NEB&W Guide to Saratoga Springs, NY

Last Update: 2009-08-10

Layout Photo Gallery Table of Contents

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• The Outskirts
• Downtown
  • Overview
  • The United States Hotel
  • The Depot Area
  • Saratoga Coal

• Saratoga - Not Modeled
• 1951 D&H RR Traffic Report for Saratoga.

Overview

• Map of the area around the depot.
  • [Aerial engraving c. 1874.]
  • [D&H track plan.]

Downtown

• Next to the U.S. Hotel was the Worden Hotel. It, too, was a massive affair (although not as big as the U.S.) with the characteristic multi-story columns.
  • [Close-up of an 1874 engraving. The complex is colored in yellow and labelled Arlington House.]
  • [Prototype view, with the U.S. Hotel to the left.]
  • [Prototype view.]

• Just down the street on Broadway was the equally giant Grand Union hotel and Gideon Putnam. Only the Gideon Putnam still stands today.
  • [Close-up of an 1874 engraving. The complex is colored in green.]
  • [Postcard view.]

• The Congress Hall Hotel on Broadway was yet another colossus with multi-storied porch posts and towering elms.
  • [Postcard view.]

• Looking down Division Street, with the U.S. Hotel on the left and the edge of the depot in the distance.
  • [Prototype view c. 1931.]

• Looking up Division toward Broadway, with the U.S. Hotel on the right and the Worden on the left.
  • [Photo c. 1931, from our D&H Collection.]

Baptist Church

• The United States was in the block between Division and Washington. In this c. 1931 photo from our D&H Collection, we are looking down Washington toward the tracks. The courthouse-looking structure is a church (the Baptist Church), with the U.S. Hotel's "clubhouse" just beyond the "Rummage Sale" sign. The elevated crossing tower is in the background.
  • [Close-up of an 1874 engraving. The church is colored in purple.]
  • [Prototype c. 1931 photo.]
  • [Postcard of just the front of the church probably c. 1920.]
  • [Baptist Church today, from the other side.]
  • [Baptist Church today, another view.]
  • [Baptist Church today, and the other buildings down the street.]
  • [Baptist Church today, the rear side.]

• From the Valuation process, there is a photo of the crossing tender shanty just around the corner. The U.S. Hotel is in the background on the left. The entire facility was enclosed with a brick wall. The mansard roof building, I believe, was the "clubhouse", with the servants house to the right. Note the shanty has had its overhang on the track side removed for clearance.
  • [Close-up photo c. 1919, from our NEB&W D&H Collection.]
  • [A model of the Bates mansion is a stand-in for the clubhouse. (We lack any more photos of the clubhouse, so scratchbuilding a better version is on hold.]
  • [With a shanty, but minus the wall (and minus lots more).]

The Depot Area

• On our layout, we rotated the station and adjacent scene so it sits on the west side of our tracks. The compass directions given below relate to the model. Hope this doesn't confuse you.

First Depot

• The first depot was a small Greek Revival building, looking more like a courthouse than a depot, built c. 1830's.
  • [Engraving of the first depot.]
  • [Photo courtesy Jim Shaughnessy.]

Second Depot

• The second was a mansard roofed affair. It was built in 1871 and lasted until c. 1900. (It looks like this structure was the inspiration for Disney.)
  • [Prototype view of the second depot.]
  • [Another view.]
  • [View from the U.S. Hotel. Photo c. 1887 from the Bridge Line Historical Society.]
  • [Under the canopy.]
  • [Disney depot.]

Temporary Depot

• It seems they put up a temporary wood depot before they built the third and final depot on this spot.
  • [Photo c. 1899.]
  • [Another photo c. 1899.]

Third Depot

• The third depot, looking "south".
  • [Jim Shaughnessy photo. (Note the wood baggage car in the consist.)]
  • [Russell Monroe photo, courtesy Bob's Photos.]
  • [Colored postcard with false colors.]
  • [In progress model view.]
  • [Lou Sassi photo, from Mainline Modeler.]

• Saratoga station.
  • [Prototype view c. 1931, from the NEB&W D&H Collection.]
  • [In progress model view.]
  • [The street side of the REA building c. 1919.]
  • [Street side of the whole depot. Postcard.]
  • [Similar postcard.]
  • [Similar angle, higher view. Another postcard]

• An aerial view pre-1946.
  • [Aerial photo.]

• An aerial photo c. 1957.
  • [Photo courtesy of Bill Mischler, from the Jim Bachorz Collection, Dave Nestle Scrapbook, Bridge Line Historical Society.]

Crossing Tender Shanty

• Thanks to the Valuation process c. WWI, posterity is blessed with photos of such mundane structures as this crossing tender shanty across from the depot. The person who staffed this was responsible for cranking down the manual crossing gates when a train was approaching. Notice the wineglass profile of the elms in the background.
  • [Prototype view.]

• Downtown Saratoga, looking north.
  • [On our layout.]

Greek Revivial Store

• Just behind the depot was a sort of Greek Revival store.
  • [Photo c. 1931.]
  • [Aerial view c. 1955.]
  • [Our model.]

Diner 1

• On the end of the depot near the U.S. Hotel, there was a simple peaked-roof diner.
  • [C. 1932 photo, from our NEB&W D&H Collection.]
  • [Aerial view (again) c. 1955.]
  • [Model view.]
  • [Another view.]

Ornate Stores

• Across Railroad Avenue from the depot (and just beyond the diner) was this pair of ornate buildings, c. 1931. (The depot overhang is visible in the upper left.) Like most of the buildings in this scene, they have long since been torn down. Notice that one is a hotel, nowhere as grandiose as the U.S. Hotel. Yet looking at the Sanborn map, it seems as if every other building here was a hotel, no matter how tiny.
  • [Prototype view.]
  • [Aerial view (yet again) c. 1955.]
  • [Our kitbashed models. (Luckily they are fairly hidden by the depot.)]
  • [Closer view by James Lauser.]

Colonial Beacon Gas Station

• Colonial Beacon gas station, in its unique lighthouse design, sat behind the station. Later they were taken over by Esso. ("Es-so" = S.O., Standard Oil, get it?) The Art Deco County office building is behind and to the left, one of the few buildings in our scene still standing today.
  • [Prototype view, c. 1930, from the NEB&W D&H Collection.]
  • [Panoramic view.]
  • [Another view.]
  • [Aerial, 1955.]
  • [In progress model view.]

County Office Building

• The County Office building is a great example of an Art Deco building. (The pilaster columns stop short of the eaves.) This is one of the few building still standing today (2008).
  • [Prototype view, c. 1930, from the NEB&W D&H Collection.]
  • [Panoramic view.]
  • [Another view.]
  • [Photo c. 1931, from our NEB&W D&H Collection.]
  • [Close-up photo c. 1931, from our NEB&W D&H Collection.]
  • [A slightly different angle c. 1931.]
  • [Aerial, 1955.]
  • [County office building today.]

• On the far side of the County office building (Woodland Avenue), this street scene, c. 1930's.
  • [Photo, from our NEB&W D&H Collection.]
  • [Another photo, from our NEB&W D&H Collection. The coal dealer is visible in the background.]

Armour Meat-Packing

• A meat packing plant is one of the most odoriferous industries, and we never would have imagined one located across the tracks from one of the most elegant train depots in the country. Yes, this Armour plant probably didn't butcher animals, but just received cold shanks of meats in refrigerator cars, and thus was no more smelly than your home fridge, but also the first zoning laws did not get enacted until WWI. Armour received 79 carloads of meat, butter and produce during 1951, about one or two every week on average.
  • [Prototype view.]

• Looking up past the depot with the United States Hotel towering in the distance, and the County Office building to the left, with a small clerestory diner in front. The candle-snuffer tower on the REA building and half timbering in the gable are touches of the Queen Anne. This building was built a few years before the rest of the depot.
  • [Photo c. 1931, from our NEB&W D&H Collection.]
  • [Close-up photo c. 1931, from our NEB&W D&H Collection.]
  • [A slightly different angle c. 1931.]
  • [County office building today.]

• Looking up Church Street toward the tracks and Woodlawn, with Broadway way off in the distance. The station is just to the right.
  • [Prototype photo c. 1931, from our D&H Collection.]
  • [The tavern is the only structure still standing today.]

• Looking down Woodlawn past the Church Street intersection, with the tracks in the distance. The station and Colonial Beacon gas station is just to the right. The stucco building on the corner is the Paramount Hotel. Note the c. 1910 grab iron fire escape on the just to the right of the hotel.
  • [Photo c. 1931, from our D&H Collection.]
  • [Aerial view of Woodlawn c. 1955.]
  • [Our unfinished model, looking in the opposite direction.]
  • [Our unfinished model. Another photo.]

• Looking down Church Street from the other direction. The Paramount Hotel is on the left.
  • [Photo, c. 1930's, from our NEB&W D&H Collection.]

• A c. 1931 street scene with the railroad in the distance.
  • [Photo, from our NEB&W D&H Collection.]

Paramount Hotel

• The Paramount was on the corner of Church and Woodland, a stucco building in a sort of Spanish Mission/Georgian Revival mode. The cornice was "wavy" but later modified to a more sedate pattern. Don't have any good photos of just the hotel, so here are the same views above only collected in one spot.
  • [Looking at the front from across the tracks c. 1931, from our D&H Collection.]
  • [Photo looking along the side, c. 1930's, from our NEB&W D&H Collection.]
  • [Looking at the front from further down on Woodlawn c. 1931, from our D&H Collection.]
  • [Aerial view of Woodlawn c. 1955. Check out the cornice.]

Railroad Buildings Opposite The Depot

• Across from the station were a number of railroad structures (which unfortunately we don't have room to model).
  • [Ice house. Valuation photo c. 1919.]
  • [The signal supply house was at the end of the ice house. Valuation photo c. 1919.]
  • [The signal store house was next to that. Valuation photo c. 1919.]
  • [This c. '55 aerial photo (again) shows these buildings on the left.]

Saratoga Coal

• Saratoga Coal Co's. giant sized silos c. 1917. From the NEB&W D&H Collection.
  • [Prototype view from the rear.]
  • [Prototype view from the front.]

• Shortly thereafter (1921?), this facility burned, and the bins replaced with fireproof concrete block structures. The ornate office building probably goes back as far back as 1880's, when the Queen Anne style was just being popularized. The one-story covered coal dump over the tracks was salvaged from the tall outside framed structure seen in the previous picture after the fire. In 1951, this coal dealer received 330 cars, almost one a day on average.
  • [Prototype view.]
  • [Closeup of this photo showing the end of the coal dump and the chutes on the bins.]
  • [Another view, c. 1944, showing the coal shed and looking down the tracks.]
  • [View from Church Street showing part of office, c. '44. (These 1944 photos were part of an accident report.) Note that the driveway from the truck scale is paved with macadam but the walkway up to the office is brick.]

• View across the tracks, from the intersection of Church and Woodlawn. Note the small grade crossing shanty on the right. There is a shanty still standing in this spot today, but I'm not sure if it a recreation or the actual shanty.
  • [Prototype photo, c. 1931, from our NEB&W D&H Collection.]
  • [Shanty today, as seen from the other side.]

• Our model, with the pre-production Precision Lasercraft kit for the coal dealer, photographed by Lou Sassi for Mainline Modeler. (If you have or know of a layout that should get photographic coverage, e-mail him at Lousassi@aol.com or call (518) 399-5474.) Since that time, the coal facility kit has been picked up by Bollinger Edgerly Scale Trains.
  • [Model view.]

See our Layout Guide for Saratoga.

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