To the Editor:
Was your summer vacation too short?

Try this: look around at the woods, fields, and mountains in the Town of Guilderland — and even at the busy intersections and ballooning development in our most trafficked areas — and imagine you’re still at your favorite cool, sunny, fresh and airy summer getaway.

That’s what our whole town once was: a summer retreat for relaxation and recreation!

To help you visualize all this, come to our presentation, “Guilderland as a Summer Retreat” given by Jeff Perlee, Albany County legislator and member of our society, the Guilderland Historical Society, at our headquarters in the Mynderse-Frederick House, 451 Route 146, right in the heart of Guilderland Center.

His talk, on Thursday, Sept. 15, at 7:30 p.m., is free, open to the public, and in-person!

We usually think of Guilderland as evolving in a straight line from rich farmland to bustling suburbia. But in between there was a period when our town was best known as a summer retreat, a place of leisure and country pleasures, at least for some of New York State’s most powerful families.

Jeff will trace the origins of the summer-house movement and the development of resorts and sites for leisure throughout the town, from the earliest retreats along the Normanskill to the rise of the “summer colony” in Altamont to the creation of the Albany Country Club and its attendant cottages in McKownville.

Along the way, we’ll meet some of the wealthy and powerful men and women who called Guilderland home, at least for part of the year, when they were not otherwise occupied running the affairs of the Empire State and the nation.

Finally, we’ll reflect on the ways that the “Summer Colony” period impacted the development of the town, and maybe we’ll wish we could turn back the clock — at least back to June.

Tom Capuano

Vice President

Guilderland

Historical Society