Juneteenth in Saratoga: A day to celebrate a neighborhood now gone
Saratoga Springs' Frederick Allen Elks Lodge and county leaders remember a Congress Street neighborhood.
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Juneteenth is a day of celebration, so the threat of rain was not enough to dampen the moods of people who gathered to remember and celebrate the Congress Street neighborhood in Saratoga Springs last week.
The neighborhood that ran along Congress Street west of Broadway is now home to the Embassy Suites, the CVS and the strip mall that accompanies them.
“It’s a very happy day, just a long time coming to make this happen, and it finally happened,” said Tommy Davis, the exulted leader of the Frederick Allen Elks Lodge #609. Now in the Beekman neighborhood, the predominantly African-American lodge once had a headquarters on Congress Street. “And a lot, a lot of people were really happy that this took place today.”
He referred to the dedication ceremony on Juneteenth (Thursday June 19), held to unveil a historical marker that celebrates the history of the African-American neighborhood. It once featured Black-owned businesses, restaurants and music halls. The neighborhood was robust, those gathered said, until the city’s urban renewal program levelled most of the buildings.
“Urban renewal took out the Black community in Saratoga Springs. I’m just devastated, and you would not even know there was ever a vibrant, Black business community in Saratoga Springs,” said Joy King, a member of the lodge and a well-known civic leader in Saratoga.
“Congress Street was the hub of the Black community. This marker represents the hard work, the heritage, the history, the contribution Black Americans have made to this city, and they’re numerous,” she said.
King said how happy she was as a child to come to the commercial district to see people who looked like her.
“I got to see people like me,” she said, slapping her forearm. “It was people other than my family that I got to see.” The representation was important to her and losing that because of urban renewal meant that she lost her identity.
“This [neighborhood] wasn’t desolate. This wasn’t broken down or needed to be torn down,” King said, adding that it was simply too close to Broadway. Leadership during urban renewal, which ran from 1962 through 1986, thought it best to raze and rebuild the neighborhood.
And now, with the marker, the neighborhood is being remembered.
The process of choosing the neighborhood and writing the marker fell to the county, especially Saratoga Springs Supervisor Matt Veitch, and to King, who is a member of Frederick Allen Lodge.
Veitch explained that the county funded various projects in 2023 with sales tax surplus that was available, and he is spearheading three markers in the city to commemorate African-American communities.
He mentioned the commercial activity, the bars and music so close to the city’s grand hotels.
“I sometimes like to call it ‘Caroline Street before we had a Caroline Street’ because it was the entertainment area of the city before that time,” he said.
Veitch reached out to King, seeking help for the best wording on the marker, and the county and lodge worked together.
The city has also placed markers to commemorate the Dyer-Phelps Memorial AME Zion church and the Mt. Olivet Baptist Church.
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