Alpine Sport Shop joins state historic business registry at 85

A ski shop that has outfitted Saratoga-area skiers since 1941 joined New York’s list of historic businesses on Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026, when Alpine Sport Shop on Clinton Street was inducted into the New York State Historic Business Preservation Registry. Friends, family, members of the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce and Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner came to honor owners Cathy and Jack Hay, Saratoga TODAY reported Oct. 15. Woerner nominated the shop, according to the state registry’s records.

The honor comes in the shop’s 85th year, as the 2026-27 ski season gets going. Seasonal ski leases have been going out since August, the free leases for children 5 and under are already gone, and the shop’s February group trip to Zermatt, Switzerland, is sold out, according to the shop’s website.

Saratoga Springs Mayor John Safford also congratulated the Hays on 85 years, according to Saratoga TODAY, and a photo caption in the paper says Woerner presented Jack Hay with a letter from the registry’s commissioner.

Here are the key facts about the shop and the honor:

• Edwin Taylor Jr. and Josephine Taylor founded the shop on Spring Street in 1941.
• Thurlow and Dorothy Woodcock bought the business in 1966 and built the Clinton Street chalet in 1970.
• Their daughter, Cathy Hay, and her husband, Jack, own the shop today.
• Woerner nominated the shop for a state registry of businesses that have operated at least 50 years.
• The shop is at 321 Clinton St., which has a Saratoga Springs mailing address but sits just over the line in the Town of Greenfield.

What the state registry recognizes

The registry dates to Chapter 241 of the Laws of 2020. The state’s registry page describes an honorific program for businesses that have run for at least 50 years and contributed to their community’s history. The Division for Historic Preservation at the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation runs the program, and a listing brings no regulatory oversight.

Woerner has a direct tie to the program. With Sen. Michelle Hinchey, she sponsored the 2023 law that expanded it, letting each legislator, the governor and the lieutenant governor nominate up to 10 businesses per term. Nominations must come from a state elected official, and a business needs 50 years of operation with no break longer than two years, 50 years in the same municipality and a documented contribution to the community. Each one gets a certificate, a window decal and a spot on the state’s online map.

Saratoga TODAY put the registry at more than 300 businesses. The state’s map data lists Alpine Sport Shop as a 1941 retail business nominated by Woerner. She has also nominated two other Saratoga Springs businesses: N. Fox Jewelers at 404 Broadway, founded in 1947, and Caffè Lena at 47 Phila St., founded in 1960.

From Spring Street to a chalet on Clinton Street

Ed Taylor and his wife, Jo, opened the shop on Spring Street, near the original downtown campus of Skidmore College. A March 2026 Saratoga Living profile put the first store at 138 Spring St. and said Taylor served in the 10th Mountain Division during World War II. With Skidmore, then a women’s college, close by, the Taylors added women’s clothing to the ski gear.

Thurlow and Dorothy Woodcock, Cathy Hay’s parents, took over in 1966. Skidmore was getting ready to move to a new campus off North Broadway, and Thurlow Woodcock decided to follow the customers. He designed and built the chalet-style building at 321 Clinton St., which went up in 1970. The 5,000-square-foot building replaced a two-story house, and Woodcock did about 90 percent of the work himself, Saratoga Living reported.

For eight years the shop also taught skiing indoors, using the Graduated Length Method on a ski deck inside the store. Saratoga TODAY’s 75th-anniversary story described a 42-foot training slope covered in AstroTurf. “My dad never did anything small,” Cathy Hay told Saratoga Living. The women’s clothing is long gone, and the store now sticks to ski and snowboard equipment, apparel and accessories. The Hays’ daughter, Julia, is part of the longtime staff.

Travel is another tradition. The shop’s list of past group trips starts with Innsbruck, Austria, in January 1994 and runs through a return to Innsbruck in February 2026. “We like being a small specialty brick-and-mortar shop,” Cathy Hay told Saratoga Living in December 2020, when the magazine marked the shop’s 80th year.

The ski area the founder started

Taylor also founded the Alpine Meadows ski area in Porter Corners during World War II, Saratoga Living reported in a 2021 story on the lost ski area. Alpine Meadows ran from the early 1940s to the early 1990s and closed for good after a long property dispute, the magazine said. Early on, up to nine rope tows pulled skiers up the hill.

Season leases, tuning and trips for 2026-27

The shop’s rental program is built on season-long leases. Leases started in August and continue through fall and winter while equipment lasts, and customers keep their skis, boots and poles until the shop closes in April. These are the posted lease terms for this season:

• Junior leases start at $119 a set for skiers who weigh 120 pounds or less and wear an adult size 8 boot or smaller.
• Adult leases start at $259 a set.
• Free leases for children 5 and under, who must weigh at least 35 pounds, are sold out.
• Staff adjust leased skis at the fitting, and customers take them home the same day.

Tuning prices on the shop’s services page start at $15 for a quick hot wax on skis and $20 on a snowboard. A basic tune is $45 for skis and $60 for snowboards, and a full tune is $60 and $75. Customers can book fitting appointments online or call for a same-day slot.

The next group trip, to Zermatt from Feb. 12 to 20, 2027, sold out at $4,495 per person, based on double occupancy. The package covers nonstop flights from Newark to Zurich, seven nights of lodging, daily breakfast and ground transfers.

Hours, phone and location

The shop has a Saratoga Springs mailing address, and the state registry lists the business under the city. The parcel itself sits outside the city, in the Town of Greenfield, according to 2025 state assessment data, which gives 1970 as the year the building went up.

Visitors can plan around these details:

• The shop is at 321 Clinton St., about a mile north of downtown Saratoga Springs and next to the Skidmore campus.
• Fall hours, in effect since Aug. 31, are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and the website lists no Sunday hours.
• The phone number is (518) 584-6290.
• The shop sits 3 miles from Exit 15 and has plenty of parking, according to the website.

The shop closes each April and reopens in mid-August, Saratoga Living reported. Winter hours were not posted as of Oct. 29.

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