Charlie Kuenzel

HISTORY

WRITTEN BY CHARLIE KUENZEL PHOTOS PROVIDED BY THE GEORGE S. BOLSTER COLLECTION

The Streets of Saratoga Springs The Story They Tell

WRITTEN BY CHARLIE KUENZEL | IMAGES FROM THE GEORGE S. BOLSTER COLLECTION

T

he history of a city can be told in many ways. I have always thought a fun way is to look at street names and work backward to find the story behind each street and why it was so important that it was added to the list of streets in that city. When discussing the names of city streets in Saratoga Springs, I generally start with the one that gets the most attention, Broadway. This thoroughfare was laid out by the founders of our city, Doanda and Gideon Putnam. When Doanda Putnam put an “X” of whitewash paint on the trees in the forested area of today’s downtown, she was marking which ones would be cut down to make a broad way in this new village. Her husband, Gideon was a lumberman by trade and operated a sawmill in the northern section of the soon to be village. She marked them and he cut and hauled them away to be made into useful lumber for construction of houses and barns. The first maps of the village described the street as Broad Street. Over time Broad Street was described as Broad Way and eventually spelling changes made it Broadway on future maps. It was by far the widest street planned in the village at 122 feet wide while the other streets planned by the Putnams were to be a mere 66 feet from curb to curb. It was a real “vision” for the Putnams to make the central street of this new village so wide that it would years later support four lanes of car traffic with parking on each side. Another curious street that has a unique story is Circular Street. In the early 1800s almost every city in America that was laying out new streets did so in a grid pattern that had straight paths. To make a street “circular” in shape was a very different proposition. It was so unique that once a gentleman living in a western state addressed a letter to Fredric Menges, Circular Street. No city or state was listed on the envelope. In time the letter was delivered to Mr. Menges and the story was told that it made it to Saratoga Springs N.Y. since it was the only city known to have a “Circular” Street. The circular path of the street was the vision of John Clarke. Unfortunately, as the street made it to the intersection of Broadway, landowners of the westside of the village would not sell land for this unique purpose. Today we have Circular Street and a West Circular but without the required shape of a true circle around the city. Another curious street name is found in Phila Street. Named after a daughter of Gideon and Doanda Putnam it was many times incorrectly reported that it was a shortened form of Philadelphia and not named in honor of their daughter. I have even heard visitors of today think that it is a shortened version of Philadelphia. Some street names have their history lost from clear view in present day Saratoga Springs.

Lake Avenue, today, does not go to Saratoga Lake and Church Street does not have a single church on it, but they used to be the path to the lake and also had many early churches. Maple Avenue was originally named Front Street until Thomas Haywood Tompkins planted a large number of Maple trees on the street and the name was changed in the 1850s to reflect those plantings. During the same time period new streets on the westside of the village were being named after other tree species such as Elm, Ash, Oak and Walnut. Those names reflected the types of trees that were originally part of the landscape in the village. In the same theme of name changes, Spring Street was originally named Bath Street. Near the site of today’s carousel was a bathhouse operated by Gideon Putnam called the Hamilton Baths. In 1868 the Hathorn Spring was discovered when they were building the ballroom for the Congress Hall. The owners of Congress Hall asked permission to move Bath Street 60 feet north to its present location and renamed it Spring Street. It made more sense to name the street Spring Street since the bathhouse had disappeared from operation and the Hathorn was a popular mineral spring. Marvin Street reminds us of the Marvin brothers, Thomas and James. The Marvin brothers were very instrumental in the early development of the village and were so loved that one of the first upscale sections of the village was suggested to be called Marvin Square. The humble Marvin brothers suggested that a more fitting tribute to a true American hero would be to call it Franklin Square and therefore Franklin Street. Jumel Place is named to honor Eliza Jumel, who lived on Circular Street but was one of the largest landowners in the village in the mid-19th century. After the death of her husband Stephen Jumel she remarried Aaron Burr only to divorce him as he squandered her fortune. Jumel was smart to use Alexander Hamilton’s son as her divorce attorney. Many other streets were named after famous figures in early city history. Bryan Street was named after Alexander Bryan who was the first permanent settler in Saratoga Springs and operated a tavern and boarding house near the site of today’s Old Bryan Inn. Walton Street was named after the largest landowner in the early settlement, Henry Walton. Walton originally owned all the land in the city north of Congress Street and east to the Yaddo property. Walworth Street was named after the last Chancellor of the State of New York, Reuben Hyde Walworth who lived in a house on Broadway called Pine Grove. John Clarke was the first person to bottle and distribute mineral water from Saratoga Springs in the early 1800s, and his fame lives on with a spelling change to get Clark Street near Union Avenue today. White Street intersects Clark and is named after the other early family involved with bottling mineral water. When Mr. White died, John Clarke married his widow and the bottling business was called Clarke and White.

Warren Street was named after Judge Warren who was the son of Captain John and Betsey Warren. Captain Warren was a figure in the American Revolution and his brother General Joseph Warren had died at the battle of Bunker Hill in 1775. It is said that Betsy danced with Washington at the Victory Dance in 1783 at Newburg N.Y. Thoughts of George Washington might help us to understand the naming of Washington Street, but in this case is was named for Washington Putnam, son of Gideon and Doanda Putnam. George Washington visited Saratoga Springs’ famed High Rock Spring with Governor George Clinton (Clinton Street), Alexander Hamilton (Hamilton Street) and General Phillip Schuyler (Schuyler Drive) in 1783. Washington was so impressed with the water that flowed from the High Rock that he made an attempt to buy the spring and surrounding property. That offer was refused in 1783. Washington’s visit also helps to remind us of the many “presidential” streets in the city like Lincoln, Madison, Jefferson, Adams, Monroe and Harrison. Benjamin Harrison visited Saratoga Springs many times as a guest of the Walworth family and his first wife was the first President of the Daughters of the American Revolution, founded by Mrs. Ellen Hardin Walworth also of Saratoga Springs. Many streets don’t tell a fact of history as much as being self-explanatory such as South Street, North Street, Middle Avenue, and East and West Avenues. These streets helped to define the extent of the city in earlier days. Greenfield Avenue was the original road to Greenfield and Nelson Avenue was a road to the Nelson Farm. Union Avenue and Federal Street were named after the Union during the Civil War. Division Street was a boundary of farm property and also divided Broadway when it was shorter in length. Rock Street was named to denote the location of the High Rock Spring, but later the area known partially as Willow Walk would become High Rock Avenue. A lesser known passage in the city is Gardner Lane. Gardner Lane connects Broadway to Putnam Street on the north side of N. Fox Jewelry. This lane was named after Robert Gardner who bought property on Putnam Street in 1830. As Gardiner walked from his property to spots on Broadway, he wore a path. For many years others used the path as a short cut to Broadway until it eventually became Gardner Lane. Van Dam Street and Beekman Street were named after Rip Van Dam and Johannes Beekman who were two of the original 13 recipients of land in 1708 from Queen Anne in a royal land acquisition called the Kayaderosseras Patent. The queen bestowed on loyal subjects and friends of the crown over 800,000 acres of land in this area of New York in an effort to get settlers to build homes and by claiming ownership it helped to keep the French out from the north. The streets of any city tell a history. The older streets of Saratoga Springs tell the unique history of this area while new ones are added for different reasons. Our local history is so rich that as Saratoga Springs continues to grow there is no worry that we will run out of names for new streets. SS