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The Sans Souci Hotel was a hotel located in Ballston Spa, Saratoga County, New York. It was built in 1803 and torn down in 1887. ==Early history== The Sans Souci Hotel was erected by Nicholas Low in 1803. It was designed by Joseph Newton, an architect from New York City. Low was a major property owner in Ballston Spa and had many commercial interests; the Sans Souci was only one of Low’s enterprises during the day. He hired Andrew Berger to run the hotel when it was completed in 1804. Low paid Berger $500 for the first year and $1,000 for the second year.〔Neglected Watering Places. New York Times, May 3, 1874.〕 Ballston Spa, like its neighboring town of Saratoga Springs, contained many mineral springs located throughout the town. Tourists came from early in the 18th century to enjoy the mineral waters. Low sought to capitalize on the tourist trade and opened the Sans Souci hotel as a destination resort. The building of the hotel was overseen by carpenter James Hawkins.〔Corbett, Theodore. The Making of American Resorts: Saratoga Springs, Ballston Spa, Lake George. ISBN 0-8135-2841-0.〕 The hotel was 156 feet long with a wing extending back from each end at 150 feet, all of them three stories high and contained lodging for 250 people. This was an enormous structure during its day, rivaled only by Putnam’s Tavern and Boarding House (later the Grand Union Hotel in Saratoga Springs). The Sans Souci and the Grand Union Hotel had similar architectural styles in their beginnings, with plain white clapboard siding and dark shutters (“venetian blinds”) with a “verdigrise” (green) pigment. Both hotels were laid out in a “U” shape with an inner courtyard. The Sans Souci building and grounds occupied the entire block bounded by Front Street, Milton Avenue, Washington Street, and Spring Street.〔The Sans Souci: Most Palatial Hotel in Country with Rooms for Over 250 Guests and Immense Dining Room and Dance Hall. Newspaper Clipping.〕 The Sans Souci’s large piazza was built at the same time as the hotel. The first floor of the hotel had several parlors and a 70 x 30 ft ballroom. On the first floor of one wing were located several private parlors, and on the first floor of the other wing was the expansive dining room. A “temple” was added to the end of the east wing, which was two stories tall. The cost of the addition was $250. Low then wanted to add a similar addition to the end of the other wing of the hotel for a billiards room. Low rented the billiards tables out at $10 per day and backgammon at $6 per day. Balls were held in the front hall, which was hung with elegant chandeliers and where live music was played. Cost in the first year for a stay at the Sans Souci was about $8 per day; poorer lodging in the Ballston Spa area could be found for $4 per week. Eventually the hotel was expanded so that it had 162 feet of frontage, the two wings 152 feet deep. The hotel then had 180 rooms and accommodated 300 guests. A white picket fence wrapped around the property, bordering the sidewalks.〔 The hotel included many outbuildings, including a stable, wash house, manager’s home, small four-season hotel, bath house, billiards room, and a three-story outhouse that dumped waste into Gordon Creek. Guests to the Sans Souci included the most elite members of politics and economy during the 19th century. These included Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, Martin Van Buren, General John E. Wool, James Fenimore Cooper, Franklin Pierce, Commodore Isaac Hull, Commodore Stephen Decatur, Commodore Thomas Macdonough, Andrew Jackson, Stephen Douglas, William Seward, William L. Marcy, Edward Everett, Silas Wright, and Washington Irving. Joseph Bonaparte the ex-king of Spain stayed there in 1821. The Sans Souci operated only in the summertime because of the expense of heating it during the off-season.〔 A travel journal from guests Mr. Elkanah Watson and Mr. Bayard in 1805 describe the hotel as such: “We seated ourselves at a sumptuous table, with about a hundred guests of all classes, but generally, from their appearance and deportment, of first respectability, assembled here from every part of the Union and from Europe, in the pursuit of health and pleasure, or matrimony or vice. This is the most splendid watering place in America and is scarcely surpassed in Europe in its dimensions, and the taste and elegance of its arrangement. The building contains about one hundred apartment, all respectability furnished. The plan upon which it is constructed, the architecture, the style of the outbuildings and the gravel walks girted with shrubbery—are all on a magnificent scale…In the evening, we attended a ball in the spacious hall, brilliantly illuminated with chandeliers, and adorned with various other appliances of elegance and luxury. Here was congregated a fine exhibition of refinement of the ‘beau monde…” Instead of the old-fashioned country dances and four-hand reels of revolutionary days, I was pleased to notice the advance of refined customs, and the introduction of the graces of Paris…There was a large display of servants, handsomely attired, while the music of a choice band enlivened the occasion.” 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Sans Souci Hotel (Ballston Spa)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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