the columns were destroyed. the ballroom was stripped of its floor and we lost a lot of beautiful architecture in the hotel. after a 13 year battle, it was decided that public affection would save the hotel and it would be restored. it was a three-year project to bring the hotel back to its grander. there is something special about the willard. it is born not just from its architecture, but that this was a place that has witnessed history being made and had wonderful people coming to it. announcer: you can watch this and other programs by visiting our website at c-span.org/history. >> we are at the saratoga springs history museum, home of the canfield casino. we learn more about the turn of the century gambling history. >> when i think about a historic building, there are stored buildings all over the country. what it showed us is this was part of the development of the high victorian era, but it is also a snapshot in time of what life was like in the late 1800s, and what a discrepancy we had between the wealthiest of the wealthy who would come here and waste of money in summer gambling, compared to the irish immigrants who lived on the west side of the saratoga who were the employees of the people who built this building. the building we are in is called the canfield casino. wasgentleman who built this morrissey. he came from ireland. they settled in troy. it is not far from saratoga springs. as a young immigrant boy, he cannot have a lot going for him. he took a job working on steamships, traveling to new , and actually became involved in street gangs. was --e he was a head of he was a self-made man. he was connected with hall, who was connected with all the games -- all the gangs who was running the war. gains notoriety among society in america, and inns of becoming elected into congress. himself, heettering becomes a reformer. there are some satirical cartoons that made fun of him. he comes to saratoga springs in 1862 with the idea of opening a gambling house appear. he knew how successful saratoga was becoming. your printed on the west side. the following year, he becomes one of the founding members of the saratoga racing association, which today has morphed into what is our saratoga racetrack. his first track was in the area called horse haven. it was an older track. it was a harness track. he was the first person to bring thoroughbred in saratoga. in 1863, they moved to the track across the street. they built it where the current track is, even though it doesn't follow the exact dimensions. that's when we have the beginnings of racing in saratoga springs. morrissey starts racing and he realizes there are more ways to make money than just saw forces. he purchases the land where our building is now. at that time, this is another downtown city block. there are other buildings, and he sees it as a great place to do it because the street that ends in our park used to travel all the way up to the racetrack. people could go to the track during the day. in the evenings, they could play games. in 1870, he opens the building as a saratoga clubhouse. morrissey wanted to call this the saratoga casino. he was asked by local community leaders not to use that name because gambling was illegal in saratoga springs. but everybody kind of looks the other way on a because of the money it would draw in. as a private club house, you had to be a member to play. a membership was very expensive. only the wealthiest players in america would come here. no residents were allowed to play here. the last thing he wanted was somebody local come in this establishment and lose their money. then they knock on his door and it looks bad for the guy who is running the illegal business. the stakes were high for any casino. chips began at one dollar in the main gambling parlors downstairs. and went up to $100 chips. in a room we are in now, this was called the high-stakes gambling room. up here, chips began at $10. they carried a $10,000 tip. -- chip. by today's standards, that is over $100,000 or more. morrissey led a very rough life, from working the docks, and he was susceptible to pneumonia. he suffered from it for a year, and he died in his suite at the hotel, which was on broadway. from there, the building started to go down. albert spencer and charles reed took over the building. they ran the casino for a number of years. one was undercutting the other. the new york times had a great article that said the casino is nothing like it used to be. the walls are now whitewashed, the artwork is off the walls, and any of sorts are coming in to gamble. that's when richard canfield swoops in. he buys them out in 1894. he decides he is going to bring this building up to what it is. now the building is, even though it's officially called the clubhouse, most people start to collect canfield's casino. even he refers to it as a casino. canfield is a lover of art, and he starts to bring the building back to its victorian era. the gamblers are starting to come back here. john gates was probably one of the most famous people to come to saratoga springs. there's a story where he was at the racetrack during the day and he lost somewhere around $350,000. he came here to play, and they say by the end of the night, he was down another $100,000. he asked canfield to raise the stakes. by the morning, he was only down $150,000. he said it was a good day. to give you an idea of the outrageous the amount of money spent. jim brady, who was one of the most colorful characters of the 19th century, he was a jovial guy, very wealthy, wore diamond jewelry, and he had his good friend who was an actor. these are the folks that would have been coming in. canfield still ran a successful business and it is the turn of the century now. there is starting to be an essence of anti-gambling in saratoga. he faces a very heavy pressure to close in 1904 and 1905. by the end of 1906, richard canfield shuts the building down. in 1911, the city of saratoga springs purchased the building. they bought it for $150,000. considering a few years before, canfield sunk money and restoration. in 1912, our museum was homeless. our collection had gone from board member's house to board member's house. and then someone said, "we have this casino in city ownership." we moved in upstairs in 1912 to we have been in here ever since. expanded a bit from the one room. this was the high-stakes room. was our original display room. now we encompass all three floors with 15,000 objects that tell the story. if you don't preserve a building like this, then you can't tell the entire story. the story of american history is not just about the rich and wealthy. it's not just about the folks -- the immigrants, and the working class that built to the country. it's about all of it combined. if we let this go, you let everything else go, too. our cities tour staff recently traveled to saratoga springs, new york, to learn about its rich history. learn more about saratoga springs and other stops on our tour on c-span.org/cities tour. you're watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend, on c-span3. >> c-span, who history unfolds daily. in 1979, c-span was created as a public service by america's cable television companies and is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. >> we are learning more about saratoga springs. up next, we learned why these springs has been drawing visitors for the last few hundred years. >> this is one of the only places east of the rockies that has naturally carbonated mineral water coming out of the ground. if anything else, it's a beautiful place for people to experience a rare geological thing. >> this park was first created as estate reservation in 1909 and later became the state park. today it is a 2500 acre park with a number of amenities, anywhere from a hotel, many different mineral springs to enjoy and 12 miles of hiking trails. two of them are freshwater springs. they run through a layer of sand anywhere between zero and 100 feet deep. they don't take up those minerals. we also have mineral springs and they vary in depth, anywhere from 200-1000 feet deep. and their taste grows stronger the deeper they are. have a little spouter, and iconic spouter behind me and --ind me is there are a few mineral springs that are up near route 50 on the west side of the park. people used to come and visit. you could see it from the railroad. they would send it off a couple different types of day. all of our mineral water is carbonated and along with that, you have dry pockets of carbonic gas pushing the water out of the earth. imagine if you shook a sprite bottle and it is compressed and you let it go a little bit. the pressure shoots out. none of these are technically geysers. they are called spouters. geysers are propelled by hot water and steam and none of our geysers have hot water at all. they run at 55 degrees. they were found by the native americans who actually came to this place because of its good it isg ground and believed that the animals around here use the minerals rings -- use the mineral springs. it is interesting to think of the animals and the native americans here first and then discovering the mineral springs. he believed the mineral springs had healing qualities to them. in the late 1700s, they started to introduce the white settlers to the springs and their healing properties. between the 1700s and the late 1800s, saratoga just grew and grew and there are many private mineral wells being drilled. there were a lot of spas opening in the city and everybody was just coming in here to taste the pure. in the 1880's, somebody discovered with the mineral, there are carbonic dry pockets beneath the earth and you can harness that just for use in sodas, which are very popular in the victorian era. what happened was that we had these big carbonic gas companies come in and mainly in this area of the park, they started to drill wells that are very powerful and they actually depleted our mineral springs to the point where if you had a private well, it was going dry or at least getting lower. some springs disappeared completely and it was all because of these carbonic gas drillers exploiting the springs. in 1909, the state reservation was created in order to save the mineral springs and that's kind of saratoga springs' own conservation story. there are 200 wells operating and we shut all of about 21 down. it's a busy year for them to come back up. between 1900 and 1935, we had an interest in creating a spa here in the united states. the response over in europe doing really well and they wanted to see if that would work in america. we did send out scientists to study it and bring back the information in hopes we could create a spot here. roosevelt was the governor at the time and he had a hand in creating a spa complex that opened in july of 1935. it consisted of a place where you can go to drink the water. a research laboratory, to bathhouses, and -- two bathhouses, and a hotel. you would stay in the hotel two or three weeks. and they would prescribe the water to you and you can go to the drink hall and drink that spring. the bathhouses were for people who might be suffering from arthritis. they believed the bubbles in the water increased your circulation or improved it. fromople suffering arthritis might be taking a bath at the bathhouse. in their heyday around the late giving the spas were 3200 baths a day. the 1950's, it started to decline in popularity. people weren't willing to spend three days at the spa or three weeks at the spa. there are also new medicines being created. declined gradually and by the 1960's, we shifted our focus into conservation and creating recreation opportunities for patrons. springs and the state park are very unique areas of it we have people who -- areas. we have people who visit from all over the world. we are one of the only properties that have natural carbonated springs coming-out of the grounds for people to enjoy. that's what makes saratoga what it is is the springs. it's important for people to experience them in order to keep people caring about the springs. our city tours staff recently traveled to saratoga springs, new york to learn about its rich history. learn more about saratoga springs and other stops on our tour.r at c-span.org/cities you are watching americans history tv all we every weekend on c-span3.