Lena Spencer
Patron of the Arts, Promoter of Folk Music, Proprietor of Caffe Lena
Pasquilina Rosa Nargi was born in 1923 in Milford, Massachusetts, the youngest of eight children. After high school she worked in her father’s Italian restaurant while harboring ambitions of becoming an actor and singer.
When she married sculptor Bill Spencer, they began to pursue the drean of opening a coffeehouse where audiences could easily access and enjoy the arts, especially performances by musicians in the emerging folk movement.
In 1959 they found the perfecxt place—a rundown building at 47 Phila Street in Saratoga Springs, NY. Caffe Lena opened in May 1960.
The Caffe never made much money; over the years, friends and supporters had to hold fundraising events to keep the building up to code and the doors open. Early on, Bill Spencer became disenchanted with the struggle and returned to Boston. Lena soldiered on in the cause of supporting the arts until her death in 1989,
Real magic was created at the Caffe. The unadorned room with its small tables, mismatched chairs and tiny stage became a legendary home for musicians getting their careers started. Arlo Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Don McLean, David Amram and Rosalie Sorrels are just a few of the artists who played here and rose to great fame and acclaim. Skidmore College students and their dates were a large part of the early audiences, but the Caffe soon drew people of all ages from the Capital District, New England, and beyond. Volunteers served aromatic teas and coffees and pastries that Lena made herself in the small kitchen. Lena sat at a table at the head of the stairs, with Pasha, her Siamese cat, to welcome all comers and collect the cover charge and food payments.
But the secret of the Caffe was the way Lena nurtured talent and encouraged young performers. She invested many hours talking with “her” musicians, who became like family members to her. She took care of them, finding them meals and places to sleep when they could not afford hotels. When a group of friends gathered after the regular performances, the laughter, playing and singing often went on well into the night. In 1985 Lena wrote,
“Every single person who graced our tiny stage, the great ,the near-great, the not-so-great, they are all, in their own way, responsible for my still being here. I’ve lasted for some 25 years. I’ve done some things right, I’ve done some things wrong, but right or wrong, I’ve always tried to do the best I could. And I couldn’t have done it without the help of God and a lot of love from a lot of wonderful people.”
Adjacent to the Caffe room is a theater known as the Black Box, where Spencer fostered productions of plays ranging from The Mouse Trap to avant-garde works finding their first airings. Spalding Gray, John Wynne-Evans and native Saratogian David Hyde Pierce were among the actors who were part of the scene in the 1970s and ‘80s. Lena herself enjoyed appearing in some of the works. The company that started here became Home Made Theater.
Lena’s contributions to the Saratoga arts scene were recognized in 1987 with a Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Skidmore and by the first Life Achievement Award presented by the Saratoga County Arts Council in 1989.
Caffe Lena continues to operate as a not-for-profit organization to perpetuate Lena Spencer’s dream of providing a home for folk musicians to get their start and perform for the public. The success of the undertaking can best be measured in the expressions on the faces of dedicated “folkie” pilgrims who climb the stairs at 47 Phila St. as if entering a shrine.
THE HISTORY MUSEUM IS PROUD HOME TO THE LENA SPENCER ARCHIVE