Week of March 7, 1969
50th Anniversary News | Saratoga Springs, NY
series by Mary Flanagan, Associate Real Estate Broker & lifelong Saratogian
2019 marks Roohan Realty’s 50th year in business! We would like to take you back to 1969 and share what was happening in the news – locally and nationally. We’ve been having a great time reading old newspapers and hope you enjoy seeing the historic Roohan Realty connections as much as we do. Community involvement and public service have been ingrained in our business from the very beginning – a commitment that continues today. Check back every Thursday for a fresh flashback to 1969!
1. The Mick Retires
Mickey Mantel announces his retirement on March 1, 1969:
2. “No Explanation” for the Busy Streets of Broadway
A traffic study conducted on the “core” of Broadway (Washington Street to Church Street) shows traffic has quadrupled in the past year. The New York State Department of Transportation say they have no explanation for the enormous increase:
3. Roger Kiley Retires
Across the street from the Community Theater Roger Kiley retires after 32 years at the Gulf Station at the corner of Broadway and Grove Street. The most important product at this corner was kindness and an interest shown to his fellow man. (Roger was an uncle to the late Roger Kiley and Susan Kiley of Roohan Realty)
4. New Israeli Premier: Mrs. Golda Meir
Mrs. Golda Meir, the Milwaukee schoolteacher who became Israel’s leading politician, looks like a shoe-in to become the new (and first female) Prime Minister of Israel. Read the March 8, 1969 Post Star article
5. SPAC Goes Electronic
Craig Hankenson, general manager of SPAC, inspects the first ticket to come through the new Ticket Reservation System (TRS). SPAC is the first music festival venue to join the nationwide network of computerized electronic box offices:
6. Café Lena’s Regular…. Don McClean
Don McClean makes his 6th appearance at Café Lena:
7. “My folks are away for the weekend. So, I thought maybe you’d like to play house.”
Melodrama – check.
Spinster schoolteacher living above a funeral home with her mom – check.
Religious revival meeting turned sexual awakening – check.
Grab your popcorn and get on over to The Community Theater this weekend to see Rachel, Rachel (1968), starring Joanne Woodward and directed by Paul Newman!
8. House of the Week
This Dutch Colonial House of the week “looks larger than it actually is” thanks to its striking exterior and gambrel roof. The term “gambrel” refers to the joint in the upper part of a horse’s leg and a type of butchers’ tool, inspiring this 1858 poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. that appeared in The Atlantic:
Know old Cambridge? Hope you do.—
Born there? Don’t say so! I was, too.
(Born in a house with a gambrel-roof,—
Standing still, if you must have proof.—
“Gambrel?—Gambrel?”—Let me beg
You’ll look at a horse’s hinder leg,—
First great angle above the hoof,—
That’s the gambrel; hence gambrel-roof.)
Read all about the House of the Week
ABOUT THE AUTHOR, MARY FLANAGAN
Mary Flanagan is an Associate Real Estate Broker at Roohan Realty with over 30 years of experience as a licensed REALTOR® specializing in residential real estate. A lifelong resident of Saratoga Springs, NY, Mary is extremely knowledgeable about not only Saratoga’s real estate market, but also its history and the community as a whole. She is an active board member for Racing City Rotary Club and U.S. Grant Cottage State Historic Site, and served on the Saratoga Springs Board of Appeals from 1994 to 2004. In her free time, Mary enjoys researching and writing about Saratoga’s history; she authored Roohan Realty’s Saratoga Centennial blog series in 2015 and is currently working on an Anniversary News series to commemorate our company’s 50th year in business this year (2019). View Mary’s bio & current listings
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