An effort to memorialize the history Caffé Lena, the iconic music and theater venue in Saratoga Springs — even as the Phila Street mainstay continues to operate.
Deemed the longest running folk club/coffee house in the country and formed by Lena Spencer, the landmark will live on for generations to come through the Caffé Lena History Project.
Spencer died in 1989, and since then the café has been operating as a nonprofit organization. Today, Caffé Lena still holds hundreds of shows a year and remains a regional draw for music lovers. The documenting of its history stems from the interest of Jocelyn Arem, a Skidmore graduate who is now at the helm of the project that started in earnest in 2002, along with Sarah Craig, the venue’s director.
“The Caffè Lena History Project began as a capstone fieldwork study and research paper during my undergraduate days at Skidmore. I’d been intrigued by the history of Caffè Lena since I climbed those mysterious stairs during my first months of school to perform at open mic night and Sarah offered me my first professional gig,” said Arem in an email. “I soon began spending my free time in between classes volunteering and absorbing live music at the Caffè, and trying to learn as much as I could about its legendary place in music history.”
Also helping with the project is musician George Ward, who hasbeen connected to Caffé Lena and knew Spencer from the beginning. His role inthe project is to do some of the things that Arem can’t from her home in North Carolina, most notably inventorying the Caffé Lena archive at the Saratoga Historical Society.
“Lena’s artist files have led us to some former Caffé artists with great stories about the place, people whom we otherwise might have missed,” said Ward, who is a folklorist in addition to his musical talents.
Ward has also helped in tracking down early recordings made atthe Caffé, which are now being professionally restored and digitized in NewYork Cite with the help of a $4,000 grant Arem secured from the GRAMMY Foundation.
Caffé Lena’s mark on the music scene was highlighted recently when Arem traveled to California for Grammy Week, when the GRAMMY Foundation showcased the history project during its annual Preservation Project celebration. That event was attended by many notable names in the music scene, including Sharon Osbourne.
“Over the past 10 years, thanks to the support of Skidmore College, The New York Council for the Humanities, the GRAMMY Foundation and many others, we’ve accomplished the organization of 6,000 rare, never-before-seen photographs made at Caffè Lena between 1960 and 1968, digitization of 700 hours of rare audio recordings, interviews with 100 musicians including Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, Don McLean and the creation of an online exhibition at www.Caffélenahistory.org. The Library of Congress is committed to preserving these materials in its national archives. We’re currently in need of final funding to finish research and preparation of these materials in time to commemorate Lena’s 90th birthday in 2013,” said Arem.
A coffee table type book about the project is expected to be released within the next year and will also highlight the collection.
Since its Phila Street doors opened 1960, Caffé Lena has been connected to such notable musicians as Bob Dylan, Arlo Guthrie and Don McLean. It has become infamous because of Spencer’s passion for the arts, particularly theater, and her ability to connect with people. She came to Saratoga from New York City and brought with her many of her art scene connections, namely from Greenwich Village, which she would visit weekly.
“The stage has helped create great moments in music history. Lena was an authentic beatnik and was a really strong and interesting person.…In the beginning the Caffé wasn’t always well received…there were some snarky articles in the papers and it raised a lot of eyebrows. …She became an advocate for musicians and helped many careers,” said Craig.
“Lena, in her early years was extraordinarily energetic. It’s easy for people who knew her later in life when her health was not as good to not realize just how much energy she put not only into the Caffé, but what we would today call outreach, and how she encouraged the coffee house as a local place for teenagers to drop in. She was also involved in community events. If there was a community festival, particularly in the old Italian neighborhood…she’d be there with food. And she would bring along people who were musicians who were in the café’s orbit,” said Ward.
Spencer’s connection to the community, such as the fact that every year at Christmas time, she held a reading of “A Child’s Christmas in Wales,” may not be as well known as those that talk of her taking a road trip to Boston to track down Bob Dylan to get him to perform at the Caffé, but to many they’re just as important.
“She had become part of the Saratoga scene. She had become someone and the Caffé had become someplace that was as integral to Saratoga’s image of itself…The Caffé was also an extended family of choice for some people, and that never really went away,” said Ward.
Arem said that while Caffè Lena is recognized as an important cultural site, the full impact of its role in music history remains largely unappreciated.
“We hope the results of this project will be used as teaching tools to help students, cultural historians and aspiring performers better understand the value of a local landmark, that local organizations will use this information to fill in a missing piece of local cultural history, and that the project will enhance the Caffè’s upcoming capital campaign to renovate its building and prepare its space for future generations of performers,” said Arem.
The history project is still collecting audio and video recordings made at the venue from 1960 through today for preservation. If you have Caffè Lena recordings to donate you can visit Caffélenahistory.org for information on how to contribute.
