To the Editor:

For 18 years, I passed an old tavern on my daily commute from Schoharie to Albany but didn’t take notice. At the behest of locals, I entered Smith’s Tavern, nicknamed Smitty’s, for the first time last year and was met with all the charm and atmosphere of a quaint old inn and award-winning pizza.  I wondered why I didn’t patronize it sooner.

The owners purchased the tavern in 1991 and, according to articles in The Enterprise, are planning to retire. It has been sold to Stewart’s Shops and will be torn down to make way for modern progress.

Smitty’s will be leaving and I, merely a passerby, will miss it. It has stood for over 100 years in the village of Voorheesville, a hotel dating back to 1901, an iconic place where people came together for camaraderie, a safe haven withstanding the test of time. With the tavern’s existence so vital to the character and identity of the area, could this really be happening?

Why is it we don’t miss things until after they are gone? The newspaper articles hinted at rumors circulating that the place would be sold. Did no one notice? Was it taken for granted that Smitty’s would always stand there?

Then came the predictable deluge of letters to the editor, finger-pointing, and public indignation condemning the sale and lamenting the loss of an historic landmark to the likes of a “big bad” Stewart’s. A few affirmed the right of owners to sell private property to whomever they would like, and called this progress.

Does owning an historic property hold owners to a higher moral imperative? That’s a philosophical debate for another day, but I think a community that banded together to save the historic 19th-Century Hilton Barn by moving it across Route 85A is nothing less than heroic, and deserves better.

Retirement and property preservation need not be mutually exclusive. A woman I know in the Finger Lakes Region of New York State went back to work in her seventies after her husband died five years ago. Last year, she sold most of her pristine land to the state to join Hemlock-Canadice State Forest.

The newspapers in that area announced: The state forest will expand by 164 acres, thanks to a woman who values preserving the community’s rural character and clean lakes … commenting that the transfer protects wildlife and endangered species habitat … protects a public water supply that serves hundreds of thousands of consumers… preserves a unique environment for future generations.

At a ceremony to celebrate Earth Day, the Canadice town supervisor praised the woman’s stewardship, saying,  “We are very pleased that Barbara has decided to transfer the bulk of her property in a single parcel rather than break it up into many smaller parcels which would be very appealing to developers. The lasting legacy of her action is a prime example of classic Canadice values.”

But who am I to say? I am merely a passerby.

Rosemary Christoff Dolan

Town of Wright