Historic Main Street Tour

As the spa's popularity grew, many homes were converted into boarding houses to accommodate tourists. The Liberty Hotel, once the home of Hilda Smith Zelgelmeir and also known as the Italian-American Hotel, burned in the first half of the 20th century, though a portion was rebuilt and used for a few decades as a guesthouse. In 1999, its dilapidated remains were being demolished by Brian Sydow and Sally Lanzon, who also owned both Queen Anne houses next door. Queen Anne architecture was popular at the turn of the 19th century, and the Smith family, part owners of the Smith-Empie-Smith store downstreet, lived in one of these houses for many years. Just north stood a similarly constructed Queen Anne home and its carriage house, which over time housed a woodworking shop, a ceramic studio, a Zen Center for meditation, and several apartments. The Zelgelmeir house, an elegant Colonial Revival built in 1917 to replace a smaller home on the site, had a porch foundation of concrete block formed to look like real stone.

Sharon Springs, New York · United States