A Ballston Spa museum is taking guests on a journey through time in an 18th century tavern.
The Brookside Museum is hosting a suite of living historians, or reenactors, musicians, and authors to bring guests back into the late 1700s.
The building itself is a part of the experience, having been built in 1792 and run as a hotel for more than 50 years. The Brookside Museum now runs educational programs on the region’s storied past as well as exhibits of historical artifacts that take guests through centuries of Saratoga County history.
Museum Director of Education Anne Clothier says she hopes attendees will come to better understand the area, formerly known as Ballston Springs, as well as the food from the time period.
Author and historian John Oliver will be exploring how America’s first president knew the area.
“We’ll be talking about George Washington’s visits to our area. And how he encounters this region, what he thought of it, and also some surprises that he encountered along the way,” said Clothier.
Clothier says the reenactors, her included, provide authentic and spontaneous looks at what life may have been like in the 18th century.
“So, we’re going to be having a chance to, again we’re going to be serving the food, but also mingling and chatting with the people here. And so, hopefully we’ll be able to sit amongst everyone and during those dinner conversations that inevitably start up, have a chance to really share some of our research highlights and interests and all of that,” explained Clothier.
Isobel Connell is the President of the Board of Trustees at the Saratoga County History Center and has played a key role in getting the event in shape – which she says is the culmination of years of experimentation to get people involved in the history of Saratoga County.
“This event is another opportunity to get like-minded people together. Whenever you have food, and everybody sitting down to eat, it automatically makes things more enjoyable, more relaxing. And with having the opportunity of having reenactors here in this area in particular, it just puts it onto a whole new level,” said Connell.
Attendees will sample period food, too.
Along with a stew made by Fitzgerald’s Irish Pub in Glens Falls, organizers ordered bread from Night Work bakery just around the corner.
Co-owner Leigh Rathner explains why their signature three-ingredient bread was perfect for the evening’s time-warped menu.
“All of our bread is an old-fashioned process; it’s a rustic sourdough bread. There’s no commercial yeast used. We shape it all by hand, and we bake it in a stone deck oven. So, it’s sort of like what all bread was before the invention of commercial yeast around the turn of the last century. Before that, you had to have a leavening agent that was natural, which is what the sourdough Levain is that we use in all of our breads,” said Rathner.
Clothier says she's already thinking of ideas for future “tavern night” events.
“One idea that has—in very early stages as an idea being tossed out for brainstorming is the idea of the Quebecois and the emigration through this area with the lumber industries and such. And perhaps trying to bring in some food that would be related to that as well as a speaker who could talk about some of those experiences of the people who moved to this area throughout the 19th century and early 20th century,” said Clothier.
