Meet… JIM RICHMOND: Brookside’s History Buff

WRITTEN BY MEGIN POTTER | PHOTOS PROVIDED

HISTORY SPEAKS VOLUMES, and several of those have been written by James Richmond.

James (Jim) Richmond is founder and coordinator of the local history group, the Saratoga County History Roundtable. He is currently on the board of the Saratoga County History Center and in 2019 he was part of a team that helped raise $100,000+ to save Brookside Museum (which was in danger of closing).

Yesteryear Lives Here

As an independent historian, Jim is a Saratoga native helping us all to understand a little bit more about how the past molded our lives here today.

A 1969 graduate of Saratoga Springs High School, Jim pursued both history and economics at SUNY Potsdam. While there, he met his wife, Diane (while she was attending the Crane School of Music). Now married for 50 years, they have three children; Jason, Brian, and Carolyn.

After college, Jim worked in the financial management division of General Electric for 20 years before switching to their marketing and communications department.

Since retiring a decade ago, he’s devoted endless hours to researching, preserving, and disseminating local and regional history.

Publishing The Past

Jim’s first publishing endeavor was a pamphlet on the history of Rowland’s Hollow Mill on Rowland Street in Milton. His first book, War on the Middleline (2016), details the lives of early settlers whose life was interrupted by a British raid during the Revolution. That was followed by Milton, New York: A New Town in a New Nation (2018) which he coauthored with the town’s former historian, Kim McCartney. Jim was a founding member of the Saratoga County History Roundtable in 2018, and began encouraging first-time authors to publish their essays in the Roundtable’s quarterly journal, “The Gristmill”.

In addition to Jim’s fundraising work for the Saratoga County Historical Society at Brookside Museum, he has lead efforts to create exhibits and organize Historian Tours, helping the Museum to expand their offerings and rebrand as the Saratoga County History Center.

“A great group of interested people became the core of the museum and helped it to start over in a big way,” said Jim.

His contributions were recently recognized with an award from the Association of Public Historians of New York State.

The Old World Meets Up With The Modern Age

When the pandemic closed Brookside Museum to the public, Jim was instrumental in keeping local history alive, but remotely.

The museum’s virtual Experts Next Door series was launched and “The 1780 Ballston Raid”, a 19-minute video commemorating the 240th anniversary of the British Raid on Middleline Road was released.

Karen Staulters, Milton’s Town Historian (from 2018-2022) has served with Jim on Milton’s Historic Structures and Places Committee for several years and worked closely with him to create a script and conduct interviews for another video entitled, Forgotten Crossroads: Rock City Falls.

It’s Jim’s goal-oriented approach that helps keeps everyone on-task, said Karen.

“Jim is all about telling the stories that have been buried for a long time. That’s why he works so hard.”

Creating A Kinship That Transcends Time

In addition to publishing his own research, Jim helps to share the investigations of so many others.

Since March 2020, he has solicited and published150 articles, written by 45 authors, which have been distributed to local “History Buffs” and appeared on page 2 of Simply Saratoga’s parent company, Saratoga Publishing’s, weekly issue of Saratoga TODAY.

Two essay collections; Saratoga County Stories, and More Saratoga County Stories, have also been published as a result.

“There’s been terrific book sales, and that, alone, is a real big way of getting all these stories out,” adds Karen.

In 2021, the Saratoga County History Center established the Saratoga County Public History Award, and its inaugural winners; Jim, and writer Carol Godette, were recognized at the Brookside Museum’s standingroom only event.

This March, a new video about the crossroads of Bacon Hill will be released. Jim said he was “immensely surprised” by the little-known family stories he uncovered, and the response of the community to the planned video.

“It was go, go, go, for 40 years there and when I retired, I knew I wanted to pursue my interest in history that had long been put on the back burner,” said Jim. SS

“The more we learn about the past, the more it helps us set aside stereotypes and the preconceived notions we have about things we don’t know well.”