[citation needed] The company Sharon Springs, Inc. has begun work on the baths and allowed for people to book stays online at the village's Roseboro Hotel.

As reported in the New York Times on August 30, 1875:[citation needed] 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.

The village has sulfur, magnesia, chalybeate and 'Blue Stone' springs.,[3] During the 19th century, Sharon Springs grew into a bustling 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.

Prior to being settled by Great Britain as part of the country's Province of New York, Sharon Springs was frequented by the indigenous Iroquois population for its healing waters.

After Britain's Royal Proclamation of 1763, the Crown formed Tryon County in 1772, which lay at the westernmost reaches of the original Thirteen Colonies.

Tryon County stretched from the Adirondack Mountains to the Delaware River and boasted a pre-Revolutionary War farming community of 10,000 people, known as the "Breadbasket of the Colonies".

Approximately 300 British and Iroquois troops commanded by John Doxtader camped at the Sharon Springs Swamp, near the present-day intersection of Route 20 and County Road 34.

The group burned down 12 homes in a small Canajoharie River settlement and claimed victory in the Battle of Currytown on July 9.

Wealthy Jewish families of German origin, who were unwelcome at Saratoga due to the prevailing social bias of the time, filled the void and "made Sharon Springs a refuge of their own.

Other factors that exacerbated the Village's early 20th century decline were Prohibition (which reduced the need for the local hop harvest) and the opening of the New York State Thruway (which routed traffic away from the area).

As the cited New York Times article went on to explain that after World War II, Sharon Springs got a second wind from the West German government, which "paid medical care reparations to Holocaust survivors, holding that therapeutic spa vacations were a legitimate part of the medical package."

[citation needed] In the summer of 1946, one of the busboys at the Spanish Colonial Revival style Adler Hotel was Edward I. Koch, the future mayor of New York City.

A host of Hasidim-owned and frequented hotels flourished in the Village, bridging the gap between Sharon Springs' shining past as a world-class resort for the rich and famous and its recent renascence as a regional travel and weekend destination.

In the 1970s, concurrent migration of weekend hunters and union trade workers from the Downstate New York City suburbs began coming to Sharon Springs and Schoharie County.

Unlike the Hasidim tourists, who have mostly moved on to other destinations and have dwindled in number, the first wave of suburban weekenders added to the community by building their families in the Village and relocating their full-time lives to their former part-time escape.

Much of it can be attributed to both a stabilization of the remaining historic structures (arson leveled many of the abandoned hotels) and an infusion of ambitious buyers from outside the area looking for an affordable community to start a business or to add rural weekends to their city life.

Another Village business is Beekman 1802 Mercantile, which was founded in 2008 by Dr. Brent Ridge and author Josh Kilmer-Purcell with the help of soap craftsman Debbie McGillicuddy.

A Planet Green cable network reality television series, The Fabulous Beekman Boys, followed the efforts to build a rural business in 2010 and 2011.

[8] The Village won a grant from the New York State Council for the Humanities to establish a self-guided walking tour through Sharon Springs in 1997.

Because many structures no longer stand today, historic photos and informative text on the plaques help visitors to imagine the town's grandeur of a prior time.

Other entrepreneurs who have moved to the Village continue to contribute to its the city's growth as word of the area's rebirth has spread to neighboring towns, the county, and surrounding regions during the 21st century.

During the last 10 years, Sharon Springs has also figured prominently in episodes of The Food Network's $40 A Day and Rachael Ray's Tasty Travels series.

Charles Kuralt also filmed a brief segment of his On The Road series here, tracking a rare bluebird only found on the stretch of Route 20 between Albany and the Town of Sharon.

The first is the 1951 comedy The Model and the Marriage Broker, which features a scene in which Scott, an eligible bachelor, meets up in Sharon Springs with a matchmaker played by Thelma Ritter.

In addition, the group purchased the functioning Imperial Baths which were intended to serve as a key draw to their resort plans.

[citation needed] In late June 2013, SSI suggested that plans were back on track although they would require approval from the Sharon Springs council.

In the Planning Board meeting, Ms. Crum said, "There are three smaller buildings at the site and the remains of a fourth will be removed, but they will be able to salvage the Imperial Baths and gazebo, both of which will be renovated and restored."

[15] The architectural plans for the Imperial Baths called for it to have an Asian theme in the rear but the street side exterior was to closely match the original design.

[17] On January 15, 2008, it was announced that under New York State's $100 million Restore NY program, $500,000 was being allocated to Sharon Springs.

On September 2, 2009, Restore New York / Empire State Development's Communities Initiative - Round 3 - announced they were granting $1,000,000 for creation of The Imperial Spa by Sharon Springs Inc.[20] Per the Empire State Development press release: "The rehabilitation will create spa and therapy areas of" 41,200 square feet (3,830 m2) and 6,400 square feet (590 m2) "for outdoor bathing facilities.