Welcome to The American Hotel

Once the playground of Vanderbilts, Roosevelts and Rockefellers,
Sharon Springs was a bustling society watering hole in the mid 19th century.

The American Hotel was built by Nicholas LaRue of Esperance in 1847 to cater to the glitterati of the time: Oscar Wilde gave porch-side readings; Ulysses S. Grant stayed at the former Pavilion Hotel.

Eventually, the gentry began to build their castles in Newport, the Adirondacks and Bar Harbor and take the waters while in Saratoga Springs for the races. Sharon Springs then languished briefly, but a new group started to come to town for the healing chalybeate, magnesia and sulfur waters: wealthy Jewish families who were not welcome in Saratoga;

By the 1950s the summer months saw 10,000 orthodox and hasidic Jews coming to the village, studying the Talmud, taking in the clean air and healing waters.

By the mid '60s, however, the town went into decline with fewer and fewer visitors coming to the grand hotels, many of which declined into tear-down state. The American struggled along as a hotel until the mid 50s and then was used as a religious retreat until its closure in 1989.

The American Hotel stood vacant, abandoned and in deplorable condition until Doug Plummer and Garth Roberts saved it from almost certain demolition when they bought it in 1996. Five years and hundreds of thousands of dollars later, the American reopened as a hotel and restaurant.

The excitement at its opening has ushered in a revitalization and new excitement in Sharon Springs; new businesses have opened up, new hotels are planned.

Come and visit us soon!

The American Hotel as purchased in 1996

The American Hotel today