Clifton Springs: The Cure in the Water
Near Geneva, New York
Settlers arrived in the Finger Lakes village of Clifton Springs around eighteen oh one, drawn in part by the area's sulfur springs. The springs drew visitors looking for cures, and around eighteen fifty Dr. Henry Foster formalized that impulse by founding a Water Cure Sanitarium on the brook running through town.
Foster and his partners incorporated as the Clifton Springs Sanitarium Company in eighteen seventy-one, and in eighteen ninety-six he raised a grand final building, known simply as the San, at the edge of the village. At its peak the sanitarium attracted thousands of patients a year seeking relief from fatigue, nervous disorders, and the ailments of an industrializing age. Clifton Springs incorporated as a village in eighteen fifty-nine.
The sanitarium eventually became a hospital and clinic, still serving the community today.
