Franklin Square Historic District

Franklin Square Historic District occupies about 28 acres in the center of Saratoga Springs, New York, beside an urban renewal area of empty lots. Streets radiate from the square, and the area includes parts of Franklin, Clinton, Division, Church, Grand, Walton and West Harrison Streets. Its buildings reflect the city's nineteenth-century role as a leading summer spa resort, which began with Gideon Putnam's guest house of 1803. Greek Revival mansions with columned porches dominate, alongside Second Empire buildings with mansard roofs, Italianate brackets, spoolwork porch screens and modest cottages with decorative bargeboards. The Spa Hotel and Hotel Russell recall the resort trade, and the Adirondack Railroad station, built in the 1870s and resembling a mountain chalet, recalls the travelers who arrived by train. As the springs declined in popularity, cure institutes, a hotel and larger houses became apartments. The nomination was prepared with hopes that renewed recreation and highway access would encourage rehabilitation of the district.