Why is Church street named that? We know.
‘Genre-defying’ SPAC premiere and after-party tonight.
Welcome to the “Lunch Break” email from the editors of Saratoga Dispatch.
To share this email or view it in your browser, click here!
How did Church Street get its name? This building holds the key.
On Church Street, a building holds a bicentennial, and the history is surprising.
By: Lauren Behan
Positively Saratoga
This exciting Positively Saratoga news is brought to you by our friends at the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce. Lauren Behan works with the Chamber.
A Spa City building is marking its 200th birthday, and its inhabitants are thrilled to celebrate the occasion.
To see more photos and get a sharable link to this story, click here.
The folks at Country Corner Cafe recently hosted a 200th anniversary event for its beloved building set at the corner of Church Street and Woodlawn Avenue in downtown Saratoga Springs.
“My love for the building began before I even bought the business. I dined here as a customer and knew it was so special,” said owner Julee O’Callaghan, who was intrigued to discover the businesses at the site have been women-owned since 1939.
“This building holds so much rich history in Saratoga Springs and we are so lucky to call it the home of Country Corner Cafe,” O’Callaghan said.
The cafe’s previous owner Roseanne Hotaling along with Saratoga Springs Mayor John Safford and New York State Sen. Jim Tedisco all joined for the bicentennial celebration.
Samantha Bosshart, executive director of the Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation, was in attendance as well, with lots of history to share about 25 Church St.
A foundation plaque on the 1825 building explains that the whole street is named after this structure, which was originally a Universalist Church, but for its bicentennial O’Callaghan and Bosshart dove a little deeper into its history.
“Not many would ever have guessed that the building had originally served as a church,” Bosshart said.
"Julee's enthusiasm to learn more about the history of the building that her business was located in was infectious,” she continued. “We were happy to assist her in learning more so she could share it with her customers.”
After it’s short-lived time as a church, the building became a boarding house for “restorationists,” whose goal was to restore the original teachings of Christianity.
Its role as a commercial hotspot began in 1880 when a grocery and tobacco store opened. The year 1939 began the era of women-owned businesses at the property, including general store Kaye’s Newsroom run by Betty Kaye, then Anthony’s Country Kitchen operated by the Fitzgerald sisters, and finally Country Corner Cafe, founded by Hotaling in 1991.
Today, O’Callaghan is the woman whose entrepreneurial spirit occupies 25 Church St., and she is delighted to run her restaurant in such a beautiful, historical place.
The Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation publicly thanked O’Callaghan for recognizing the building’s importance, and the owners, the Braim Family, for being good stewards of the building as “historic buildings make Saratoga Springs special and help to remind people of those who came before us."
Please forward this email, share the love!
We get compliments on a regular basis, here at the Dispatch, and hundreds of you have taken paid subscriptions. THAN YOU!! Please send this email along to friends, neighbors and colleagues. Let them know why you like reading Saratoga Dispatch and encourage them to subscribe.
Paid subscriptions is how our company survives, and your help will get us there. Thank you again. — Abby Tegnelia and Steve Thurston, co-founders, editors
We appreciate the readers we have, and we appreciate what they say about us!
“I have been informed you share an opportunity for good positive news for places and things.” —Aaron
“Looking forward to great content!!” —Steve (not the co-founder, Steve Thurston)
Lifestyle
‘Genre-defying’ SPAC premiere and after-party tonight
Hit the dance floor with DJ Masonic tonight after crowd favorite Time for Three with Philly Orchestra
By: Abby Tegnelia
The Philadelphia Orchestra is kicking off its last weekend with us with a really fun program — Copland & Bates with Time for Three — that feeds into an after-party at the Charles R. Wood Stage.
First, the orchestra will light up the SPAC stage with Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings, a layered and deeply emotional, passionate piece that has made its way into several big pop culture moments to become recognizable to most. Then they’ll pick it up with Aaron Copland’s ever-joyful Appalachian Spring.
For the finale, SPAC welcomes back Grammy- and Emmy-winning Time for Three, who will perform the SPAC premiere (SPAC co-commissioned the piece as well) of Silicon Hymnal, a new concerto by Mason Bates.
“They're such a fun crossover group with this amazing genre-defying sound,” says SPAC President Christopher Shiley. “Mason is an incredible classical composer who does a lot with electronic music, which he incorporates into his composition. And there's going to be some singing and cool effects. Of course, with the support of the orchestra, too — that's going to be a really cool piece and one that I'm really excited to have.”
As it turns out, Mason moonlights as DJ Masonic, so after the show everyone’s invited to head on over to an after-party — and encore performance — at the Charles R. Wood Stage. There will be a cash bar, too.
“DJ Masonic and Time for Three are going to remix some of their songs, including some of their classics,” Shiley says. “So the night should be a lot of fun.”