SARATOGA, N.Y. -- It's hard to imagine what the Spa City would look like without the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, and how the world renowned institution came to be is a story of perseverance.

"When you walk on the grounds of SPAC you can feel what the founders must have felt," SPAC President Marcia White said.

SPAC's founding involves a group of people with tremendous passion.

"I wanted to do everything I could in Saratoga to restore it to its years when it was a grand place to be," said Marylou Whitney, a founding member.

Whitney, a Saratoga socialite, remembers when the Spa City was all-but-forgotten. 

"You could drive a car and park it anywhere, who wanted to park it there, there weren't any stores!" she said.

By the 1960s people were yearning for change.

"Duane La Flèche from the Knickerbocker News saw an article written in the Burlington Free Press that the New York Philharmonic and New York City Ballet was looking for a summer home. They thought Stowe, Vermont, would be a fabulous place," said White.

An article published by LaFleche a few months later would spark a chain reaction of events.  

"I thought I was having lunch with the girls and instead I found out we were going to start a performing arts center," Whitney said.

"We went to the New York City Philharmonic, but they were not in the least bit interested in coming north," said Jane Wait, a SPAC founding member.

But Eugene Ormandy of the Philadelphia Orchestra was and the ballet had interest, too. So, a newly formed committee worked on securing land.

"Harlod [Wilhelm] came to Albany as a commissioner of parks to Gov. [Nelson] Rockefellar," Wait said.

A lover of the arts, Wilhelm agreed to lease out land to build a 5,200 seat facility, but paying for it took the entire community.

"Saratoga was going to be responsible for $1.8 million, which would be the construction," said White.

The state promised to clear the reserve and create pathways, but the budget continued to grow.  

"Oh, I think people got tired of seeing my face at their door," Whitney said.

Significant contributions were made by the Rockefeller, Whitney, Wait and Dake families. Surrounding cities chipped in. Fundraisers were held, school children gave their last nickels and dimes and even stud fees from the race track were donated.  

"It was an awareness the community was desperate at that point and it coalesced and it really supported this whole event," said Wait.

The total cost of construction -- more than $4 million. 

SPAC broke ground on June 30, 1964, with Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, the core group of founders and a large gathering of spectators on hand.

"Ormandy spoke, the governor spoke, Harold Wilhem spoke, the weather was on our side," said Wait.

The amphitheater would be completed just in time. On July 8, 1966, the curtain rose on George Balanchine's A Midsummer Night's Dream before an audience of more than 300 construction workers and their families.

"It was held for the workers who had only 18 months to complete the project," White said.

There were struggles, but the community continued to make it a primary mission to keep the gates open.

"It's a national and international focus," Wait said.

"I knew it was going to be great and it still is great," Whitney said.