BALLSTON SPA CAN'T AFFORD
CONVENIENCE OF BIG BOX STORE
Key to future prosperity lies in
preserving and promoting the past

By Ann Hauprich

When my family moved from a suburban housing development near the Latham Circle Mall to the Village of Ballston Spa in 1968, my Shaker High classmates stopped just short of sending me sympathy cards. A standing joke in those days was that you’d miss Ballston Spa if you blinked while driving along its main drag en route to or from Saratoga Springs.

Unable to see beyond the cracked sidewalks and peeling paint in the downtown core, I initially felt little pride in my new hometown and wondered aloud how my parents could have transplanted their 10 exuberant offspring to Hicksville, USA. I longed for a modern shopping center within walking distance of the Victorian my parents had bought at the intersection of Route 50 and McMaster Street -- for, in those days, there really was little to see or do in the historic upstate settlement.

Fast forward nearly four decades and the joke’s on anyone who thinks building a super-modern super-center at the intersection of Routes 50 & 67 will enhance the prosperity of a village that’s currently in the midst of a remarkable Renaissance. If jokes about the village’s lack of visibility or vitality begin circulating again at a future date, it will be because this generation failed to halt plans for a big box store that will almost certainly curtail, if not completely derail, the progress that’s been made in recent years.

No longer in Saratoga’s shadow, Ballston Spa is gaining recognition as a distinctively charming setting where residents and visitors can “stroll through history” while shopping for art, antiques and collectibles as well as a broad spectrum of other goods and services one would be hard-pressed to find in a big box store like Wal-Mart. One can, for example, savor an elegantly served cup of tea at The Whistling Kettle with a view of beautiful Wiswall Park or relax in a mineral bath at the recently refurbished Medbery Inn & Spa on Front Street. Built in 1804, the Medbery also has a place in movie history as the backdrop where Robert Redford tied Barbra Streisand’s shoelaces during a memorable scene in the now classic early 1970s film “The Way We Were.”

Among the village’s other amenities are florists, photo shops, beverage centers, a hardware store, and a gas station where the attendants not only cheerfully fill your tank and check your engine, but clean your windshield as well. There’s also a Five & Dime size department store and a family-owned pharmacy and gift shop. Prescriptions can also be filled at the spanking new CVS near the Aldi’s grocery store at the other end of the village. Local eateries range from cafes to gourmet delis to sub shops, pizza parlors and fine dining establishments. The ambiance is refreshingly friendly . . . not quite Mayberry, but sprinkled with just the right amount of nostalgia. Ballston Spa truly lives up to its slogan as “The Village of Friends.”

Those seeking additional nostalgia will find plenty on tap at the National Bottle Museum where each fragile artifact represents part of America’s history and at Brookside Museum, home of the Saratoga County Historical Society. Established as a resort hotel in 1798, Brookside once attracted affluent guests from far and wide who were eager to sample the village’s once abundant mineral waters.

Mind you, neither Brookside Museum nor the National Bottle Museum had come into being when I wandered the streets of Ballston Spa looking for something to do in the late 1960s. Come to think of it, I routinely walked by a house where Abner Doubleday was born and backyards where Andy Rooney used to play when visiting relatives as a lad without knowing about these connections. Rooney also vividly recalls being led by the hand to the Old Iron Spring on Front Street to sample the mineral water and the pride he felt upon seeing the name of his maternal grandfather (Reynolds) on the manhole covers in the village’s downtown area. A number of them are still in place there.

Continuing to stroll through the village one comes upon the refurbished factory where George West once manufactured flat-bottomed paper bags he patented and where Bishoff’s world-famous chocolates were later made. In derelict condition when I first laid eyes on the structure, The Old Chocolate Factory beside the Kayderosseros Creek at Route 50 and Prospect Street is now a beehive of business and professional activities. Another magnificently restored landmark that bustles with both commercial and social activities is The Lincoln Building at the corner of Route 50 and Malta Avenue. (Its ever-buzzing Coffee Planet caters to a clientele on a par with any Starbuck’s.)

One might say Ballston Spa is the closest you can get to having the things “The Way They Were” during the village’s prosperous pre-Depression years with the way they ought to be in terms of meeting the wants and needs of the current generation. While the village certainly could use a grocery store the size of the Grand Union that once stood on the site of an expansive and long vacant parking lot at the north end of the community and possibly a second department store that offers merchandize other than what’s already available on Front Street, to add a big box store the size of the one being proposed would be to Ballston Spa’s detriment.

Those who argue otherwise -- contending that the presence of a retail Goliath roughly a mile from the heart of the village would benefit existing businesses and attractions by way of bargain hunters veering off the main drag to patronize antique shops or museums and historic sites -- are woefully mistaken.

Most people searching for the low, low price will not care what’s on Low Street or High Street or any quaint street in between for that matter! But there are many reasons why they should. Ballston Spa is not just another dot on the map; it’s a national treasure and should be elevated to that status in order to protect it from the kind of sprawl that typically accompanies the arrival of big box stores.

This charming village’s future prosperity can best be secured by preserving and promoting its past. Ballston Spa simply cannot afford the convenience of a retail giant. Rather the village needs to beef up its zoning to look at each new proposed commercial development in terms of how it will build on the community’s rich past and enrich its future -- culturally as well as financially.

When I see what’s sprung up around the Latham Circle Mall these past 40 years, it’s hard not to wipe aw ay a nostalgic tear or two. It almost makes me want to send sympathy cards to my former Shaker High classmates. I for one, never want to see Ballston Spa bear even a slight resemblance to my original hometown.