Editing Sharon Springs, New York (section)

== Significance ==
Sharon Springs is 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. Many of its historic spa-related structures were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994 as the [[Sharon Springs Historic District]].<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|2009a}}</ref> At one time, mineral springs were used for medical treatments and in the summers wealthy families from New York City would travel up to Sharon Springs for the spas. From 1836 to 1860, several large hotels were built in the village, though today they are abandoned. The collection of fully and partially restored 19th century structures and ruins can be accessed year-round.

The most famous of the springs in the Village is the so-called Gardner Spring, which was owned by the owner of the Pavilion Hotel. As reported in the New York Times on August 30, 1875:{{citation needed|date=March 2021|reason=It's a quote without a citation, author, or source.}}

{{blockquote|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.}}Sharon Springs has drawn people to the area because of the Village's four different mineral waters and the water's healing qualities. The village has sulfur, magnesia, chalybeate and 'Blue Stone' springs.,<ref>{{cite web|date=July 1, 1927|title=Institutional Green urban exploratin site:Sharon Springs|url=http://www.institutionalgreen.org/sharon/|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130201072916/http://www.institutionalgreen.org/sharon/|archive-date=February 1, 2013|access-date=May 7, 2013|publisher=Institutionalgreen.org}}</ref> During the 19th century, Sharon Springs grew into a bustling [[Spa town|spa]], and at the peak of its popularity, Sharon Springs hosted 10,000 visitors each summer, including members of the [[Vanderbilt family]] and [[Oscar Wilde]], who also gave a lecture at the now-demolished Pavilion Hotel on August 11, 1882.{{citation needed|date=March 2021|reason=This information should be verified by a source.}} Direct ferry-to-stagecoach lines connected New York City to Sharon Springs, followed by rail lines connecting the Village to New York City, as well as to Boston via Albany.