Canfield Casino and Congress Park is a 17-acre (6.9 ha) site in Saratoga Springs, New York, United States.

The park's artwork includes a statue by Daniel Chester French and landscape design by Frederick Law Olmsted, among others.

The Canfield Casino buildings, built in 1870, 1871 and 1902–03, house the Saratoga Springs History Museum, an art gallery and spaces which host public and private events.

The park is a buffer between the developed commercial areas at the south end of downtown Saratoga Springs, and the residential neighborhoods on the east and west.

It is a three-story building faced in brick on an exposed basement, topped by a flat roof, and bordered by an ornate bracketed cornice.

[4] The east wing, built in 1871, used for gambling when the casino was constructed, is a two-story, three-by-five-bay structure with front windows one and a half stories high.

It has a similar window treatment to the first story of the main block, and a more elaborate cornice, also with central segmented pediment.

[4] To the north is the dining room and kitchen wing – built in 1902-1903 and designed by Clarence Luce – a 93-by-58-foot (28 by 18 m) steel frame brick structure.

The parquet flooring is original, and the early air conditioning system of wall vents and the open coffer windows still works.

One surrounds The Spirit of Life, a statue by Daniel Chester French memorializing Spencer Trask, a great benefactor of the Saratoga area who founded the Yaddo writers' colony.

It was at an early disadvantage since one of the first temperance societies in the country had been established in Saratoga Springs, and not only alcohol but gambling and dancing were at first forbidden in the town.

John Clarke, who had run the first soda fountain in New York City, moved to Saratoga a few years afterwards and bought the spring property.

It lost some business during the Civil War when its Southern clientele could not visit, but during that time former heavyweight boxing champion John Morrissey opened the Saratoga Race Course, giving the city another major tourist attraction.

[4] In 1866, Morrissey was elected to Congress as a Democrat who was part of New York City's Tammany Hall political machine.

He was well-connected, acquainted with tycoons of the era like Jay Gould, William R. Travers and Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, who were among his partners in the hotel and racetrack.

[10][11] ^nventory Nomination Form Canfield invested an estimated $800,000 in enhancing the building and the grounds of Congress Park to bring them up to the standards of the top European establishments.

In 1902-3, he added a sumptuous dining room to the back of the Clubhouse fitting it with stained glass windows and an early form of air conditioning.

Their sites would later host a public library – built in 1949 and expanded in 1967, now the headquarters of Saratoga Arts – and the Trask Memorial Fountain.