Paul O’Donnell, owner, founder and Chief Executive Stockboy of Celtic Treasures on Broadway, said that he has loved Ireland ever since he was a child because his family was from the country and he spent his summers on an Irish farm.
“And so deep in my mind and my heart, I always wanted to do something with Ireland,” he said.
Originally though, O’Donnell said that he wanted to be a farmer, like his grandfather. Thus, he worked on a horse farm in Saratoga and spent his summers on his grandfather’s and uncle’s farms in Ireland through most of the 1980’s.
He then went into agricultural sales, essentially selling machines to farmers, which took him throughout the northeastern United States and into Canada.
“Beautiful places, but very far from home,” he said. “And I’m like ‘this, this is not good, this is too far away, I gotta do something back in Saratoga.’”
While on a trip to Prince Edward Island, he sat with a local farmer who asked him what he wanted to do, and he had the idea to open an Irish store in Saratoga, since at the time there were none.
O’Donnell, at 28 years old, called a landlord on Broadway in Saratoga from Prince Edward Island to reserve a location that he just happened to know was open at the time.
In 1992, O’Donnell opened Celtic Treasures with his wife. In 1995, the store moved to its current location at 456 Broadway. Within six months, he bought the building from the original landlord.
He said “that was the start of Celtic Treasures, really. Some farmer in Prince Edward said to follow my dreams. Knock on wood, it’s been an awesome ride, 27 years doing this and we hope to keep it going at least a few more.”
Since the store has held a status quo for so long, O’Donnell said that his biggest challenge each year is how to keep things fresh and new for customers.
“I have to reinvent ourselves pretty much every spring,” he said. “How are we going to present things for the summer crowd?”
Despite the influx of tourists from racing season, O’Donnell said that his busiest season is actually Christmas, when his main customers are locals.
“The month of December is always better than August for us,” O’Donnell said. “That’s your two thumbs up. When locals are coming here just for Christmas items, for holiday items, that to me is a sign of success, that you’re not just here to sell tee shirts in August.”
Currently O’Donnell is working on refurbishing the upstairs area of the building, which has not been used since World War II and was in such disrepair that when he first bought the building it was possibly cheaper than normal because there was no stairway up to the other floors.
O’Donnell said that the upper floors were like a time capsule, since the building was built in 1871 and that the upper floors had not had tenants since the 1950’s.
He said that he installed a new stairway about 10 years ago, but that it has taken this long to build up the funds for all of the other renovations.
“It’s a massive project, but it’s going well and we’re hoping to be done by late December and have people at least looking at it for January of the new year.”
Once the renovations are complete, O’Donnell said that they would have two full floors of office space available for tenants in addition to the store.
For more information, contact O’Donnell at 518-583- 9452, or visit the website at www. celtictreasures.com.
