The Lincoln Bathhouse Is Fully Open Again: What It Changes About a Winter Sunday in Spa Park
October 15, 2026
October 15, 2026
On October 1, New York State Parks reopened the Lincoln Bathhouse at 65 South Broadway. The state says this is the first time in decades that the building is fully operational. The park office and gift store moved in from 19 Roosevelt Drive. A new museum opened in a wing of the building that had been closed to the public. Three Sundays from now, on November 1, the Spa City Farmers' Market comes indoors to the same address for the winter.
Saratoga Spa State Park draws more than four million visitors a year, which the state says makes it one of the five most visited parks in the New York system. Its indoor offerings have been spread across separate buildings with separate hours. With all three changes under one roof, on a cold Sunday, you can park once on South Broadway and spend the whole morning without driving anywhere else.
The Lincoln has had a split life for years. The original bathhouse went up in 1915 and burned in 1927. The current building opened in 1930. Its tenants include the Children's Museum at Saratoga, the regional headquarters of the New York State Park Police, and the New York State Court of Claims. Most of those are places you visit with a reason, not on a whim. The Children's Museum moved in from downtown in 2022 and now has about 79,000 visitors a year.
The renovation turned the building's front into a public lobby. The Daily Gazette put the total at $6.9 million. Work started in early April, and the paper called it the largest construction project at the address since 1930. The state's announcement breaks that into two parts. A $4.4 million exterior project covered accessibility, parking and how people move around the site. A $2.5 million interior project paid for the office move and the new Visitor Welcome Hall.
The Roosevelt campus isn't shutting down. The information desk at the old park office there is still staffed, and the agency's Saratoga/Capital District regional headquarters stays at the Administration Building at 19 Roosevelt Drive. What changed is which building greets you when you pull in from Broadway.
If you last drove past in the spring, the front lawn will look new. The Gazette reported that trees used to hide the front of the bathhouse and that many were taken down during construction. In their place, 122 native trees went in, including Eastern white pines, the same species that lines the park's Avenue of the Pines.
The state's list of exterior work reads like a checklist for a busy winter Sunday:
The building also joins the short list of state landmarks, including Niagara Falls and the Empire State Building, that are lit in different colors for holidays and special events. No schedule has been published yet, but the South Broadway facade will look different on certain December evenings.
The Saratoga Museum of Hydrotherapy is in the original wing of the bathhouse, which the Gazette notes was never open to the public before. The collection is the actual equipment from the Spa's peak years: a 1930s General Electric X-ray machine, physical therapy equipment, saunas, ceramic bathing tubs and mineral water treatment systems. The Saratogian reported that State Parks Commissioner Kathy Moser said she believes it's the first hydrotherapy museum in New York.
For now, the museum is open on a preview schedule. It opened October 10 and 11, Path Through History Weekend, and runs Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Guided tours start at 10:30 a.m., 1 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. The state says the preview lets staff fine-tune the exhibits and operations and collect public feedback. No admission price, preview end date or regular schedule has been announced. Check the park before planning a visit around a specific tour.
This is what makes the building's Sunday so full. The Spa City Farmers' Market spends summer at the Warming Hut Field and winter inside the Lincoln Bath House. It runs Sundays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. all year. According to the market's 2026/27 winter vendor application, indoor Sundays start November 1 and continue November 8, 15, 22 and 29, then December 6, 13 and 20. After that the schedule skips ahead to January 10, 2027, and continues into April. If you're a regular, the two holiday Sundays at the turn of the year aren't on the list.
Saratoga has two farmers' markets, and people mix them up. The Saratoga Farmers' Market is a separate organization. Its winter market is on Saturdays from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Wilton Mall food court, 3065 NY-50, from November 7 through April 24. The Sunday market at the Lincoln is the Spa City Farmers' Market. The winter vendor list hasn't been posted yet. The market's site currently shows only its summer lineup, which includes Halfmoon Harvest, Humistons Farm, Saratoga Apple, Clyde O'Scope Farm and Buhrmaster Farm.
With the market inside and the museum's preview running, a winter Sunday at the Lincoln and the buildings just behind it looks like this:
| Sunday window | What's open | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 8 a.m.–4 p.m. | Park office and welcome center | 65 South Broadway |
| 10 a.m.–2 p.m. | Spa City Farmers' Market, starting Nov. 1 | Inside the Lincoln |
| 10 a.m.–4 p.m. | Hydrotherapy museum preview, tours 10:30, 1, 2:30 | Original wing of the Lincoln |
| 1–4 p.m. | Children's Museum at Saratoga | Behind the Lincoln |
The market and the museum are open together for four full hours. The 1 p.m. museum tour starts just as the Children's Museum opens its Sunday hours, so a family can go to the market in the morning, split up for an hour, and meet up again without moving the car. The Children's Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and closed Mondays. Its posted general admission is $14 per person for anyone over 12 months, and it offers a $4 Museums for All rate for up to four visitors with an EBT card. Since June 2025 it has also had an inclusive indoor courtyard playground, which matters in February.
The museum shows how the Spa used to treat people. A few minutes away on the Roosevelt campus, you can still book that treatment. The Roosevelt Baths & Spa offers mineral baths all year. It's open Thursday through Monday from 8:15 a.m. to 5 p.m., so Sundays are included, and it requires reservations. Its August 2025 menu lists a 40-minute mineral bath at $70, and notes that prices can change. Delaware North at The Gideon Putnam runs the spa along with the hotel and its restaurants.
The springs are in the same part of the park. The park's mineral springs brochure names Lincoln, Polaris and Hayes among them. It describes Hayes as high in salt and Polaris as less salty and less carbonated than the others.
The park also lists ice skating, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing as winter activities. Snowshoe rentals go through the park office, weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and weekends from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. No opening dates for the 2026 to 2027 season have been posted, so plans for a snowy Sunday depend on the weather.
Not every part of the building is done. The Gazette reported that interior work on a new multipurpose meeting room is still going, with completion expected late this year or in 2027. The museum's preview schedule could change once the state finishes gathering feedback. Saratoga TODAY and NEWS10 both covered the opening, and neither the state's announcement nor Saratoga TODAY's report lists an admission price.
The core of the new Sunday is set, though. Starting November 1, the market, the museum preview, the welcome hall and the Children's Museum are all open at 65 South Broadway, with the Roosevelt Baths a short drive into the park.
For many families here, Spa Park is part of daily life. Dina keeps up with changes like this because they affect how a neighborhood feels from season to season. If you're thinking about how the Saratoga Springs streets near Spa Park fit your own plans, Dina Coluccio is glad to walk you through it. Let's Talk.
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