Adelphi, 1900
Walking along Broadway in the summertime is one of my favorite things about living in Saratoga Springs. Broadway is a playground, a place to have fun and to see and be seen. People watching here is as much a sport as horse racing. I like to imagine what Broadway must have been like in the late 1800s, when it laid claim to the two largest hotels in the world, the Grand Union and United States.
Saratoga Springs’ grand hotels played summer host to many high society guests, arriving with their Saratoga trunks full of their finest dresses and coats, those seeking respite and wellness, as well as those seeking varied entertainments, horse racing and gambling. Not much has changed.
William McCaffery, a former conductor on the Rensselaer and Saratoga Railroad, in the mid-1870s inherited from his wife’s family the Old Adelphia Hotel. He determined that the hotel needed a fresh new start. The new, larger Victorian style Adelphi Hotel opened in 1877, a year after the country’s centennial. It was a period of great optimism in America as well as building boom in Saratoga Springs. Many of the grand hotels along Broadway epitomized the country’s rebounding wealth after the Civil War, and following the stock market crash of 1873.
Duke Ellington performing at the Adelphi, year unknown
One of the Adelphi’s first guests was John Morrissey, one-time world heavyweight champion, congressman, and founder of Saratoga’s thoroughbred race course and the Canfield Casino in Congress Park. He often invited friends to join him there, including one of the wealthiest men in the country, Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, who frequented Saratoga for the races. In 1878, a year after the Adelphi opened, Morrissey died of pneumonia at the age of 47 at the Adelphi Hotel. He was laid in state in the second floor parlor that opened onto the piazza.
While the largest of the beautiful hotels are gone, the Adelphi remains, thanks to the vision and hard work of Sheila Parkert and the late Gregg Siefker. The former Nebraskans purchased the hotel in 1978 after it stood vacant for five years, then proceeded, room-by-room, to bring it back to its 19thcentury glory.
The Adelphi Hotel is one of Saratoga’s great restoration success stories – it stands as a reminder of our need to preserve historically significant structures throughout the City.
Newspaper Article, 1956
Parkert and Siefker fell in love with Saratoga Springs in the early 1970s when they passed through on a road trip, and decided to move here a few years later. Making their way by running a small downtown grocery and managing Sperry’s Restaurant, they had no experience in real estate development, hotel management, or construction. But what they did have was a great love for Saratoga, its history, and a determination to save the Adelphi Hotel from the wrecking ball.
“We were really kids,” Parkert recalled in an interview with author Glenye Cain. “Urban renewal was a big thing here, and this town was up for grabs in the 70’s. My god, they were tearing down everything. If you could stop the wrecking ball, you could buy something for $10,000. All the mansions on Union Avenue, you could buy anything you wanted. It was a big ol’ land grab.”
“It had gotten to be big news that they were going to tear this place down,” she continued. “We’d gone to France a lot, and we had seen what people had done with old hotels. We were just young enough and dumb enough to think, ‘This could work.’ ”
Adelphi Hotel Construction, 2016
The abandoned Adelphi was a huge project for Parkert and Siefker, but they were determined to save a structure of enormous and historic value for the community. Circulating a prospectus to potential investors, they were able to raise the necessary $100,000, a significant sum at the time, to purchase the hotel in 1979. They started by renovating and reopening the bar – which is a remains a favorite among Saratogians today — and then started working on the rooms, doing about two or three per year. It took almost 20 years to do them all. Taken together, the Adelphi’s rooms are an eclectic mix of styles and eras; open any room and you may find yourself in a Colonial suite, an Adirondack cabin, or a gilded-age boudoir.
What Parkert and Siefker achieved with the Adelphi Hotel is an inspiration for us all. We can see in their example how committed individuals with a profound appreciation for the history and architecture of Saratoga Springs can creatively mobilize the community support necessary to save a structure that is of fundamental importance to the character of our city – even one that to most appears to be beyond all hope of saving. Parkert recently sold the Adelphi Hotel to Richbell IV LLC, closing this chapter of her life. Today’s Open House at the Adelphi Hotel is a celebration of the building’s history, the hard work of Parkert and Siefker, and its future with the new owners. We hope you’ll join us. Afterwards perhaps you will want to stay awhile and have a drink or dessert on the hidden patio and also imagine what it must have been like to stay at the Adelphi in its heyday – another one of my favorite summertime things to do in Saratoga Springs.
Founded in 1977, The Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation is a private, not-for-profit organization that promotes preservation and enhancement of the architectural, cultural, and landscaped heritage of Saratoga Springs.
Adelphi Today
See It Yourself! The Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation will host an Open House at the Adelphi Hotel, 365 Broadway, today between 1 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. Guests are invited to tour the upper floors and view select rooms. Meet in the hotel’s lobby at 1 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. for talks by Sara Boivin, SSPF Membership and Program Director. Cost is $5 per person. No registration required. www.saratogapreservation.org