Gideon Putnam Burying Ground fills a quietly irregular 1.1-acre plot on South Franklin Street, just south of Grand Avenue opposite the Oak Street junction. This is the city's early burial ground: it contains over 150 graves of early and mid-19th-century residents, all dated between 1812 and 1871. Gideon Putnam, the city's founder, laid out the grid plan that guided Saratoga Springs and built one of its first resort hotels; he intended this parcel as a public cemetery and became its first burial after his death from injuries sustained in a construction accident.
His grave remains the only extant remnant of his presence in the city he founded. Because his premature death meant no plans or preparation had been made, apart from the Putnam family plot the ground was not used much as a public cemetery. Neglect took hold for almost a century, until the site was restored in the 1980s, and in 2003 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Notice the founder's single surviving grave among more than 150 nineteenth-century burials, and picture South Franklin leading toward Grand Avenue and the Oak Street junction.