Sharing history to promote community
The Saratoga County History Center, in a 1792 hotel building in the Village of Ballston Spa.
Our vision
Our vision is to share history to promote community.
Our mission
The mission of the Saratoga County History Center is to serve as a repository for local and regional histories, to provide innovative educational and public programming, and to instill in our communities a deeper understanding of how the past informs and impacts our present and future.
Our story
Located in a 1792 hotel building in the historic Village of Ballston Spa, the Saratoga County History Center at Brookside Museum has exhibit galleries, a meeting room, gardens, archives, artifact storage, a research library, and a museum store.
Among the oldest hotel buildings still standing in the United States, Brookside has been a resort hotel, a boys’ school, a private residence, a boarding house, a sanitarium, and apartments. In 1970, the Saratoga County History Center purchased the building and opened it as a museum, and we’ve been preserving the county’s unique history ever since.
Brookside Museum is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Land acknowledgement
The Saratoga County History Center Board of Trustees passed a land acknowledgment resolution to recognize Native Peoples, the original stewards of the lands on which we now live. The resolution said:
“We gratefully acknowledge the Native Peoples on whose ancestral homelands we gather, as well as the diverse and vibrant Native communities who make their home in New York State today.”
Before public events and other important gatherings hosted by the History Center, speakers are encouraged to offer this acknowledgment on behalf of everyone present. It’s motivated by genuine respect and support for Native Peoples. Speaking and hearing words of recognition is an important step in creating collaborative, accountable, continuous, and respectful relationships with Indigenous nations and communities.