Your Town Historian, currently Rick Reynolds, has a multitude of tasks designed to help the Town remember and celebrate its past.

One of the primary responsibilities of the Town Historian is to interpret the past of the local area. Using town records, photographs, drawings and the townspeople themselves, the Historian presents programs of interest and works with teachers in local schools to enhance the teaching of local history.

In addition, the Historian is involved in research and writing, both in an attempt to preserve the memories and ideas of the past. Sometimes this may involve leading amateur genealogists towards resources that may help them locate their ancestors. Other times, it is so that the community will have well documented records to which to refer in future years.

The Historian is also becoming increasingly more involved in historic preservation in the community. This can involve cataloging and appropriately preserving collections of original town records or can be as large as preserving houses and other buildings that have played a major role in the community.

Advocacy and organization are the last basic roles of the Town Historian. He or she plans celebrations and remembrances to commemorate local events of importance. The Historian may also be involved in lobbying activities at the state and federal level.

All of this is designed to do what is most important to all of us: help the people of the town remember and celebrate its past and, at the same time, prepare the present to be someday remembered as the past as well.

For further information, stories of our Town, or to schedule a presentation, please email
Rick Reynolds or contact him by phone at: (518) 399-6778.

The original white settlers in the area we now call Ballston were the McDonald Brothers who came here in the 1760’s. These brothers established a good relationship with the Indians who lived near the area and traded extensively with them. Those Indians sometimes would burn the surrounding hillsides so as to attract the deer who would come to eat the new shoots that would sprout up from the ground. Thus, the area became known as the land of the “burnt hills,” a name we still use for the area. Some also say it was the settlers in Schenectady whi looked up at these surrounding hills and, seeing them ablaze, named them the “burnt hills.”

Reverend Eliphalet Ball came to the area we now call Ballston with a couple of dozen settlers in the 1770’s. On September 22, 1775, Reverend Ball held the first “meeting” in his church which was near his home. He became a respected citizen of the area and political meetings of all sorts were held in his building which soon thereafter became known as the Old Red Meeting House. That building eventually became the first school in the area.

Reverend Ball knew the McDonald Brothers and the folklore goes that, one time when they all met, Ball offered the brothers a quantity of rum in exchange for the rights to call the area “Mr. Ball’s Town.” We do not know if this is true or not but eventually what was originally known as “Mr. Ball’s Town” became Ballston, the name we use today.

The building which houses the restaurant that we all know today as Carney’s has been around for a long time. Its main purpose has been that of a restaurant of some kind although it has been used for other purposes as well many years ago.

DID YOU KNOW THAT THE BUILDING.....

• dates back to at least 1845 and, during the 19th century, it was used as a saloon, a barber shop and a grocery store. It was called the Shendahora (or Shenandahora), a 10 room hotel in the late 1800’s.
• had no indoor plumbing during the early part of the 20th century so, in each room, were a chamber pot for washing and a “slops pail” for used water and human excrement.
• was surrounded by roads that led to the lake itself so many children would stand near it and wave to the visitors who had come to Ballston Lake in the early 1900’s.
• was the birthplace of 6 of the 7 children of Bill Egan, who owned the Ballston Lake Hotel from 1896-1911.
• was the place that Vice-President Theodore Roosevelt stopped on his way from the Adirondacks to Buffalo, where President McKinley had been assassinated.
• was a stopping place for people who came from “the city” (Schenectady) to spend time at Forest Park, an amusement park on the southwest corner of Ballston Lake.
• had within a “swear box” created by Katherine McDonough, one of the owners from 1936-1971. Patrons had to deposit money in this box if they exhibited “indiscrete” behavior in the establishment.
• still has its original bar back and tin ceiling plus an original trolley rail from 1916 as a footrest for patrons sitting at the bar.
• has been owned by Bob and Rosemary Carney since 1982.