Guilderland Archives — The Altamont Enterprise, August 7, 2008
Settles Hill Tree Farm goes country
By Zach Simeone
Settles Hill Tree Farm is resurrecting an old tradition from its days as a restaurant and bar. Next Tuesday, the banquet hall will begin teaching weekly country line dancing classes.
Alethea Maynard, project coordinator at Settles Hill Tree Farm, says that the demand for line dancing was born out of customers’ loyalty to the building’s former owner, the late Jock Farnsworth.
“His reputation is helping us now,” Maynard said.
The facility, originally called the Tree Farm Restaurant, was built in 1991. The restaurant closed in 2005, and was re-opened in July. Now, the newly christened Settles Hill Tree Farm caters weddings.
“This bar, when it was popular, used to have line dancing every night,” said Stephanie Parker, manager at the catering hall. “People have been coming to the door and asking if we’re ever going to do line dancing again. People just found us, and we set everything up,” she said. “Apparently there’s this great interest in line dancing.”
The dancing begins on Tuesday, Aug. 12, and will continue every Tuesday thereafter. Each session will last from 7 to 10 p.m., the first hour of which is a class. Sessions will be $7 each, per person, and will be held in the ballroom. From Sept. 22 to Nov. 24, there will be beginner workshops held every Monday from 7 to 9 p.m. for $8 a class.
The Tree Farm is open to suggestions for other activities to host, Parker added. “If someone wanted to do a yoga class,” she said, “we would do it.”