Roosevelt Baths & Spa
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The Roosevelt Baths & Spa in Saratoga Springs is the real thing — a working mineral bath house drawing on the naturally carbonated springs that made this town famous, operating in a 1935 building inside Saratoga Spa State Park.
The springs are geologically unusual. Water percolates through limestone and picks up dissolved carbon dioxide under pressure, emerging naturally effervescent and heavily mineralised. Native Americans used them long before European settlement; by the nineteenth century Saratoga had become the most fashionable spa resort in America, and the state took the springs into public ownership in 1909 to stop them being drained by bottlers.
The Roosevelt complex was built as part of Franklin Roosevelt’s programme to develop the park as a European-style health resort — he had a personal interest, having sought relief for polio in mineral waters at Warm Springs, Georgia.
A mineral bath here is a private tub of naturally carbonated spring water, not a pool. The carbonation produces a distinctive tingling on the skin, and the water is served at body temperature rather than hot.
The park also holds the Gideon Putnam hotel, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center and two golf courses. Booking well ahead is advisable in summer.