Charlie Israel’s home at 36 Franklin St. in Saratoga Springs isn’t the largest in the Spa City, but it may be the oldest.
According to Israel, whose family is well-versed in these matters, the two-story, Federalist-period structure was built sometime around 1815.
That makes it older than the Olde Bryan Inn, which was reconstructed in 1830 after being destroyed by fire.
“It’s the oldest documented home in the city that I can find,” said Israel, whose father, Bob Israel, began restoring and managing historic properties back in 1982. “I can’t find any older. There are a few other stone structures around that could be older, but there’s no way to document them.”
While the house’s stone foundation is still intact, it is largely made of wood. It is not at all one of the grand Victorian-era homes that adorn many of Saratoga’s streets.
“It’s post-and-beam construction, and it is a relatively modest, charming little house,” said Israel. “It’s two stories, and at some point, probably the 1830s or 1840s, it became more of a gothic cottage with a fairly high-pitched roof. It was a shell when I bought it about five years ago, and it had been broken up into a couple of apartments. But since we’re in the business of historic preservation, it was a no-brainer for me. We have a great crew, and we took our time restoring it.”
Israel doesn’t know who originally built the house, but the second owner was a man named Traver.
“I don’t know the earliest owner, but there was a flagman for the railroad who owned the house in the 1830s,” said Israel. “It definitely is a house that harkens back to a frontier time. It’s no big mansion. It’s much more humble than that.”
Bob Israel, who was recently honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation, serves as a special counsel to the Division for Historic Preservation with the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. His company, Franklin Square Associates, and his son’s home is just a block and a half from downtown Saratoga Springs.
“The neighborhood was called Old Dublin, and all the Irish that were brought in to work on the railroad lived there,” said Bob Israel. “Later in the 19th century it became an Italian neighborhood but it kept the name of Old Dublin. There’s only a few homes left like my son’s in that neighborhood. They are small and modest. The rest of the houses are much larger and reflect a more affluent period of time that would come later.”
The neighborhood continued to thrive until the post World War II era.
“When gambling was here and Saratoga was popular for its mineral waters the downtown area and the area around it prospered,” said Bob Israel, a Newburgh native and a graduate of the University of Denver Law School. “Then in the 1950s it was regarded as one of the worst sections of the city. But it started getting revived in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and is now one of the more affluent streets in the city.”
Reach Gazette reporter Bill Buell at 395-3190 or [email protected].
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