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CODE BLUE: $3 Million Shelter Sited

Written by Thomas Dimopoulos on . Posted in Featured, News.

Parcel of land at 96-116 Ballston Ave., captured from Finley Street Aug. 21, 2024, with Route 50 visible at left. The existing building in the distance is 96 Ballston Ave. and is included in the county purchase. Photo by Thomas Dimopoulos. 

BALLSTON SPA — The Saratoga County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a resolution during its monthly meeting Aug. 20 to purchase a 1.4-acre parcel at 96 -116 Ballston Ave. (Route 50) in Saratoga Springs for $3 million as the future location of a permanent Code Blue homeless shelter. 

A memorandum of Understanding, or MOU, was also unanimously approved in anticipation of entering into a long-term lease with the Shelters of Saratoga organization to build and operate the cold-weather shelter.     

The goal is to have a facility open on-site by the fall of 2025, said Saratoga County Board of Supervisors Chairman Phil Barrett.  

Code Blue protocols are activated when the temperature is 32 degrees Fahrenheit or less, including wind chill. As an emergency wintertime shelter, it presents a different setting than a year-round 24/7 low-barrier shelter that has been discussed in Saratoga Springs in recent years. 

“The county has a responsibility that’s mandated by New York State that we need to fulfill,” Barrett said. “We need a permanent location because we’re in a very difficult position year-to-year trying to find a Code Blue shelter. We found a piece of property that can be purchased at a very attractive price – based on the zoning, based on the fact that there’s a building on the property – to be a solution to the problem.” 

The parcel was appraised at approximately $3.2 million, according to the board resolution. It stands directly opposite a commercial strip mall which features a market and other amenities and is along a public bus transport line. 

“The zoning on the parcel allows for a great deal of density, multi-family projects,” Barrett said.

Plans call for the county to purchase the parcel for about $3 million and as owner of the property enter into a long-term lease with Shelters of Saratoga, or SOS, who will presumably use the one existing building on site as well as raise funds to develop the property where a shelter will be constructed. 

“Ground leases of this type are typically over many years, at least 50 years, and there are provisions in there: if the organization were to go defunct, if there were some other circumstances where they were not able to provide the services any longer or no longer fiscally viable, then that building would revert to the county,” Barrett said. “It’s important that the county have some influence over any programs that occur there – and that’s something we will have through an MOU with Shelters, through our ownership of the property, so the county is protected.”

Basically, the county will purchase the land, and SOS will pay for the construction and operational expenses of the shelter, including staffing, utilities, and maintenance.  

The MOU will outline the basic financial arrangements and the County’s general responsibilities, including acquiring the parcel of land, leasing it to Shelters of Saratoga, and exercising final authority over which programs are conducted on the property.

County leadership and S.O.S. are philosophically aligned, Barrett added. “The county doesn’t want a low-barrier shelter, neither does Shelters. The county doesn’t want a safe injection site, or anything of that sort, neither does Shelters.”  

S.O.S. has operated a Code Blue shelter at a variety of temporary locations in Saratoga Springs during the past several years, efforts to site a permanent shelter rejected at every turn by those living close-by or with nearby interests. 

Supervisor Michele Madigan, who represents the city of Saratoga Springs at the county level, thanked her fellow board members for agreeing to the proposal, adding that the securing of a permanent site was a long time coming and is an important step to address a community need. 

“Our first Code Blue Shelter in Saratoga Springs opened in 2013 and in 2016 this became a government mandate,” Supervisor Madigan said.

The Code Blue Saratoga program was born from the tragic death of Nancy Pitts. The 54-year-old mother of two sought shelter on a Williams Street porch during a frigid December night in 2013. She was discovered by police the next morning. Within days of the homeless woman’s death, a cooperative partnership between then mayor-elect Joanne Yepsen, non-profit organizations, and members of the community was initiated and a plan set in motion to site an emergency shelter in the city. A series of cold-weather shelters have followed, each on a temporary winter-to-spring basis. 

The Code Blue program provides people with winter shelter and safety from the cold. In addition to overnight shelter, the organization offers nightly dinners and resource navigation, supportive housing, and linkage to treatment. The 2023-24 winter season included 299 unduplicated guests and was open for 171 nights, with 11,560 meals served donated by local businesses and organizations, according to S.O.S.

Rhoda Meets Lillian: It Didn’t Go Well

Written by Paul Perreault on . Posted in Featured, History.

Lillian Russell (left) & Rhoda Thompson (right). Photo provided by The Saratoga County History Roundtable.

On the morning of August 14, 1909, Miss Rhoda Thompson of Rose Hill Farm in Milton instructed her driver, Sylvester, to harness the horses so that she might bring her house guest, a Mr. Wilder, to the Saratoga train station in order to catch the 4 pm train to New York. 

Miss Thompson was a well-known society woman from a very prominent Saratoga County family. She was the daughter of Judge James Thompson, a Regent of the University of the State of New York, and Mary Stansbury Thompson and the granddaughter of John Thompson, the first judge of the county and a member of the State Assembly in 1788. Her brother John was surrogate of the county and one of the founders of the Ballston Spa National Bank. He was its president when he died in 1892

Rhoda was prominent in Saratoga County society and took an active interest in the affairs of her community. She was a  charter member of the Saratoga County Daughters of the American Revolution and the Saratoga County Historical Society. She contributed to many charities and each year helped direct and finance the West Milton District School, repairing and modernizing the schoolhouse and giving funds each year to balance the budget. When she died in 1923, she directed that the remainder of her estate, over $100,000 ( equal to over $1,800,000 in today’s dollars ) go to the New York and the Albany County Association of the Blind in the name of her mother who was blind for many years prior to her death.

As Miss Thompson and her party were heading toward their destination, they encountered a “huge car crossing the Mourningkill flats at great speed.”  The road was very narrow at this point; not wide enough for two vehicles to pass without great care and Rhoda anticipated that the car would exercise such. Instead “it put on more power and shot up the hill like lightning, there was no escape from being crushed, except to take to the ditch”.  Her carriage was smashed  and on its side, while the horses were scattered. Rhoda found herself “lying in a dusty road, a stunned, dazed, tattered, battered dust heap” who could not rise  due to a painful ankle.  As bad as the physical injuries were, worse was about to come.

As Rhoda recounts “Over the brow of the hill appeared a bold, coarse, painted woman, who filled my soul with disgust. She offered to take me anywhere, to send a doctor, etc. …. I refrained from saying I prefer to lie here in the dust, until some decent person comes along if only to take me in a wheelbarrow.”

Rhoda soon learned that her “undoer” was none other than Lillian Russell, the “Kardashian” of fin-de-siecle society. Although a talented vocalist and actress, by 1909 she was better known as the “friend” of Diamond Jim Brady, the market manipulator who was famous for making money, wearing flashy jewelry and eating enormous amounts of food. Jim owned over 20,000 diamonds and a typical meal could consist of two whole ducks, six or seven lobsters, a sirloin steak, two servings of terrapin and assorted vegetables.  Because he did not drink alcohol, the meal would be washed down with gallons of orange juice.

Lillian adopted all three of Jim’s habits and by this time her “girlish figure” was being described as “full-bodied”. The couple were a fixture in Saratoga each August at the races and the casinos. Lillian’s, the popular downtown restaurant which closed in 2015, was named for her.  

While recovering, Rhoda wrote to a friend that when she discovered who the driver was “I understood my instinctive feelings of repulsion and disgust, the desire to first clear the air of her presence”. While Miss Russell offered to assist and even provide a ride to a doctor, Rhoda saw her offer as being made “in a perfunctory way with the air of doing a noble gracious act, although entirely irresponsible” and chose to accept a ride from a passerby.

Rhoda’s distaste for Lillian was apparently not only based on this encounter but a deeper-seated feeling about “the sporty class who scatter money and diffuse evil through this region during the summer.”  Sounds like “old money” looking down on “new money.”

Paul Perreault served as the Malta Town Historian from 2009-2023. He was a principal in the Ballston Spa School District and a history teacher at Shenendehowa High School.  He is a member of the Association of Public Historians of New York State, the Ballston Spa Rotary Club, and volunteers at the Saratoga County History Center.

Artificial Intelligence Creates “Immersive” Audio Experience at Saratoga History Museum

Written by Jonathon Norcross on . Posted in Business, Featured.

An audio tour QR code is stationed at the entrance of the Saratoga Springs History Museum in Congress Park. Photo by Jonathon Norcross. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Technology hasn’t yet advanced to the point that history buffs can simply hop in a DeLorean to explore the past, but it’s getting pretty close.

At the Saratoga Springs History Museum, artificial intelligence was used to generate more than four hours of audio content designed to help visitors immerse themselves in historic Saratoga. Ambient sounds and period-appropriate music abound in the museum’s new self-guided audio tour, which aims to transport museum goers back to the Gilded Age. 

“The stories we want to conserve in this museum are really important, and conserving them for a modern audience is definitely a priority,” said Museum Director James Parillo. “Trying to express this through artificial intelligence is something we really wanted to explore, and so far, I think we’ve created something really unique.”

The spoken part of the audio tour was created by simply feeding existing text into AI software; various male and female-sounding voices narrate the text seen on placards throughout the museum. But the rest of the tour’s soundscape is the result of AI’s more creative capabilities. This is most apparent on the third floor of the museum, where exhibits about the notorious Walworth family murder are accompanied by Haunted House-esque sounds of rainstorms, creaking floorboards, howling winds, and disembodied voices. (To fully capture the experience, headphones are recommended.) 

The audio tour was the brainchild of L.F. Leon, the museum’s director of communications. AI allowed Leon to create narration without having to hire someone to spend hours in a recording studio. The AI software, Leon said, also allows its user to own all of the material it creates. Classical music and jazz tunes heard throughout the tour were acquired from copyright-free sources.

As for ensuring historical accuracy, since all of the spoken audio was simply adapted from existing text, the information has already been verified by the museum. In other words, there’s no risk of AI simply making something up, as it sometimes is known to do. (That said, the AI narrators did seem to struggle a bit with the pronunciations of a couple Saratoga-specific names, such as Travers and Adelphi.)

QR codes stationed throughout the museum link visitors to a webpage that contains all of the audio tour files in numerical order. No app is needed. Each exhibit or item in the museum with a corresponding audio file has a number next to it, and the files can be played in any order. The audio tour also has the added benefit of allowing people who may not be physically able to climb the museum’s stairs to experience all of the exhibits auditorily from the ground floor. 

Visitors can experience the new audio tour for themselves at the Saratoga Springs History Museum, which is open daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $15 for adults, $12 for seniors, and $8 for students. The museum is located at 1 E Congress Street in Congress Park.

Talk of The Town: City Speaks on Public Comment 

Written by Thomas Dimopoulos on . Posted in Featured, News.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Verbal clashes and public threats. Sudden shutdowns. A head-butting incident. Warnings of police intervention and events highlighted for inclusion in political campaigns. 

For several decades, Public Comment periods at City Council meetings in Saratoga Springs have brought a boisterous medley of all the above. The question raised time and again:  Who can speak, when may they speak and how long are they allowed do so? 

Recently, the council was presented with a potential new wrinkle to its Rules of Decorum and Order when a member of a local group opposed to a measure under council consideration was invited to expand on those opinions for an extended time.  

Last year, John Safford was elected city mayor based, at least partially, on a platform that promised  to “return civility to City Hall,”  and pointed directly to activities during the council’s twice-a-month meetings.

“Public Comment has been a subject that was very much a part of this last election,” Mayor Safford said shortly after taking office on Jan. 1, 2024, when bringing new Rules of Decorum and Order to the table. The new council – comprised of two new council members and three returning ones – voted 4-1 to adopt the measure.  

The new rules instructed 30 minutes be set aside at each meeting for public input, with each speaker limited to three minutes to address the council as a whole. A digital clock with backwards-running time has since been stationed in front of the speakers’ microphone, its numbers changing colors while winding down to depict a growing time-sensitive urgency, ultimately concluding with a clamor of noise at zero.

“The three minutes is very important,” explained Mayor Safford. “Once that clock goes off, you must stop. Even if you’re in the middle of the sentence.”  

Similarly, the NY State Committee on Open Government advises that during an open meeting when a public body chooses to permit public participation, it must treat all persons in a like manner.

There have, however, been variances. While some speakers who extend beyond their allotted time have been verbally halted, others have been granted extra talking time to reach their conclusion. The discrepancy, and its resulting appearance of a potential lack of fairness, has initiated a new conversation at the council table. 

During the most recent preliminary agenda meeting, former city Mayor Mike Lenz spoke as a public commentator within the allowable three-minute segment. Following the move from the public comment session to departmental agenda items some time later, the council engaged one another in a five-minute discussion regarding the proposal when Lenz raised a question from the audience. 

“I’ll entertain your question former mayor, come on up,” offered council member Dillon Moran. “It’s important that you guys feel that you’ve been heard.” Lenz returned to the mic where he discussed the matter with the council for an additional 12 minutes.

Council member Minita Sanghvi raised a question about whether fairness to all was being exhibited, pointing to one speaker, but not other speakers, being invited to elaborate on a topic up-for-vote. “I have a process question. This is great that people get answers, I’m not opposed to this, but if we are doing X for someone and not X for someone else, that’s where we get into problems,” Sanghvi said. “We want all our constituents to feel that they can be heard, not just some.” 

“Sometimes there are exceptions that we have to honor,” Mayor Safford said.  “I am very sympathetic to their concerns and just want to make sure we are all very clear about what is going to be in that lease,” Mayor Safford said, regarding the proposal the council was considering. “We definitely want the people from the school to know we hear them.”

Sanghvi elaborated during the council’s full agenda meeting a day later about what she called “exceptions” being made allowing “some people to talk more than others,” while “some are shushed…Rules have consistently been broken. “

Commissioner Moran, who had entertained the returning discussion a day earlier, added: “I will take personal ownership for what occurred during the pre-agenda meeting, but I think the point the commissioner (Sanghvi) brings up is a valid one, because it’s a lot more than just this meeting she’s referring to,” he said. 

During the meeting, a person representing the group in favor of the proposal was cut-off after three minutes during the public comment session, then allowed to return for another 90 seconds to continue their thoughts later during that same session, although no dialogue with the council was entertained.  

A council or board has the prerogative to seek someone’s testimony to provide further board consideration on a topic it lacks clarity on, but there is a fine line to toe in terms of fairness or a potentially perceived favoritism in the matter. Presumably the council will need to define where that line is in the future.     

“There is a difference between providing comment during an open mic session, and being invited by a board to answer further questions regarding a matter they need clarity on – that is sort of more of an invited speaker status,” said Shoshanah Bewlay, Executive Director of the New York State Committee on Open Government. 

“There are obviously situations where any process can be abused,” she added, speaking in general terms, “if there is some kind of favoritism being shown to one commentor because the board was somehow sympathetic and wanted to get more information because it suited them in some partisan type of way.”   

“If we are allowing members of the public to talk for an extended discussion in the middle of the meeting, we need to have a defined process of when this is permitted,” Sanghvi said. “You can’t just keep making exceptions for people you like, and not for people you don’t like. That’s not how you can run a meeting fairly or civilly.”

“I hear what you’re saying,” Mayor Safford responded.  “Give us some time to think about it.” 

It is not known if or when the discussion will be revisited at the council table. The council next meets on Tuesday, Aug. 20.   

Nick DiMatteo: Longtime Saratoga Springs Tailor to Celebrate A Big Day

Written by Thomas Dimopoulos on . Posted in Featured, News.

Nick DiMatteo as a young boy, learning the craft and art of the tailoring business in his hometown in Italy. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Nick DiMatteo grew up in the 1940s in a little town by Naples, Italy and made his way across the Great Pond to America while in his twenties. He set up his first shop in Saratoga Springs the late 1970s, more than half-a-lifetime ago.  

“I got to Ellis Island September first in ’68,” DiMatteo says, seated in his shop at number 119 Church Street, where accompanied by various scissors, measuring tools, pins, pincushions, and needles and thread, he has served his clientele for more than 40 years. 

His first location in the Spa City, which also served as the first time he ran his own business, stood west of Circular Street across from the Holiday Inn. 

“January 2, 1979,” he says. “I remember the day.”

In May 1981, he relocated to number 119 Church Street, a shop he has occupied for more than half his life, and one in which he continues to work in. He is exceptional at recalling dates, and a big one is fast approaching. 

On Aug. 23, DiMatteo will celebrate his 80th birthday. 

What does he want people to know?

 “To know that I’m on Church Street!” says the longtime tailor, whose shop sits on a tree-lined street accompanied by residential homes and a few blocks west of Broadway. Its existence is simply pronounced by a brick entryway, a trio of stone steps and a subtle flash of neon that reads: Tailoring.  

For the past 40 years DiMatteo’s custom tailoring work has well placed him within the community, his days often dotted by people coming in for a chat. 

“People call, people come in. When they call, they ask a lot of questions,” he says with a laugh. “Come in!” He is open five days a week: 9-5 Tuesday through Friday, and Saturday 10 to 1, so there is the invitation.   

“I have a wonderful clientele, beautiful people,” DiMatteo says. “I enjoy working for them.” 

He grew up in a little Italian town with a population of about 5,000 people and started learning the business of tailoring at a young age.   

“I was very young, maybe 8?  “My mama said: if you don’t want to follow in your dad’s footsteps and go to the farm, you better learn a trade.  I didn’t want to be a mechanic. I was going to elementary school and after school I went to the shop,” says DiMatteo, gesturing to vintage photographs on the walls depicting the young apprentice in his hometown in Italy. 

“I learned how to use a needle and thread, a thimble on a piece of cloth,” he says. “It kept me off the street, because my parents didn’t want me to not have supervision after school. They were on the farm –  so either I had to go there, or somewhere like this, to stay off the street.” 

He relocated to America in the late 1960s and lived in upstate New York where he had family. 

“I went to an apprentice shop in Italy so I learned to sew over there. When I came here I worked for somebody in Schenectady for 9-1/2 years, then decided to open my own,” DiMatteo says. 

“When I decided to open up my own place I was searching for a spot. Schenectady already had tailors,” he says. He found an initial location in Saratoga Springs – “a very small room, 10-by-10 maybe,” and soon relocated to the space where he currently continues his work, on Church Street.   

“1981 – Saratoga was different then,” says DiMatteo, whose early work consisted largely of men’s custom-made suits, and added the work of making alterations to already existing outfits. “With a custom-made suit – you buy the material and it’s made to fit you. It takes over a week and you satisfy only one customer. With alterations you satisfy 50 people,” he says, explaining the difference.     

“Today, I have new customers every day, and I have folks who I have known for 40 years,” says DiMatteo. “There are not a lot of tailors now compared to 40 years ago when there were many, but there are a few of us still around.”

This month he celebrates birthday number 80, more than 40 years as owner of his custom tailoring shop on Church Street and a lifetime of working in the craft and art of helping people to look their best. 

What Will Happen to Snake Hill? Nonprofit Seeks Community Input

Written by Jonathon Norcross on . Posted in Business, Featured.

Aerial photo of Snake Hill via Saratoga PLAN/Ryan C. of Saratoga Drone.

STILLWATER — Saratoga PLAN (Preserving Land and Nature), a nonprofit land trust, held an open house event at Dock Brown’s Lakeside Tavern on Tuesday to share three potential site options for Snake Hill, a 32-acre forested dome on the eastern shore of Saratoga Lake.

The hill, located in Stillwater, was purchased in December by Saratoga PLAN from Stewart’s Shops for $1 million. Now the nonprofit must decide what to do with their acquisition.

The first of the three options would be to simply preserve the land, allowing no public access. Staff would work to maintain and improve native species and biodiversity, minimize invasive species, and protect the water quality. The only human imprint would be a small parking lot that would allow staffers to access the hill.

The second option would allow limited public access to the property via pedestrian trails. Only small groups participating in Saratoga PLAN or partner programs or volunteer initiatives would be granted access to the hill. These group activities would be focused on environmental education. In addition to a small parking lot, picnic tables and a loop trail would be added to the land. This second option is the one preferred by Saratoga PLAN. 

The third option would open Snake Hill to visitors during daylight hours. Added to the property would be a parking lot, picnic tables and benches, and a loop trail. This option would result in staff being focused primarily on visitor safety and minimizing any visitor impact on the land’s species and biodiversity. Should Snake Hill become a popular destination, increased traffic and parking could become a problem, along with potential damage to the habitat caused by visitors.

“A lot of you know Snake Hill better than any of us,” said Saratoga PLAN Executive Director Rob Davies at the open house event. “You know details about this land that we don’t, and that’s why we’re here. We want to hear from you.” Regardless of what ultimately happens to Snake Hill, Davies said that the land would be protected “forever.”

Snake Hill, currently closed to the public, rises 200 feet over Saratoga Lake. It is the site of Saratoga County’s only documented rattlesnake hibernacula, hence its name. The snakes are believed to have been hunted to extinction more than 150 years ago. Snake Hill’s native name, Torwarloonda, means “hill of storm.” According to Michael Gaige, a consulting ecologist and Saratoga PLAN advisory council member, the hill’s “abundant fossils, folded layers, and relative isolation from other similar structures make it a geological anomaly.” 

Additional information about the three site options is available at SaratogaPLAN.org/snakehill. The community can also share their feedback via this web address. The deadline for submitting feedback is Friday, September 13. Saratoga PLAN said it would hold another community event in the fall once plans for Snake Hill had been further solidified.

Local High School Implementing New Cell Phone Policy

Written by Jonathon Norcross on . Posted in Education, Featured.

BALLSTON LAKE — Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake High School will be implementing a new cell phone policy this year.

When students return to school at the end of the summer, they’ll be required to place their phones in a “rack” or cubby near the door of each classroom. Students won’t be able to access their phones during class, but they can still use their phones during lunch and in the hallway between classes.

Additionally, students will no longer be allowed to take their phones with them when they go to the bathroom. Principal Tim Brunson said that students sometimes go to the bathroom just to use their phones. He called this a “huge issue” that distracts students and decreases attendance.

“I anticipate that there will be some blowback at the start, but I think the positives far outweigh the negatives,” Brunson said of the new policy at an August 5 board of education meeting. “It shows that we trust the students to use [phones] appropriately but also shows how serious we are about eliminating distractions in the classroom.”

In the event of a home or family emergency, parents are advised to call the school so that they can reach their kids during class. Brunson said that the high school’s office is always manned. In non-emergency situations, parents can use email to contact their kids.

For now, the school will allow students to wear Apple Watches during class. Brunson said that teachers will monitor students to see if these watches also become distractions.

103rd Fasig-TiptonSaratoga Sale Shatters Records

Written by Saratoga TODAY on . Posted in Featured, Sports.


A Not This Time colt was sold for $3.4 million during the first session of the 103rd Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale
on August 5. Photo via Fasig-Tipton. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The 103rd edition of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale set new records for gross, average, and median, the company announced on Wednesday. 

The two-session horse sale was held at the Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion in Saratoga Springs on August 5 and 6, resulting in 154 yearlings sold for a record gross of $82,160,000. This broke the $75,055,000 record set last year. 

The average and median figures also surpassed 2023 records. The average rose from $487,370 to $533,506, and the median climbed from $375,000 to $425,000. The sale also posted an 18.5% reserve-not-attained (RNA) rate, the lowest since 2015.

“It’s been a remarkable two nights of selling horses,” said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning in a statement. “We felt very confident coming here this year that the quality of horses in this catalog is the best we’ve ever had. I think the buyers proved us right.”

The highest individual sale was $3.4 million for a Not This Time colt, which was the fifth most expensive colt offered in the history of the Saratoga Sale. The colt was sold to Donato Lanni, an agent for Zedan Racing.

The second-highest sale was $2.4 million for an Into Mischief colt. Lane’s End, agent for Pamela Wygod and The Wygod Family Revocable Trust, consigned the bay colt.

Other notable sales included:

A Gun Runner colt out of Secret Sigh, sold for $1,900,000 to M.V. Magnier/White Birch from the consignment of Lane’s End, agent for Summer Wind Equine.

A filly by Curlin sold for $1,900,000 to West Bloodstock, agent for Robert & Lawana Low, from the consignment of Gainesway, agent for Don Alberto Corporation.

A colt by Gun Runner sold for $1,700,000 to Resolute Bloodstock from the consignment of Bluewater Sales, agent.  

A Gun Runner filly out of multiple Grade 1 winner Pure Clan, sold for $1,500,000 to Whisper Hill Farm from the consignment of Gainesway, agent.

A colt by Tapit sold for $1,500,000 to Flying Dutchmen from the consignment of Lane’s End, agent for Don Alberto Corporation.

A colt from the first crop of multiple Grade 1 winner Charlatan sold for $1,500,000 to Resolute Bloodstock from the consignment of Warrendale Sales, agent for Stonestreet Bred & Raised.   

A Ghostzapper filly out of Seeking the Blue, sold for $1,200,000 to Resolute Bloodstock from the consignment of Gainesway, agent.

Augmented Reality Makes Saratoga History Come Alive

Written by Jonathon Norcross on . Posted in Business, Featured.


A screenshot from the Saratoga 250 augmented reality preview app shows Benedict Arnold standing inside the Saratoga TODAY newsroom. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Benedict Arnold stood tall next to the water cooler in the Saratoga TODAY newsroom as he expressed his eagerness to repel British advances at the upcoming Battles of Saratoga. Or at least that’s how it looked on one reporter’s cell phone.

The Saratoga 250 Commission is using augmented reality and 3D animations of historic figures to help bring the “turning point” of the American Revolution to life. Upon downloading an app, cell phone users can “see” these animated characters standing in front of them via their phone’s camera. The characters then deliver first-person testimonies of their roles in the Battles of Saratoga, presenting history in an entertaining and technologically advanced fashion.

“You can stand next to an animation of Benedict Arnold and take your picture,” said Lauren Roberts, Saratoga County Historian and chairperson of the Saratoga 250 Commission.

360XR, a digital storytelling company, is responsible for creating these augmented reality experiences. The company previously created similar animations for various historic sites on Long Island. One in particular, a driving tour of the Culper Spy Ring, caught Roberts’ attention.

“We liked all the different ways that they were telling the story and we decided that this is something that we would really like to have in Saratoga County,” Roberts said. “Not every place is a historic site where you can have staffing and signage and installations, so the idea of using technology was really great for us.”

After the second battle of Saratoga, when British General John Burgoyne was outnumbered and on the run, he headed about ten miles north to what is now Schuylerville. With the use of augmented reality, this trail of the British retreat would come alive at various sites where visitors could hear stories told by animated, historic characters.

Some of the characters being brought to life by 360XR and Saratoga 250 are Benedict Arnold, John Burgoyne, and Lady Frederika Riedesel, who wrote memoirs of her experiences in the war.

“We know a lot about what was going on during the siege because of her writings,” Roberts said. “She gives some wonderful perspectives; ones that we wouldn’t necessarily hear from a military perspective.”

Riedesel, the wife of the commander of German forces at Saratoga, took shelter in the Marshall House in present-day Schuylerville. In the house’s cellar, she helped care for women and wounded soldiers.

“Here, I stand, thousands of miles from home with my three young daughters,” says an animated version of Riedesel in a donor preview video created by 360XR. “We live amidst a paradox. Nature’s beauty surrounds us, yet the harsh realities of wilderness travel and the brutal truths of war shape our days.”

These words, spoken by an actress portraying Riedesel, come directly from the actual writings of Lady Frederika. But when it comes to other historic characters who didn’t always leave behind written records of their thoughts, a certain amount of creativity is required to, quite literally, put words in their mouths.

“We’re interpreting their position or perspective, but we’re trying to be as accurate as you can be in a process like this,” Roberts said.

As of now, a few demos of these historic characters have been created. But Saratoga 250 hopes to make more of them.

“Technology is not cheap, so [Campaign for Saratoga 250] is working on funding so that we can include more stories and implement what we have,” Roberts said.

The hope is to have all of these augmented reality experiences ready in time for the 250th anniversary of the Battles of Saratoga, which will be celebrated in 2027.

“I hope that using a new way to tell stories will interest a larger audience,” Roberts said. “We’re really just trying to reach more people and tell the story in an informative and entertaining way.”