{"nrhp_refnum":"75001223","name":"Brookside","other_names":["Aldridge House"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Charlton St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Ballston Spa","county":"Saratoga County","state":"NY","lat":43.002104393000025,"lon":-73.85563510299994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1975-05-21","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Health/Medicine","Exploration/Settlement"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Brookside (also called the Aldridge House) is a two-and-a-half-story frame building on Charlton Street in Ballston Spa, Saratoga County, New York. Its front block was built in 1793 as a guest house for visitors to a nearby mineral spring, and it was later enlarged in stages.","why_significant":"The nomination argues that the building was constructed in the wilderness to serve visitors to the first mineral spring used by white settlers, and that it kept a role in Ballston Spa's history as a school, military academy, home and apartment house. Its successive alterations are described as forming a harmonious whole and a record of changing times in the community.","narrative":"Brookside is a frame building on Charlton Street in Ballston Spa, at the base of Mohican Hill beside a creek. Its front block, five bays by three and two and a half stories tall, was built in 1793 by Benajah Douglas to house visitors who came to a nearby mineral spring. Later owner Josiah Aldridge added a rear wing and a north wing, a ballroom that was afterward moved across the street and converted into a residence. The house has a fieldstone foundation, clapboard siding, hand-hewn framing, three dormers and a Greek Revival porch that replaced an earlier piazza. After serving as a hotel, it became the Ballston Spa Institute, a boys' school, in 1846, then a military academy from 1859 to 1864, a private home and an apartment house. It now serves as the headquarters of the Saratoga County Historical Society, which aims to preserve it. The building records the spa village's early resort era.","period_of_significance":"1793","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Rural Federal period structure derived from Georgian architecture","criteria":[],"status_note":"Owned by the Saratoga County Historical Society, occupied, and used as a museum and the society's headquarters.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:38.7771-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/75001223.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/75001223/d68a9f83be-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/75001223/d68a9f83be-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Daniel Case","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brookside,_Ballston_Spa,_NY.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Daniel Case</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:Brookside,_Ballston_Spa,_NY.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75321548","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brookside_Museum","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4975111"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/saratoga-county/brookside-75001223/"}