Demolition on Caroline Street

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The demolition began this week of a 19th century building at 26 Caroline St. ravaged by a Thanksgiving Day fire. The two-story building was constructed in the 1870s and its façade modified in circa 1908 to install large first-floor windows. Efforts to salvage the structure’s facade were unsuccessful. A faulty electrical extension cord located in a small storage area in the rear of the nearby Mio Posto restaurant on Putnam Street was targeted as the cause of the blaze and resulted in the closure of four businesses. At least two of those businesses - Sperry’s restaurant, and Hamlet & Ghost – hope to reopen by New Year’s Eve. The owner of the 26 Caroline St. structure, Louis Lazzinnaro, last week said he was working with an architect to create conceptual drawings of what might replace the demolished structure and that the new design could possibly feature a mixed-use development.