The Local Legacies project was launched by the Librarian of Congress as a major component of the Library of Congress's Bicentennial, which was celebrated on April 24, 2000. The Library invited members of Congress to identify grassroots traditions and activities from every state and congressional district, document them in photographs, sound and video recordings, and manuscripts, and send a portion of that documentation to the Library of Congress for inclusion in the Archive of Folk Culture.

The Feast of St. Michael, held in Saratoga Springs from 1914-1999, was an annual celebration of the Italian Community and the Principessa Elena Society. The Feast had a Catholic Mass, a parade and lots of food.

Part of the information brought together for submission was the work of Mary Anne Fitzgerald and Leona Signor in what they called the West Side Oral Narrative Project. Fitzgerald and Signor interviewed people who grew up on the West Side of Saratoga Springs.