The Olde Bryan Inn

In 1787, tavern owner Alexander Bryan, from Waterford, came to the bluff overlooking a valley in the wilderness. As an army scout, he had provided General Gates with indispensable information before the Battle of Saratoga ten years earlier. The canny Irishman noted the flow of visitors to a rocky cone in the valley that spouted mineral waters. The Indians called it "The Healing Spring of the Great Spirit," and the white settlers, especially the wealthy and influential Schuylers from their plantation on the Hudson River, were regular visitors. Bryan’s rough log tavern offered a variety of alcoholic drinks for those who were unimpressed by the springs. In later days he built an intricate stairway up the face of the bluff, so that patrons could reach his front door easily.

In the early 1800s, the building at 9 Maple Avenue achieved its present appearance - a log structure enclosed within a larger building of cut stone. It served its original purpose for many years, than became a laundry and then a private home. Somewhere, in those over two hundred years of history, the building required at least one ghost.

A Saratoga woman named Nancy grew up in the building when it was a residence in the 1950s. When she visits the restaurant of today, she still has strange experiences. At about age eleven she experienced much activity on the second floor. The area of the present upstairs men’s room was her bedroom. One night she awoke, hearing a voice call her name. Nancy saw an old woman wearing a high-necked green Victorian dress, and felt almost "under a spell." It was hard to sit up and look at the woman. Thankfully, the ghost disappeared.

Nancy and her sister often heard water running in their bathroom lavatory, when no living person could have turned it on. The upstairs bathroom had a door that led into the attic. Late one night on a trip to the bathroom she encountered a colonial soldier riding a white horse. Hardly the typical bathroom trip! She noted that he carried a lance of some sort, and plunged back into bed, fearful for her safety. Was Alexander Bryan still fighting some foe that others cannot see?

Her brother Kevin also had strange encounters. He sometimes found the shower running when no one had used it. On other occasions, when using the large mirror, he saw an old woman appearing in the reflection. Spinning quickly, he never found such a person behind him.

Eventually, the family sold the house and, before vacating the building, Nancy decided to explore the attic. Among the boxes stored there she found one that attracted her interest. Opening the lid, she found an old green high-necked Victorian dress, which probably belonged to her grandmother, Beatrice. She left it there. About ten years later she met one of the new owners, who told her the dress was still there.

In 1993, she took one of her sons to dinner at the Inn, to show him where she used to live. She hadn’t recounted many of the old stories when they got there. Before the meal he went upstairs to the men’s room. When he returned he had a strange, almost shocked, look on his face. "Mom, you won’t believe this," he blurted . "When I was coming downstairs, I looked over into the dining room and saw an old woman coming down from the upstairs through the air!" he said excitedly. The boy hadn’t been told that a stairway, now removed, used to be where had seen the woman descending. Beatrice may still walk on the stairs of her time.

There are countless other stories told by former chefs, waiters and waitresses. Objects move overnight, especially in the bar area, after the building is closed. Maybe Alexander Bryan loved the excitement of his time and is trying to recapture it for the new owners. You might find it worth your while to have dinner at The Olde Bryan Inn some evening. After the appetizer course, look slowly up the present stairway. Then look to see if there is another, fainter one, visible in the room. Maybe Beatrice will come down and join you, or, if you are really lucky, Alexander may appear, with or without his horse.