Cooperstown, New York
Encyclopedia
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
in Otsego County
Otsego County, New York
Otsego County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. The 2010 population was 62,259. The county seat is Cooperstown. The name Otsego is from a Mohawk word meaning "place of the rock."-History:...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, USA. It is located in the Town of Otsego
Otsego, New York
Otsego is a town in Otsego County, New York, United States. The population was 3,904 at the 2000 census. The town is named after a lake on its border.The Town of Otsego is in the north central part of the county.- History :...
. The population was estimated to be 1,852 at the 2010 census.
The Village of Cooperstown is the county seat
County seat
A county seat is an administrative center, or seat of government, for a county or civil parish. The term is primarily used in the United States....
of Otsego County
Otsego County, New York
Otsego County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. The 2010 population was 62,259. The county seat is Cooperstown. The name Otsego is from a Mohawk word meaning "place of the rock."-History:...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. Most of the village lies inside the Town of Otsego, but part is inside the Town of Middlefield
Middlefield, New York
Middlefield is a town in Otsego County, New York, United States. The population was 2,249 at the 2000 census.The Town of Middlefield is in the northeast part of the county...
.
Cooperstown is best known as the home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 25 Main Street in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests serving as the central point for the study of the history of baseball in the United States and beyond, the display of...
. The Farmers' Museum
Farmers' Museum
The Farmers' Museum is located in Cooperstown, New York, and is probably the second-best-known attraction in the town, after the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum....
, The Fenimore Art Museum
Fenimore Art Museum
The Fenimore Art Museum is a museum located in Cooperstown, New York, USA, operating under the auspices of the New York State Historical Association...
, Glimmerglass Opera
Glimmerglass Opera
Glimmerglass Festival is an opera company which was founded in 1975 by Peter Macris and presents an annual season of operas at the Alice Busch Opera Theater on Otsego Lake eight miles north of Cooperstown, New York, United States.The summer-only season usually consists of four operas performed in...
, and the New York State Historical Association
New York State Historical Association
The New York State Historical Association is a private, non-governmental educational organization founded in 1899 to encourage research, educate general audiences, and start a library and museum of manuscripts, artwork, and other objects associated with the history of New York State, USThe...
are also based there. More recently, nearly 1,000 youth baseball teams descend on Cooperstown every summer to participate in some of the largest baseball tournaments in the country. Starting in 2010, Cooperstown now has an official baseball team of its own. The Cooperstown Hawkeyes are a collegiate league team who will play against many other teams from the northeast during the summer. They will play their home games at the historic Doubleday Field
Doubleday Field
Doubleday Field is a baseball stadium in Cooperstown, New York named for Abner Doubleday and located two city blocks from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.The grounds have been used for baseball since 1920, on what was Elihu Phinney's farm...
.
History
The village was part of the Cooper Patent, which Judge William CooperWilliam Cooper (judge)
William Cooper was the founder of Cooperstown, New York and father of writer James Fenimore Cooper, who apparently used his father as the pattern for the Judge Marmaduke Temple character in his book The Pioneers....
purchased in 1785 from Colonel George Croghan
George Croghan
George Croghan was an Irish-born Pennsylvania fur trader, Onondaga Council sachem, land speculator, British Indian agent in colonial America and, until accused of treason in 1777, Pittsburgh's president judge and Committee of Safety Chairman keeping the Ohio Indians neutral...
. The land amounted to 10000 acres (40.5 km²). Judge Cooper was the father of renowned American author James Fenimore Cooper
James Fenimore Cooper
James Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the early 19th century. He is best remembered as a novelist who wrote numerous sea-stories and the historical novels known as the Leatherstocking Tales, featuring frontiersman Natty Bumppo...
, author of The Leatherstocking Tales, a series of novels which includes The Last of the Mohicans
The Last of the Mohicans
The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757 is a historical novel by James Fenimore Cooper, first published in February 1826. It is the second book of the Leatherstocking Tales pentalogy and the best known...
. Contrary to belief, the village was named after Judge William Cooper, and not his son.
The Village of Cooperstown was established in 1786, laid out by surveyor William Ellison. The village was established while still part of Montgomery County
Montgomery County, New York
As of the census of 2000, there were 49,708 people, 20,038 households, and 13,104 families residing in the county. The population density was 123 people per square mile . There were 22,522 housing units at an average density of 56 per square mile...
. It was incorporated (as the "Village of Otsego") on April 3, 1807. The name was legally changed to "Village of Cooperstown" in 1812. Cooperstown is one of only twelve villages in New York still incorporated under a charter
Municipal charter
A city charter or town charter is a legal document establishing a municipality such as a city or town. The concept developed in Europe during the middle ages....
, the other villages having incorporated or re-incorporated under the provisions of Village Law.
People of note in Cooperstown
Samuel F.B. Morse (Inventor, painter), Thurlow WeedThurlow Weed
Thurlow Weed was a New York newspaper publisher, politician, and party boss. He was the principal political advisor to the prominent New York politician William H...
(political boss), John A. Dix
John Adams Dix
John Adams Dix was an American politician from New York. He served as Secretary of the Treasury, U.S. Senator, and the 24th Governor of New York. He was also a Union major general during the Civil War.-Early life and career:...
(Civil War general and political leader), Abner Doubleday
Abner Doubleday
Abner Doubleday was a career United States Army officer and Union general in the American Civil War. He fired the first shot in defense of Fort Sumter, the opening battle of the war, and had a pivotal role in the early fighting at the Battle of Gettysburg. Gettysburg was his finest hour, but his...
(Civil War officer and dubiously claimed inventor of baseball), and Samuel Nelson
Samuel Nelson
Samuel Nelson was an American attorney and an Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States....
(Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court) maintained summer residences in Cooperstown.
Cooperstown Writers
Aside from James Fenimore Cooper, noted Cooperstown authors include his daughter Susan Fenimore CooperSusan Fenimore Cooper
Susan Augusta Fenimore Cooper was an American writer and amateur naturalist. She was born in Scarsdale, New York, the daughter of the well known novelist James Fenimore Cooper. She was his second child, and the eldest to survive her youth...
(author of Rural Hours), great-great-grandson Paul Fenimore Cooper
Paul Fenimore Cooper
Paul Fenimore Cooper was a traveler and author of children's books and non-fiction. He was educated at Taft School, at Yale and at Trinity College, Cambridge...
(author of Tal: His Marvelous Adventures with Noom-Zor-Noom), prolific poet W. W. Lord who captured Cooperstown in many of his poems, as well as modern author Lauren Groff
Lauren Groff
Lauren Groff is an American novelist and short story writer.-Biography:She graduated from Amherst College and from the University of Wisconsin–Madison with an MFA in fiction....
, who has written extensively about her town, notably in The Monsters of Templeton
The Monsters of Templeton
The Monsters of Templeton is a dramatic novel written by Lauren Groff. Groff was born and raised in Cooperstown, New York. The name Templeton draws from the name devised for the town by James Fenimore Cooper, Cooperstown's most renowned author, known for The Leatherstocking Tales...
, a story that brings several Cooperstown legends to life. Marly Youmans, a resident of Cooperstown, has written several poems and short subjects about Cooperstown, including the soon to be released short novel "Glimmerglass" which explores some of the mysteries of the town.
Geography
Cooperstown is located at 42°41′50"N 74°55′37"W (42.697335, -74.926913).According to the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
, the village has a total area of 1.6 square miles (4.1 km²), of which, 1.5 square miles (3.9 km²) of it is land and 0.04 square mile (0.1035995244 km²) of it (2.53%) is water.
The source of the Susquehanna River
Susquehanna River
The Susquehanna River is a river located in the northeastern United States. At long, it is the longest river on the American east coast that drains into the Atlantic Ocean, and with its watershed it is the 16th largest river in the United States, and the longest river in the continental United...
is in Cooperstown at Otsego Lake. Blackbird Bay of Otsego Lake is north of the village.
Cooperstown is at the junction of New York State Route 28
New York State Route 28
New York State Route 28 is a state highway extending for in the shape of a "C" between the Hudson Valley city of Kingston and southern Warren County in the U.S. state of New York. Along the way, it intersects several major routes, including Interstate 88 , U.S. Route 20 , and the...
and New York State Route 80
New York State Route 80
New York State Route 80 is a west–east New York State Route located within Onondaga, Madison, Chenango, Otsego, Herkimer, and Montgomery Counties in New York. Its western terminus is located at a junction with NY 175 in the city of Syracuse in Onondaga County, from which it...
, The village is also served by County Routes 31 and 33.
Demographics
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 2000, there were 2,032 people, 906 households, and 479 families residing in the village. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 1,317.5 people per square mile (509.5/km²). There were 1,070 housing units at an average density of 693.8 per square mile (268.3/km²). The racial makeup of the village was 96.21% White, 0.94% African American, 0.10% Native American, 1.62% Asian, 0.34% from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, and 0.79% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.31% of the population.
There were 906 households out of which 23.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 41.9% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 8.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 47.1% were non-families. 41.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 19.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.05 and the average family size was 2.83.
In the village the population was spread out with 20.2% under the age of 18, 5.4% from 18 to 24, 24.7% from 25 to 44, 22.8% from 45 to 64, and 26.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 45 years. For every 100 females there were 81.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 76.8 males.
The median income for a household in the village was $36,992, and the median income for a family was $50,250. Males had a median income of $39,625 versus $20,595 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the village was $26,799. About 5.0% of families and 10.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.5% of those under age 18 and 5.4% of those age 65 or over.
Cooperstown today
National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 25 Main Street in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests serving as the central point for the study of the history of baseball in the United States and beyond, the display of...
. According to an interview conducted in 1906 by the Mills Commission, nearby resident Abner Graves attributed the game's invention to his deceased friend, Abner Doubleday
Abner Doubleday
Abner Doubleday was a career United States Army officer and Union general in the American Civil War. He fired the first shot in defense of Fort Sumter, the opening battle of the war, and had a pivotal role in the early fighting at the Battle of Gettysburg. Gettysburg was his finest hour, but his...
. Graves stated that Doubleday invented baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
on a cow pasture within the village in 1839. This is the present site of Doubleday Field
Doubleday Field
Doubleday Field is a baseball stadium in Cooperstown, New York named for Abner Doubleday and located two city blocks from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.The grounds have been used for baseball since 1920, on what was Elihu Phinney's farm...
. (The actual origins of baseball
Origins of baseball
The question of the origins of baseball has been the subject of debate and controversy for more than a century. Baseball and the other modern bat, ball and running games, cricket and rounders, were developed from earlier folk games....
are much less clear.) Part of the film A League of Their Own
A League of Their Own
A League of Their Own is a 1992 American comedy-drama film that tells a fictionalized account of the real-life All-American Girls Professional Baseball League . Directed by Penny Marshall, the film stars Geena Davis, Lori Petty, Tom Hanks, Madonna, and Rosie O'Donnell...
was filmed in Cooperstown. Several nationally recognized tournaments are held at Cooperstown. Cooperstown Dream Park while not in the Village of Cooperstown, hosts between 96 and 104 teams every summer each week for teams in the U10 to U12 levels. The Cooperstown Dreams Park (CDP) is in Hartwick Seminary, NY about 5 miles south of the Village. For many, attending a tournament at CDP is the climactic event in youth baseball. Several professionals including David Price and Matt Garza have attended CDP.
Several other attractions are scattered around town. These include the Farmers' Museum
Farmers' Museum
The Farmers' Museum is located in Cooperstown, New York, and is probably the second-best-known attraction in the town, after the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum....
, the Fenimore Art Museum
Fenimore Art Museum
The Fenimore Art Museum is a museum located in Cooperstown, New York, USA, operating under the auspices of the New York State Historical Association...
, The New York State Historical Association
New York State Historical Association
The New York State Historical Association is a private, non-governmental educational organization founded in 1899 to encourage research, educate general audiences, and start a library and museum of manuscripts, artwork, and other objects associated with the history of New York State, USThe...
's (NYSHA) library, Brewery Ommegang
Brewery Ommegang
Brewery Ommegang is a Belgian brewery located near Cooperstown, New York that specializes in Belgian-style ales.-History:Ommegang began brewing Belgian-style ales in 1997...
, and the Clark Sports Center (a large fitness facility). The Clark Sports Center is where the annual Hall of Fame Induction is held.
Once known as the Village of Museums, until the 1970s Cooperstown boasted the Indian Museum (adjacent to Lakefront Park), The Carriage and Harness Museum (displaying a world-class collection primarily from F. Ambrose Clark's estate; now the Bassett Hospital offices on Elk Street), and The Woodland Museum near Three Mile Point. The latter, opened in 1962 by heirs to the Anheuser-Busch
Anheuser-Busch
Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. , is an American brewing company. The company operates 12 breweries in the United States and 18 in other countries. It was, until December 2009, also one of America's largest theme park operators; operating ten theme parks across the United States through the...
company, would fold in 1974, but not before running a close third in annual attendance to the Hall of Fame and Farmers' Museum.
The internationally-renowned Glimmerglass Opera
Glimmerglass Opera
Glimmerglass Festival is an opera company which was founded in 1975 by Peter Macris and presents an annual season of operas at the Alice Busch Opera Theater on Otsego Lake eight miles north of Cooperstown, New York, United States.The summer-only season usually consists of four operas performed in...
is closely associated with Cooperstown. Founded in 1975, the company originally performed in the Cooperstown High School auditorium. In 1987, the company relocated to farmland donated by Tom Goodyear of the Cary Mede Estate 8 miles (12.9 km) north of the village. Here was built the acclaimed Alice Busch Opera Theater, the first opera-specific hall in the United States since 1966.
The Clark Family
The Clark Family, whose fortune originated with a half-ownership of the patent for the Singer Sewing MachineSinger Corporation
Singer Corporation is a manufacturer of sewing machines, first established as I.M. Singer & Co. in 1851 by Isaac Merritt Singer with New York lawyer Edward Clark. Best known for its sewing machines, it was renamed Singer Manufacturing Company in 1865, then The Singer Company in 1963. It is...
, has lived in Cooperstown since the mid-19th century.
Clark holdings include interests assembled over a century and a half (now held through trusts, foundations, and so on). Their dominance is reflected in Clark ownership of greater than 10000 acres (40.5 km²) of largely undeveloped land in and around greater Cooperstown.
In the village, the Otesaga, the Cooper Inn, Clark Estates, and the Clara Welch Thanksgiving Home are all Clark properties. In addition, the Clarks were founding partners of (and retain interest in) the Baseball Hall of Fame and the Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital.
Cooperstown still receives support from The Clark Foundation. It has donated to a variety of causes including various scholarships, non-profit organizations, and village services. The family has also donated land for the central and high schools (formerly stables) as well as for parks such as Fairy Springs and Council Rock, and recently, for a new little league baseball field.
Jane Forbes Clark II, the primary family heir today, has continued this commitment by purchasing strategic land to ensure the preservation of village entry points, as well as overseeing the expansion of the various Clark holdings.
Business district changes
Through the 1970s, Main Street was still home to no fewer than five grocery stores, including Danny's Market, Pic N Pay, Victory Markets, and an A&P. Western Auto
Western Auto
Western Auto Supply Company was a specialty retail chain of stores that supplied automobile parts and accessories. It operated approximately 1200 stores across the United States. It was started in 1909 in Kansas City, Missouri, by George Pepperdine, who later founded Pepperdine University...
had a branch on Main Street. JJ Newberry's had a two-story five-and-dime with a food counter. Smalley's, originally a stage theater, had a single screen across from a Farm & Home store. With its post office, library, and the Baseball Hall of Fame, Main Street resembled a true village square.
Today, the village has fewer traditional services for year-round and seasonal residents. Once boasting half a dozen gas stations, the village now has but two. Traditional grocers have been reduced to one. Hardware stores such as Western Auto, McGowan's and Farm & Home have been displaced by an Ace Hardware just outside the village. Smalley's Theatre is a collection of baseball memorabilia shops, while Newberry's has become a single-floor general store with the basement stairs boarded up. Most Main Street shops cater to the tourist trade, with baseball being by far the biggest type of business.
A number of businesses are seasonal and close in the winter, because the economy does not thrive as well during the off seasons of tourism.
Architecture
For a village with limited access to professional architects, significant residential, commercial and religious structures exist, many in pristine condition.Original residences related to the founding Cooper family, such as Edgewater and Heathcote, are still standing. Otsego Hall
Otsego Hall
Otsego Hall was a house in Cooperstown, New York, United States which was the ancestral mansion of United States novelist James Fenimore Cooper. It was built by William Cooper, the novelist's father and founder of Cooperstown, where the mansion was located. Construction was started in 1796 and...
, James Fenimore Cooper's residence which once stood in what is now Cooper Park, has been lost, along with his chalet. The cottage built for his daughter, Byberry, remains on River Street, albeit in altered form. Fynmere, a grand stone manor from the early 20th century, erected by Cooper heirs on the eastern edge of town, was designed by noted architect Charles A. Platt
Charles A. Platt
Charles Adams Platt was a prominent artist, landscape gardener, landscape designer, and architect of the "American Renaissance" movement. His garden designs complemented his domestic architecture.-Early career:...
. Later donated to the Presbyterian Church as a retirement home, the property was razed in 1979. Both its grounds and those of neighboring property Heathcote (extant today), built for Katherine Guy Cooper (1895–1988), daughter-in-law of James Fenimore Cooper III, were laid out by noted landscape architect Ellen Biddle Shipman
Ellen Biddle Shipman
Ellen Biddle Shipman was an American landscape architect known for her formal gardens and lush planting style.Born in Philadelphia, she spent her childhood in Texas and the Arizona territory. Her father, Colonel James Biddle, was a career Army officer, stationed on the western frontier...
.
Residences, business, and properties related to the Clark family abound within the village. From the original family seat of Fernleigh to the 1928 Georgian manor of West Hill, the properties are exceptionally well cared for. Fernleigh is a Second Empire stone mansion designed by New Jersey architect James Van Dyke and built in 1869. The original garden at Fernleigh, located to the south of the mansion, included a servants' house and Turkish bath; both details have since been lost. In 1923 Stephen C. Clark, Sr. commissioned Marcus T. Reynolds
Marcus T. Reynolds
Marcus Tullius Reynolds was a prominent architect from the Albany, New York area. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, he was raised by his aunt in Albany after the death of his mother. He attended Williams College and Columbia University and began his life as an architect in 1893...
and Bryant Fleming
Bryant Fleming
Bryant Fleming was a Buffalo, New York-born landscape architect. He graduated from Cornell University in 1901, where he studied horticulture, architecture, architectural history, and art...
(a landscape design professor at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
) to design new gardens for Fernleigh.
Other Clark manor homes - such as those of Robert Sterling Clark
Robert Sterling Clark
Robert Sterling Clark , heir to the Singer Sewing Machine fortune, was an American art collector, horse breeder, and philanthropist.-Biography:...
and brother F Ambrose Clark - have been razed in the past 30 years. Edward Severin Clark
Edward Severin Clark
Edward Severin Clark , along with his brother Stephen Carlton Clark, built a number of large buildings in Cooperstown, New York, including the Otesaga Hotel and the Alfred Corning Clark Gymnasium. He was one of four grandsons of Edward Clark, one of the founders of the Singer Sewing Machine...
built a farm complex at Fenimore Farm in 1918 (now the Farmers Museum). His stone manor, built in 1931, was bequeathed to the New York State Historical Association
New York State Historical Association
The New York State Historical Association is a private, non-governmental educational organization founded in 1899 to encourage research, educate general audiences, and start a library and museum of manuscripts, artwork, and other objects associated with the history of New York State, USThe...
and today serves as the Fenimore Art Museum
Fenimore Art Museum
The Fenimore Art Museum is a museum located in Cooperstown, New York, USA, operating under the auspices of the New York State Historical Association...
. Other structures, such as the Baseball Hall of Fame, Otesaga Hotel, Clark Estate Office, Kingfisher Tower
Kingfisher Tower
Kingfisher Tower is a folly built by Edward Clark on the eastern shore of Otsego Lake at Point Judith near County Highway 31 near Cooperstown, New York in 1876....
, which lies on the east side of Lake Otsego, Bassett Hospital, and The Clara Welch Thanksgiving Home, exemplify Cooperstown's staggering architectural wealth.
The Bowers family Lakelands manor, neighboring Mohican Lodge, and their former estate of Willowbrook (1818; presently the Cooper Inn) serve as further examples of grand homes erected by affluent residents. The Bowers family received the land patent extending from current-day Bowerstown to very near Cherry Valley, New York
Cherry Valley, New York
Cherry Valley, New York is the name of two locations in Otsego County, New York:*Cherry Valley , New York*Cherry Valley , New York...
, upon which Congressman John Myer Bowers built Lakelands in 1804. Woodside Hall, on the eastern edge of the village proper, was built c. 1829 by Eben B. Morehouse and was subsequently owned by several prominent individuals, including (in 1895) financier Walter C. Stokes of New York City. His son, Walter Watson Stokes, served in the New York State Senate from 1933 to 1952. Prior to the Stokes' ownership, the home was visited by Martin Van Buren
Martin Van Buren
Martin Van Buren was the eighth President of the United States . Before his presidency, he was the eighth Vice President and the tenth Secretary of State, under Andrew Jackson ....
, the eighth President of the United States.
The Village Offices and Cooperstown Art Association are housed in a neo-classical building designed by Ernest Flagg
Ernest Flagg
Ernest Flagg was a noted American architect in the Beaux-Arts style. He was also an advocate for urban reform and architecture's social responsibility.-Biography:...
, famed for Manhattan's 47-storey Singer Building and the Boldt Castle on the St. Lawrence River. The building was originally commissioned by Elizabeth Scriven Clark in 1898 as a YMCA. Robert Sterling Clark
Robert Sterling Clark
Robert Sterling Clark , heir to the Singer Sewing Machine fortune, was an American art collector, horse breeder, and philanthropist.-Biography:...
, son of Elizabeth, gave it to the village in 1932.
Several prominent buildings in town were designed or updated by noted architect Frank P. Whiting, who originally worked under Ernest Flagg
Ernest Flagg
Ernest Flagg was a noted American architect in the Beaux-Arts style. He was also an advocate for urban reform and architecture's social responsibility.-Biography:...
. A resident of New York City and Cooperstown, Whiting was also a noted artist. Whiting designed the Farmers Museum farm buildings and the shingle-style manor at Leatherstocking Falls Farm (residence of the late Dorothy Stokes Bostwick Smith Campbell). Landscaping was done by the all-female firm of Wodell & Cottrell in the 1930s. Whiting also designed 56 Lake Street. Cooperstown architecture was featured in the 1923 edition of The White Pine Series of Architectural Monographs (Volume IX), written by Frank Whiting.
In 1916, financier William T. Hyde acquired Glimmerglen, a lakeside property north of Fenimore Farm, from the Constable family. The house burned to the ground shortly thereafter and was rebuilt by society architect Alfred Hopkins
Alfred Hopkins
S. Alfred Hopkins was an American architect, an "estate architect" who specialized in country houses and especially in model farms in an invented "vernacular" style suited to the American elite...
, who also designed a new farm complex, gate house, and assorted dependencies. The estate was featured in a multipage advertisement in Country Life magazine in late 1922 when the property was put up for sale. Hyde (no relation to the family of Hyde Hall in Springfield Center) raised champion sheep (Shropshires, Cheviots, Southdowns) at Glimmerglen Farm. The manor and greenhouses were razed in the late 1960s after their acquisition by the Clark family. The stone gatehouse, featured in the Architectural Record, is extant today, as is the boathouse and the distinctive cottage known as Winter House.
External links
- Cooperstown / Otsego County Tourism
- Village of Cooperstown, NY
- Village History
- CoopersTown Crier newspaper
- The Freeman's Journal newspaper Cooperstown's Newspaper Since 1808]
- Down the Susquehanna to the Chesapeake by Jack Brubaker
- William Cooper's memoirs of Cooperstown's founding
- The Story of Cooperstown, by Ralph Birdsall, 1917, from Project GutenbergProject GutenbergProject Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books...
- SIRIS/Garden Club of America - Fernleigh
- SIRIS/Garden Club of America - Leatherstocking Falls Estate
- New York Times June 16, 1912 "Cooperstown; Many Additions from New York to the Cottage Colony."
- Library