Local city information for Ballston Spa, NY

Ballston Spa is a village in Saratoga County, New York, United States. The population was 5,556 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Saratoga County. The name is from Eliphalet Ball, an early settler. The village lies on the border of two towns and is partly in the Town of Ballston and partly in the Town of Milton. The village is southwest of Saratoga Springs.


The village was first settled in 1771 and was incorporated as a village in 1807.

• It was formerly famous due to a mineral water spring used for healing, and for the San Souci Hotel, which in the early 19th century was the largest in the United States and one of the largest in the world. It was known (in the 18th and 19th centuries) for its healing springs, including the Hawthorne and Lithia Springs.

• The effervescent water, tonic, and cathartic from this city is also known as Ballston Spa. The liquid contains common salt and carbonates of magnesium and calcium

• Was at one time the 11th most populated region in the future United States.

• Ballston Spa is home to the National Bottle Museum.

• Ballston Spa is the birthplace of Abner Doubleday, believed by many to be the creator of baseball.

• Portions of the novel The Last of the Mohicans were written by James Fenimore Cooper in the present day Brookside Museum and inspired by the local landscape.

• Is the basis for the fictional town of "Bath" in the novel and film ''Nobody's Fool.

• George West (known as the "Paper Bag King") developed a line of square-bottomed paper bags which he manufactured by the millions after the Civil War, and at one time owned almost a dozen paper mills located along the Kayaderosseras Creek.

• Is home to Brookside Museum, Saratoga County Historical Society.

• A scene in Sydney Pollack's 1973 film The Way We Were was filmed at Ballston Spa's Medberry Hotel.

• Was home to the Ballston Knitting Company from 1918 to 1994.

• Was once served by four railroads (Delaware and Hudson Railway, The Ballston Terminal Railroad, Schenectady Railway, Hudson Valley Railway).

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