The Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation is working to restore a pair of buildings in the city’s historic downtown.
You might not be able to tell by the freshly painted and detailed porch, now a bright combination of green and pink, but 65 Phila Street was on death’s doorstep just a few short years ago.
Before it and the house next door, 69 Phila, could be demolished, the Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation swooped in to protect the centuries old buildings.
Standing in the doorless doorway to the 19th Century home, Executive Director Samantha Bosshart explains some of the history of the building.
“So the house was originally built in 1851 by Alexander A. Patterson. He was listed as an architect, builder. But then later was the owner of the Patterson Spring. He actually had a large spring building further closer to Broadway. He and his family lived in this house for 90 years. And then after, the Patterson family no longer lived here the house was sold and then it became a—essentially a Jewish boarding house,” said Bosshart.
While most of the exterior improvements are complete, the inside of the home is a skeleton of previous layouts. The old, hand cut wooden studs still outline the building’s room structure. The exact number isn’t clear, but the most recent layout had around 10 rooms for boarders.
“I think what’s great about this property is it references the early development of the city. I mean, being built in 1851, that’s relatively early for our downtown really before the boom. It also represents a connection to our natural springs and the development of springs in our city through Patterson. And then lastly the connection to the Jewish community and The Gut history. So, it sort of tells a bunch of stories,” explained Bosshart.
Local historian and author Amy Godine says the historic neighborhood the home is in, “The Gut,” was critical to the growth of the Spa City’s Jewish community.
“This neighborhood that spans Phila Street, Lafayette Street, Caroline Street, all of which stream down from Broadway then rise up, this becomes an area where Jews feel welcome and start to not just rent rooms in boarding houses but buy them and work with year-round residents to come and know they’ll have a place to stay over the summer,” said Godine.
Godine says that although there’s nothing particularly “Jewish” in the architecture of the house, projects like 65 Phila’s preservation help to bring more attention to Saratoga Springs’ deep, if often overlooked, Jewish history.
“If you only preserve neighborhoods and buildings in terms of the history of the architectural style, you’re missing an opportunity to honor and celebrate the culture that thrived in that neighborhood and identified itself with those buildings. And that’s a big miss because this was a neighborhood that put Saratoga on the map for visiting Jews. You could find here Kosher chicken, the kind of fish you’d like to eat, the kind of newspaper in Yiddish they wanted to read. You could find Jewish theater,” explained Godine.
Matt Hurff is the Principal at Frost Hurff Architects and has led the actual restoration process at 65 Phila. He says his firm’s years of experience prepared them to take on this project, but there were plenty of challenges along the way.
“Probably the most bizarre thing we found in this building was that large portions of the walls were filled with bricks between the studs, which isn’t that uncommon but they were all the way up. And it was just a tremendous amount of deadweight often times sitting on some really rotted out piece of wood with no support underneath it. So, trying to safely remove that, safely get the chimney down without some kind of sudden catastrophic failure that was going to cause more damage or hurt somebody, I think that was probably the hardest part of the project,” explained Hurff.
Bosshart expects the house to be sale-ready by summer.
“I think our ultimate goal is through the funds that we raised that any net proceeds that we make as a result of this property, which we are hopeful we will, that those funds can go into another preservation project that will benefit the community. So that’s our bigger picture goal, but for us, the immediate goal is to find a buyer and somebody who wants to be a good steward for the home for years to come,” said Bosshart.
As for what makes a “good steward?”
“I don’t know if we have per se requirements but I don’t think that this is a property that just any person is going to take on. I think this is going to require a special buyer who can appreciate what it is and what will be needed to continue its legacy,” said Bosshart.
