors each summer, including members of the Vanderbilt
Vanderbilt family
The Vanderbilt family is an American family of Dutch origin prominent during the Gilded Age. It started off with the shipping and railroad empires of Cornelius Vanderbilt, and expanded into various other areas of industry and philanthropy...
family, Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
(who gave a lecture at the now-demolished Pavilion Hotel on 11 August 1882), the ambassadors of Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
, Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, and Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, and multimillionaire Cuban
Cubans
Cubans or Cuban people are the inhabitants or citizens of Cuba. Cuba is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different ethnic and national backgrounds...
sugar planter Tomas Terry
Tomás Terry
Tomás Terry y Adán was a Cuban business magnate.Of Venezuelan origin, Terry initially became involved in the slave trade in Cuba, making his first $10,000 by buying sick slaves, nursing them back to health, and then reselling them healthy for a large profit. He bought the Caracas sugar mill for...
(grandfather of the French designer Emilio Terry
Emilio Terry
Jose Emilio Terry y Dorticos , known as Emilio Terry was a Cuban artist, interior designer, artist and landscape artist, best known for his career in France...
). Direct ferry-to-stagecoach lines connected New York City to Sharon Springs, followed by rail lines connecting the village to New York City and Boston through connections in Albany and Cobleskill.
The most famous of the springs in the village, then as now, was the so-called Gardner Spring, which was owned by the owner of the Pavilion Hotel. As reported in the New York Times on 30 August 1875, "So prodigious is the amount of sulfur-gas in the Gardner Spring that the waters of this creek are rendered as white as milk, and the stones are covered with a thick deposit. All the objects which have been thrown into the stream from above—old shoes, tin pails, and other things of a similar nature—become transmuted by the mineral. Some of them become a snowy white, and others are turned to a deep black. The green weeds that grow upon the sides and bottoms of such creeks are here perfectly white, and at first one can hardly tell their nature, but mistakes them for long films of the sulphur deposit."
According to an article published in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
(26 August 2000), Sharon Springs lost its fashionable Social Register
Social Register
Specific to the United States, the Social Register is a directory of names and addresses of prominent American families who form the social elite, . The "Directory" automatically includes the President of the United States and the First Family, and in the past always included the U.S. Senators and...
set to the horse-racing attractions of Saratoga Springs. Wealthy Jewish families of German origin, who were unwelcome at Saratoga due to the prevailing social bias of the time, filled the void and "made Sharon Springs a refuge of their own." Eventually, these families moved on to other, more modern resorts, and the village began to fade economically. Other factors that exacerbated the village's early 20th century decline were Prohibition
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
(which reduced the need for the local hop
Hop (plant)
Humulus, Hop, is a small genus of flowering plants native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The female flowers of H. lupulus are known as hops, and are used as a culinary flavoring and stabilizer, especially in the brewing of beer...
harvest) and the opening of the New York State Thruway
New York State Thruway
The New York State Thruway is a system of limited-access highways located within the state of New York in the United States. The system, known officially as the Governor Thomas E. Dewey Thruway for former New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey, is operated by the New York State Thruway Authority and...
(which routed traffic away from the area).
From the 1920s to the 1960s kuchaleyans flourished. These were self-catered boarding houses, and in Yiddish the name means "cook-alones." They were a more affordable alternative to the larger more expensive hotels and were especially popular during the depression and, later, with poorer post-war European refugees. Though none operated past the 1980s, one of them, "The Brustman House" on Union Street, survives as a retreat for the owners' descendants. This house's story is typical of the kuchaleyans.
As the cited New York Times article went on to explain, "After World War II, Sharon Springs got a second wind from the West German government, which paid medical care reparations to Holocaust survivors, holding that therapeutic spa vacations were a legitimate part of the medical package." In the summer of 1946, one of the busboys at the Spanish Colonial Revival style Adler Hotel
Adler Hotel
The Adler Hotel was a 150-room, five-story hotel in Sharon Springs, New York that was operated from 1929 until 2004. Known for its therapeutic sulfur baths, it catered primarily to a Jewish clientele who travelled to Sharon Springs in the summers. Ed Koch worked as a busboy at the hotel in 1946...
was Edward I. Koch, the future mayor of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
The 1970s through the 1990s saw the succession of secular Jewish tourists to Sharon Springs by Hasidim and ultra-Orthodox Jewish visitors, fed in part by a parallel displacement in the nearby Borsht Belt. Their time in Sharon Springs is documented in "The Short Season of Sharon Springs," published by Cornell University Press in 1980. A host of Hasidim-owned and frequented hotels flourished in the village, bridging Sharon Springs' shining past as a world-class resort for the rich and famous and its recent ascent as a regional travel and weekend destination. A concurrent migration of weekend hunters and union trade workers discovering rural weekending from the Downstate New York City suburbs began coming to Sharon Springs and Schoharie County in the 1970s. As suburban and urban hunters chased the deer, they also introduced the once-endangered wild turkey to this and other rural areas. Unlike the Hasidim tourists, who have mostly moved on to other destinations and have dwindled in numbers, the first wave of suburban weekenders have added to the community by building their families and relocating their full-time lives to their former part-time escape.
Sharon Springs rebirth
Sharon Springs, after drifting into a rundown state by the late 1980s, has enjoyed a resurgence in the last 15 years. Much of this has been attributed to both a stabilization of the remaining historic structures (arson leveled many of the abandoned hotels) and an infusion of ambitious buyers from outside the area looking for an affordable community to start a business or to add rural weekends to their city life. The New York Times cites the revival to "the uninterruped supply of affluent, educated second-homers from New York City (3.5 hours away) and Columbia County (2 hours away)... and the exponential growth of a new travel phenomenon, heritage tourism: the quest for things historic by well-heeled tourists." Low real estate prices, early renovations and successful start-ups, positive press including back to back 'Escapes' New York Times articles in 2000, and then post-911 flight from New York City all contributed to an influx of entrepreneurs, artisans and artists, including single-sex couples and other minorities.The restoration of The American Hotel on Main Street was among the first completed projects in Sharon Springs' rebirth. Purchased as a collapsing, abandoned structure in 1996, buyers Doug Plummer and Garth Roberts refurbished the three-story Greek Revival (c. 1847) into a functioning hotel with a full-service restaurant. Prior to The American Hotel, the former residents of New York City operated a bakery for two years, The Rockville Cafe, renting the space from Robert and Kathleen Lehnert who began renovating the dilapidated property they purchased in 1986. Plummer and Roberts also restored their home on Pavilion Avenue as well as two former Hasidim guest houses across Main Street from the American.
Renovated in 2005, one of the guest houses houses Finishing Touch, a shop for women's fashion and home decor, and McGillicuddy's Soaps, for homemade soaps and grooming products. Joe Todd Campbell, owner of The Finishing Touch, is a respected decorator who has consulted on many interior spaces in the village. Joe has also initiated and organized many village events. Debbie McGillicuddy has perfected her soapmaking craft and has helped Beekman 1802, another village business, gain traction with their lifestyle brand through their first marketed product, homemade goat milk soap. The other former guest house across from the American is home to the Black Cat Cafe & Bakery, which also offers cooking classes and cookbooks. Tony Daou, the proprietor, arrived in Sharon Springs in 2003 and he and his cafe have become permanent fixtures in the village, known throughout the surrounding area as an inviting place to dine and catch up on the local news.
One of the grandest structures in the village's Spa heyday is The Roseboro. Dennis Giacomo, owner of the Roseboro, and Dawne Belloise, a former president of the Sharon Historical Society, saved the 150-room Roseboro from demolition and began a massive restoration. While never completing the restoration, the Roseboro Hotel did afford shop space and since 2000, has operated as a functioning restaurant, banquet and retail space. Today, it is home to Mercantile, the retail store for Beekman 1802. A lifestyle brand
Lifestyle brand
A lifestyle brand is a brand that attempts to embody the values and aspirations of a group or culture for purposes of marketing.Each individual has an identity based on their choices, experiences, and background...
, Beekman 1802, was founded in Sharon Springs in 2008 by Dr. Brent Ridge and author Josh Kilmer-Purcell
Josh Kilmer-Purcell
Josh Kilmer-Purcell is an American writer. In 2006 Harper Perennial published I Am Not Myself These Days: A Memoir, a tragicomic account of Kilmer-Purcell's early days in New York City, living as an advertising art director by day and a drag queen named "Aquadisiac" by night...
. The business, which markets artisanal beauty, food, and decor products, has been featured in multiple publications and on The Martha Stewart Show. A Planet Green cable network reality television series, "The Fabulous Beekman Boys," followed the couple and efforts to build a rural business in 2010 and 2011. The show is notable for its cameo appearances by Martha Stewart, Rosie O'Donnnell and other celebrities.
One of the Giacomo/Belloise team's fully completed collaborations is the Klinkhart Homestead, the 1859 Italianate family home of a former proprietor of the Roseboro and prominent Sharon Springs citizen, restored in the late 1990s. They also fully restored the Brimstonia Cottage next door, which has been lodging visitors since 1997. Nearly a decade later, Giacomo brought back the large Victorian home adjacent to the Klinkhart Homestead, fully restoring it in 2003.
Ms. Belloise led a successful 1996 application to list the 177 structures in the village on the National Register of Historic Places as a mineral resort. She also won a grant from the New York State Council for the Humanities to establish a self-guided walking tour through Sharon Springs in 1997. Today, one can walk this tour by following the plaques that line Main Street. The historic photos and the informative text on these plaques help visitors to imagine the extent of the town's grandeur in its heyday, as many structures no longer stand today.
The boutique trade in bed and breakfast type inns has done particularly well for those properties situated to take advantage of the sweeping valley and rolling high geography of the community. In particular has been the magnificent although well aged Clausen Farm with its much expanded farm house from the late 18th century, its Victorian
Victorian architecture
The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...
stables and carriage barns and rare gentlemen's retreat a shingle style two story "casino", erected in 1892 with an open turret on the 3rd floor to afford wide views. The casino features its own 19th century kegelbahn, a German-style bowling alley. The estate, acquired by Henry L Clausen Jr. a successful beer maker in 1890, served a Bed and Breakfast
Bed and breakfast
A bed and breakfast is a small lodging establishment that offers overnight accommodation and breakfast, but usually does not offer other meals. Since the 1980s, the meaning of the term has also extended to include accommodations that are also known as "self-catering" establishments...
until the end of 2008. It was one of the first successful businesses in the early years of Sharon Springs' resurgence, and had remained in the Clausen family (fifth generation) until 2009. Two other historic Sharon Springs inns fully restored to their original state include the Edwardian Edgefield http://www.edgefieldbb.com at 153 Washington Street and the Victorian New Yorker B&B, at 110 Center Street. Several other inns, beds and breakfast, and houses offering rooms for rent are currently operating in and near the village.
Two arts venues in the village also operate out of fully restored structures. The Village Hall Galleries, at 187 Main Street, is run by proprietor and photographer, Leila Durkin. Ms. Durkin renovated the former fire house in 2009, relocating her art gallery from spaces further south on Main Street. The gallery fosters a growing list of exclusive artists working in the region and hosts art events throughout the year. A formal garden is being added behind the Galleries in 2011. Chartwell Studios, an operating artists studio offering drawing classes and gallery space showcasing local fine and decorative arts, operates out of a fully restored 1871 Victorian former drug store on Route 20. Peter Cozzolino and Marguerite MacFarlane won the 2007 Historic Preservation Award for Otsego and Schoharie Counties in the Rehabilitation category for their work on the Studios.
As the village gained traction and attention from its neighboring towns, and word of its rebirth spread through the county and region in the mid-first decade of the 21st century, other entrepreneurs moved to the village and town and have contributed to its continued revival. Margi Neary, a Westchester County transplant, traded a corporate job for a cafe, My Sister's Place, which features a zen tea house and garden labyrinth. She also produces award-winning home-made onion jams from her village kitchen. Tom Jessen started and operated Foxglove Press, a fine letterpress print shop, in Sharon Springs from 2006–2010, before relocating his operations to Maine. His cards can now be found Beekman 1802's Mercantile store, online, and in the Village Hall Galleries. Village Hall Galleries also carries other print pieces from Tom, and represents him as a fine artist, exclusively offering Mr. Jessen's paintings.
Mu Mu Muesli a locally produced European style breakfast cereal which was established in 2008 by Lisa Zaccaglini and Mike Shuster. The two artists moved from NYC in 1999 and found an Italian boarding house formally known as the Imperiale Gardens which had been abandoned for over 50 years. This was the couple's perfect "art project" and they immediately began work on restoring the house and gardens. The couple has always been passionate about the link between diet and health but they also attribute Sharon Springs' rich history of being a healing mecca for the inspiration of Mu Mu Muesli. Muesli
Muesli
Muesli is a popular breakfast cereal based on uncooked rolled oats, fruit and nuts. It was developed around 1900 by Swiss physician Maximilian Bircher-Benner for patients in his hospital...
was originally developed by a Swiss physician as a healthy alternative to the late 19th century diet and was served in "health retreats" all around Europe, not unlike Sharon Springs in the turn of the century. Mu Mu Muesli is nationally recognized by Vegetarian Times as 1 of 5 "Most Scrumptious Cereals" in the country and is rapidly gaining popularity across the Northeast.
Reality show, cable TV, and movie location
In 2009 and 2010 Sharon Springs became the location for the reality televisionReality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...
series The Fabulous Beekman Boys
The Fabulous Beekman Boys
The Fabulous Beekman Boys was a reality television show produced in the United States by World of Wonder Productions. The series followed Josh Kilmer-Purcell and his partner Brent Ridge as they learned how to become farmers and launched their lifestyle brand, Beekman 1802...
on Planet Green television network. During the last 10 years, Sharon Springs has also figured prominently in episodes of The Food Network's $40 A Day and Rachael Ray's Tasty Travels series. Charles Kuralt also filmed a brief segment of his On The Road series here, tracking a rare bluebird only found on the stretch of Route 20 between Albany and the Town of Sharon.
Sharon Springs provided backdrops for two feature films. The first is a Thelma Ritter 1951 classic, The Model and the Marriage Broker. One scene in the movie has Scott Brady, an eligible bachelor, meeting up with a matchmaker in Sharon Springs played by Jeanne Crain. The other, more cited movie, is 1970's horror cult classic, I Drink Your Blood
I Drink Your Blood
I Drink Your Blood is a cult horror film originally released in 1970. The film was written and directed by David E. Durston, produced by Jerry Gross, and starred Bhaskar Roy Chowdhury and Lynn Lowry ....
, now available on DVD. Almost all of scenes were filmed on location in the village.
Uncertain Foreign Investment Plans
In late 2004, a Korean-American investment group primarily based in New York City purchased the historic Adler, Columbia, and Washington hotels with the goal of turning Sharon Springs back into a resort destination. The Washington, in poor condition at the time, was unfortunately partially demolished. The group expressed an intention to demolish the Hotel Columbia as well. In addition the group purchased the functioning Imperial Baths which were intended to serve as a key draw to their resort plans. All total the properties were acquired for $750,000. The Baths operations were closed at the end of the 2005 season marking the first time since the early 19th century that the village did not have a mineral bath tourist trade.The 150-room Adler Hotel on the northern edge of the village with its Spanish style architecture was the last great hotel built prior to the great depression. The five-story hotel opened in 1927, but closed after the 2004 summer season.
In April 2007 the Investment group ("Sharon Springs Inc.") held a press conference and outlined a $12 million plan to restore both the Imperial Baths and the Adler Hotel in an 18-month project and bring in a projected 700 visitors a day when completed. Harold Shin, project manager for Manhattan-based architectural firm DeArch LLC, described how the Adler would be restored, and how the Imperial Baths would include both traditional baths and modern spa facilities.
However, those plans since 2007 have changed from restoration of the existing historic hotels into "a possible $350 million plan to erect two 11-story hotels — including one with a helipad — a golf course, condominiums and a spa with a bathhouse and a day care center."
Demolition and work on the properties was planned to start in 2008 according to the principal partner, Q Sung Cho. The timeline for completion would be between five to seven years once the project begins. However, no work has commenced as of September 2011, and the purchased historic structures remain in quickly deteriorating condition. While buildings such as the Adler and Imperial Baths were in use recently before the purchase, it has gotten to the point where most structures owned by the group are in need of immediate emergency stabilization.
With virtually no maintenance or care during its current ownership, the future of some of Sharon Spring's most significant buildings remains at risk.
New York State Grants
On January 15, 2008 it was announced that under New York State's $100 million Restore NY program, $500,000 was being allocated to Sharon Springs. The grant was intended for the Pavilion Cottages, which are not related to the Adler Hotel/Korean spa projects. The Pavilion Cottages, built in the 1860s, are the last remaining portion of the historic Pavilion Hotel; the one remaining structure was originally accompanied by three other Cottages which offered private suites for families traveling with servants in tow. In 2010, due to missed project deadlines, the matching grant was unfortunately allowed to lapse unused.On September 2, 2009 Restore New York / Empire State Development's Communities Initiative - Round 3 - announced they were granting $1,000,000 for The Imperial Spa by Sharon Springs Inc. The project funding is anticipated to create 100 new jobs. The project aims to rehabilitate the historic Imperial Bathhouse (circa 1927) into a modern luxury spa. Further the project aims to re-establish Sharon Springs as a spa destination. So far, the group's standstill on the projects leaves the potential restoration of the Imperial Baths uncertain. In the mean time, the condition of the historic bathhouses continue to deteriorate.
Per the Empire State Development press release: "The rehabilitation will create spa and therapy areas of" 41200 square feet (3,827.6 m²) and 6400 square feet (594.6 m²) "for outdoor bathing facilities. The total renovated square footage, including amenities such as restaurants and gift shops, will be" 50000 square feet (4,645.2 m²).
Geography
Sharon Springs is located at 42°47′41"N 74°36′57"W (42.794783, -74.615946).According to the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
, the village has a total area of 1.8 square miles (4.7 km²), all of it land.
Sharon Springs is located on New York State Route 10
New York State Route 10
New York State Route 10 is a north–south state highway in the Central New York and North Country regions of New York in the United States. It extends for from the Quickway in Deposit, Delaware County to NY 8 at Higgins Bay, a hamlet in the Hamilton County town of Arietta...
(Main Street) immediately north of US Route 20. Bowmaker Pond and Clausen Pond are two small lakes south of the village.
Demographics
As of the censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 2000, there were 547 people, 204 households, and 130 families residing in the village. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 299.5 people per square mile (115.4/km²). There were 270 housing units at an average density of 147.8 per square mile (57.0/km²). The racial makeup of the village was 97.62% White, 0.73% African American, 0.18% Native American, and 1.46% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.83% of the population.
There were 204 households out of which 30.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.9% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 6.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.8% were non-families. 29.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.42 and the average family size was 3.03.
In the village the population was spread out with 23.4% under the age of 18, 5.7% from 18 to 24, 27.1% from 25 to 44, 20.5% from 45 to 64, and 23.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females there were 89.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 83.0 males.
The median income for a household in the village was $37,969, and the median income for a family was $45,000. Males had a median income of $36,563 versus $28,125 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the village was $24,664. About 8.5% of families and 12.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 23.4% of those under age 18 and 4.3% of those age 65 or over.
External links
- Recent photographs of the Hotel Adler
- Recent photographs of the Hotel Columbia
- Beekman 1802 site
- Village of Sharon Springs, NY
- Sharon Springs Information
- Sharon Springs Chamber of Commerce
- Clausen Farms
- Albany Times Union April 13, 2007 "Sowing seeds to help village bloom"
- New York Times July 23, 2001 "A Faded Resort Lumbers to Life"
- New York Times August 26, 2000 "Fragile Recovery for Village of Spas"
- "Shtetl to Sharon" How the Brustmans came from Russia to New York City and Sharon Springs
- Albany Times-Union January 15, 2008 "State grant to aid Sharon Springs"
- New York Times June 5, 2008 "Like the Water, Grand Plans Buoy Spirits at a Vacation Spot From a Bygone Era"
- The Freeman's Journal August 8, 2008 "Stone Gem, Discovered Overgrown, Lives Again"