Reprint from the Saratogian
October 18, 1993

Memories in perfect Harmony

Residents of hamlet find renewed interest in community hall

By Gillian Hirsch Staff Writer

HARMONY CORNERS – One hundred and one years ago some of the residents of this hamlet west of Ballston Spa built a place known today as Harmony Hall.

One of the men involved was J. Frank DeRidder.

Sunday, his grandson, George DeRidder Jr. stood on the maple floor boards his grandfather laid and reminisced with dozens of others about the past of the clapboard, single-room building on Route 67.

"When I was a child we’d attend meetings the first Friday of every month right here in this very hall," said DeRidder, who now lives south of Utica.

Twenty- and 80-year-olds alike stood together in the hall where grandparents and great-grandparents once spent most of their social time. The difference was Sunday's crowd spent time sorting through family snapshots and letters, scrapbooks, property deeds, and marriage certificates.

"You feel a certain electricity just knowing your ancestors were right here," DeRidder said to Estella Van Derzee, who organized the Second Annual Festival of Families.

For some it was a reunion. Three women at the hall Saturday hadn't seen each other in 70 years since they were in school together in a single-room school-house that once sat next door.

"They couldn’t get over the fact they were walking on the same floor. They went looking for the old stage, and of course it wasn’t there anymore," Van Derzee said.

The hall is no longer used as it was during the early part of this century when it was a center of activity. For suppers, plays and concerts, people dressed in their best and traveled, usually by horse and cutter – a small sleigh usually drawn by one horse – to the hall.

"My father (Earl) used to take me down here when they had entertainment," said Winifred McConchie Palmateer, 83, who has lived in Harmony Corners here entire life. "There are not too many events here now."

The hall, revived five years ago after it nearly faded to wreck and ruin, sees only an occasional Harmony Corners Community Center board meeting or a card or motorcycle club. Some locals would like to see its use revived again.

They know, however, it could never be the same.

"You have to remember back in those days there was no electricity, no cars, and it was a night out for these people to go out to the town hall. It was a big event," said Tar Riedinger, president of Harmony Corners Community Center.

"The problem nowadays is you have so many things you’re competing with to get participation," he added.

Riedinger said a first step might be arranging a play or concert at the hall. There is a small stage and a stage curtain, which was rolled down for the first time Sunday in more than 40 years.

The curtain is painted with local advertisements, including one for the First National Bank of Ballston Spa, which read, "If you have money, we want it. If you want money, we have it."

Out of about 15 businesses advertising on the curtain only Ballston Spa National Bank still exists. But it has a new phone number. The old advertisement tells the audience to "Dial 9."