Sans Souci Hotel (Ballston Spa)

Low sought to capitalize on the tourist trade and opened the Sans Souci hotel as a destination resort.

This was an enormous structure during its day, rivaled only by Putnam’s Tavern and Boarding House (later the Grand Union Hotel in Saratoga Springs).

The Sans Souci and the Grand Union Hotel had similar architectural styles in their beginnings, with plain white clapboard siding and dark shutters (“venetian blinds”) with a “verdigrise” (green) pigment.

Cost in the first year for a stay at the Sans Souci was about $8 per day; poorer lodging in the Ballston Spa area could be found for $4 per week.

Guests to the Sans Souci included some of the most elite members of politics and economy during the 19th century: Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, Martin Van Buren, General John E. Wool, James Fenimore Cooper, Franklin Pierce, Commodore Isaac Hull, Commodore Stephen Decatur, Commodore Thomas Macdonough, Andrew Jackson, Stephen Douglas, William Seward, William L. Marcy, Edward Everett, Silas Wright, and Washington Irving.

[2] A travel journal from guests Mr. Elkanah Watson and Mr. Bayard in 1805 describes the hotel as follows: "We seated ourselves at a sumptuous table, with about a hundred guests of all classes, but generally, from their appearance and deportment, of first respectability, assembled here from every part of the Union and from Europe, in the pursuit of health and pleasure, or matrimony or vice.

This is the most splendid watering place in America and is scarcely surpassed in Europe in its dimensions, and the taste and elegance of its arrangement.

The plan upon which it is constructed, the architecture, the style of the outbuildings and the gravel walks girded with shrubbery—are all on a magnificent scale… In the evening, we attended a ball in the spacious hall, brilliantly illuminated with chandeliers, and adorned with various other appliances of elegance and luxury.

Here was congregated a fine exhibition of refinement of the beau monde… Instead of the old-fashioned country dances and four-hand reels of revolutionary days, I was pleased to notice the advance of refined customs, and the introduction of the graces of Paris… There was a large display of servants, handsomely attired, while the music of a choice band enlivened the occasion.

Low saw that the town’s geographical area situated close to the Hudson River would be beneficial for manufacturing and then shipping goods down to New York City.

A recession hit the upstate New York region in 1808 and 1809, and the Sans Souci saw significantly fewer guests that previous years.

At the examination in 1849, Ex-president Martin Van Buren, Governor Hamilton Fish, Horace Greeley, and Henry Clay were present.

[1] Only July 25, 1860, during the presidential nominee Stephen A. Douglas spoke to a large assembly on the piazza of the Sans Souci.