Remembering Mayor Watkin and the transformation of Saratoga Springs
The pioneering initiatives of Mayor Raymond Watkin, leading the City Council of the mid-1970s, set a new tone and direction for Saratoga Springs. Under his leadership as mayor from 1974 to 1980, Saratoga Springs began its transformation from a seasonal tourist destination to a thriving year-round “city in the country.”
Watkin, 91, who died Sunday, Aug. 23 at his home in the city, should be remembered for setting priorities that took root and allowed the city to flourish.
Watkin was the first of the city’s mayors to champion historic preservation. He promoted the city through the arts, especially New York City Ballet’s residency. He was an outspoken opponent of racism and anti-Semitism, advanced youth recreation and housing for seniors, and used his political stature to secure the exclusive thoroughbred racing meet.
Born in Schenectady on June 9, 1929, he worked as a teenager in a local meatpacking plant, then in various jobs at General Electric Co. He was an active participant in the labor movement at the time, a turbulent and formative period marked by strikes and conflicts between GE and its workforce.
After his Army service, Watkin entered the shoe business and eventually owned the shoe department of an Albany store, M. Solomon, owned by the family of his co-worker at the time, later to become the area’s Congressman, Gerald Solomon, who was then a Democratic committeeman in Albany. Through his pursuit of opportunities in the shoe business, he established Raymond’s Bootery, a specialty shop for ladies’ shoes, on Broadway near the corner of Lake Avenue.
In 1963, Watkin married Joan Tubell of Manhattan after a three-year courtship that began during a summer visit with friends to a camp near Warrensburg. They celebrated 50 years of marriage before she passed away in 2013.
Watkin’s candidacy began in the era of non-partisan elections. Saratoga Springs in the early 1970s began to assertively embrace its own ambience, using the town’s history and style to advance tourism and commerce. He and the City Council translated that grassroots vision into city policy and ordinances.
Before Watkin’s election, it was the official policy of the city to demolish “substandard” housing and commercial buildings, without regard to historic values, then re-develop the properties through the Urban Renewal program. In 1971, the building inspector had threatened to demolish the Batchellor Mansion, at Circular Street and Whitney Place, vacant and in disrepair at the time, before it was rescued by a private buyer.
In early 1974, just after Watkin’s election, the U.S. Postal Service announced plans to install a drop ceiling to obscure the leaded glass skylight in the Broadway post office, and also cover over the priceless WPA-era murals in the lobby. Watkin took immediate action to stop the project, taking the Post Office personally to Federal Court in Utica after the City Council would not allow the city itself to be part of the suit.
Soon the Post Office backed down, and the historic interior of one of the city’s most significant public places was saved.
Pioneering enactments included the Historic Preservation Ordinance, establishment of the Board of Architectural Review, enactment of the Façade Easement Program and downtown Special Assessment District, all in 1977. These initiatives provided for the first coordination of property facades on Broadway, and of public resources for historic improvements to the downtown business district.
He soon initiated the establishment of the neighborhood historic districts within the zoning code, gaining approval from the council in 1979.
Watkin reformed the Urban Renewal Agency from a demolition program into one whose mission was Community Development. He and his allies reassigned federal funds from demolition toward the more important Village Brook drainage project, thus saving from decay and collapse the Canfield Casino in Congress Park and the entire neighborhood between Henry and Putnam Streets.
This reform made possible the current Public Library and commercial properties in “the gut.”
Watkin also saw that emphasizing the arts would both enrich the city’s civic life and broaden its economic base. His mayoralty was marked by annual enthusiastic promotion (and city funding) of the New York City Ballet and SPAC. His personal friendship with George Balanchine, highlighted by a parade in Mr. B’s honor, helped build audience and community support for the ballet.
Watkin leveraged his prominent political standing in 1974 to secure Gov. Hugh Carey’s support for city’s exclusive August thoroughbred meet. Carey faced a Democratic Primary, and his opponent, Howard Samuels, favored Off-Track Betting and was indifferent to Saratoga’s exclusive program, the cornerstone of the city’s summer season.
Watkin’s lifelong commitment to meeting the needs of ordinary people led to the establishment of the Senior Citizens Center on Williams Street, initiation of the federal Section 8 rental subsidy program, and, in 1979, the construction of the Raymond Watkin Apartments, among many other initiatives. He also mobilized official city and community opposition against an area demonstration by the Ku Klux Klan in 1978.
Watkin was a friend and mentor to me, and lifelong friend to Saratoga Springs. His accomplishments have and will endure for many years to come. — Gordon Boyd, Saratoga
Springs