{"nrhp_refnum":"02000303","name":"Barker General Store","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1 Military Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Beecher Hollow","county":"Saratoga County","state":"NY","lat":43.22177455700006,"lon":-74.10400089999996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2002-04-01","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Social History","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A timber-framed, 2½-story general store built in 1847 in the hamlet of Beecher Hollow, town of Edinburg, Saratoga County, New York, with a rear wing added in 1870.","why_significant":"The store is a rare, largely intact example of vernacular Federal-Greek Revival transitional commercial architecture of the 1840s in rural Saratoga County. It served for nearly a century as a store, post office and social gathering place for a mill community. A concealed room, original to the building, supports local tradition that it sheltered escaped slaves on the Underground Railroad.","narrative":"Built in 1847 by John Barker, this timber-framed general store in Beecher Hollow, Saratoga County, combines Federal and Greek Revival details. A tall portico with four turned Tuscan columns and a pediment dominates the front, and the walls keep their original clapboard and much of their original window sash. Inside, plank floors, wainscoting, sales counters and built-in drawer cabinets survive. The Barker family ran the store until 1890, and it also served as a post office and local meeting place in a community powered by mills on Beecher's Creek. It ceased operating as a store after the Sacandaga valley was flooded in the early 1930s. A hidden room behind the drawer cabinets, revealed during renovation planning in 1995, appears to be an original feature. Together with the Barker family's anti-slavery associations, it supports local accounts of the building sheltering escaped slaves on the Underground Railroad.","period_of_significance":"1847-1945","architect_builder":"John Barker (builder and first storekeeper, per the narrative); the form lists architect/builder as N/A","architectural_style":"Early Republic / Federal-Greek Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Listed as vacant/not in use under current functions, although the narrative says the building has been rented to commercial tenants since 1945 and the second floor was renovated for residential use.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:53.379322-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/02000303.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/02000303/7571e53108-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/02000303/7571e53108-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"HunnySWeaver","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Barker%27s_General_Store.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">HunnySWeaver</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Barker%27s_General_Store.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75321534","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barker_General_Store","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4860952"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/saratoga-county/barker-general-store-02000303/"}