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'Cooperstown' is the county seat of Otsego County, New York and is best known as the home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. The population was estimated 2,032 at the 2000 census. The Farmers' Museum, The Fenimore House Museum, and the New York State Historical Association are also based there. Cooperstown was founded by and named after Judge William Cooper, the father of author James Fenimore Cooper. Although Cooper casts a long shadow, local authors have included his daughter Susan Fenimore Cooper (author of 'Rural Hours'), descendant Paul Fenimore Cooper (author of 'Tal'), W. W. Lord (poet pilloried by Poe), Marly Youmans (author of 'Catherwood').
The 'Village of Cooperstown' was established in 1786 and incorporated (as the "Village of Otsego") on April 3, 1807; the name was legally changed to "Village of Cooperstown" in 1812. Most of the village lies inside the Town of Otsego, but part is in the Town of Middlefield.

Contents

Geography

Demographics

Cooperstown Today

The Clark Family

Business district changes

Architecture

See also

External links

Geography

Cooperstown is located at (42.697335, -74.926913). The source of the Susquehanna River is in Cooperstown at Otsego Lake.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 4.1 km² (1.6 mi²). 4.0 km² (1.5 mi²) of it is land and 0.1 km² (0.04 mi²) of it (2.53%) is water.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 2,032 people, 906 households, and 479 families residing in the village. The population density was 509.5/km² (1,317.5/mi²). There were 1,070 housing units at an average density of 268.3/km² (693.8/mi²). 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, 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 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 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

Cooperstown is perhaps best known as the home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Folklore tells that Abner Doubleday invented baseball on a cow pasture within the Village in 1839. (The actual origins of baseball are much less clear.) Part of the film ''A League of Their Own'' was filmed in Cooperstown.
Also present in or around Cooperstown are a number of other attractions. These include the Farmers' Museum, the Fenimore Art Museum, The New York State Historical Association's (NYSHA) library, Brewery Ommegang, Cooperstown Cookie Company, and the Clark Sports Center (a large fitness facility). The Village has a relatively robust zoning policy in place and the Village Board discourages businesses not in keeping with the character of the town or what may be an economic risk.
Known for many years as the 'Village of Museums' it boasted until the late 1970's of such places as the Indian Museum (adjacent to Lake Front Park), The Carriage and Harness Museum displaying a world-class collection primarily from F. Ambrose Clark's estate (now Bassett Hospital offices on Elk Street), and near Three Mile Point was The Woodland Museum. The latter opened in 1962 by long time residents to the community and heirs to the Budweiser company, it would fold in 1974, but not before running a close 3rd in annual attendance to the Hall of Fame and Farmer's Museum.
The internationally renowned Glimmerglass Opera is closely associated with Cooperstown. Founded in 1975, the company originally performed in the auditorium of the Cooperstown High School. In 1987, the opera company relocated to farmland donated by Tom Goodyear of the Cary Mede Estate 8 miles north of the village, where it built the acclaimed Alice Busch Opera Theater, the first American hall built specifically for opera since 1966.
Cooperstown was home to Henry Nicols, the Eagle Scout who in 1991 revealed that he had contracted HIV through a blood transfusion, about whom the HBO documentary "Eagle Scout: The Story of Henry Nicols" was made.

The Clark Family

No mention of the Village would be complete without mentioning the Clark Family. The family whose fortune originated with a half ownership of the patent for the Singer Sewing Machine has resided in the Village since the mid 19th Century.
Their large property, interests assembled over the century and a half, (today held through trusts, foundations, and various holdings) are reflected in the ownership of greater then 10,000 acres largely undeveloped in and around the greater Cooperstown community.
A sampling of Clark holdings in the Village include the Otesaga, the Cooper Inn, Clark Estates, The Clara Welch Thanksgiving Home, as well as founding and retained interests in The Baseball Hall of Fame and The Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital.
Cooperstown, in greater community sense, gets a continued large amount of monetary support from The Clark Foundation. It has donated money for a variety of causes including decorating the village, education scholarships, grants to non-for-profits as well as some village services. As a good steward of the community the family has previously donated land for the central and high school (formerly stables) as well as that for parks such as Fairy Springs and Council Rock.
Jane Forbes Clark, the primary family heir today, has continued that commitment by purchasing strategic real estate to ensure the preservation of the entry points to the Village. As well as overseen the real estate expansion of the various Clark holdings.

Business district changes

On a superficial basis the downtown commercial district looks today not unlike it did in the 1970s. However like many small communities impacted by changing tastes and growth of big box stores from more urban areas Cooperstown's downtown has undergone significant change over recent decades.
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 had a branch on Main Street. JJ Newberry's had a two story five and dime with a counter food area. Smalley's Theatre, originally a stage theatre, had a single screen across from a Farm & Home store. With the Post Office, Library, and Clark Gymnasium, as well as the Baseball Hall of Fame, Main Street of Cooperstown represented a true village meeting square.
The village today despite the growing needs of the residents both year round and seasonal as well as the daily visitors has fewer traditional services. Once boasting as many as half dozen gasoline sations, today within the village there are two. Traditional grocery stories have been reduced to just one. Hardware stores such as Western Auto, McGowan's and Farm & Home are also gone with an Ace Harware replacing their role just outside of the village limits. Smalley's Theatre is now a collection of baseball memorabilia shops. Newberry's has been replaced with a single floor "store", the stairs to the downstairs floor boarded over. Main Street now has primarily stores for the tourist rather than for residents of Cooperstown.

Architecture

For such a small Village with limited direct access to large urban areas and professional architects there are significant residential, commercial and religious structures to be found with many in excellent condition today.
Several lovely residences related to the founding Cooper family can be found such as Edgewater and Heathcote while Otsego Hall, James Fenimore Cooper's residence along with his Chalet cottage have been lost. The cottage built for his daughter, Byberry, remains on River Street albeit altered. Fynmere, a grand stone manor house from the early 20th Century erected by Cooper heirs on the eastern edge of the Village limits, designed by noted architect Charles A. Platt was donated to the Presbyterian Church as a retirement home. It was razed in 1979.
Residences, business, and Foundation properties related to the Clark family abound within and on the edges of the Village. From the original family seat of Fernleigh to the 1928 stone Georgian manor house of West Hill serving that role today the properties are exceptionally well cared for. Other Clark manor homes - such as that of Robert Sterling Clark and brother F Ambrose Clark with his Iroquois Farm - have been razed over the last 30 years. Other structures such as the Baseball Hall of Fame, Otesaga hotel, Clark Estate Office, Kingfisher Tower, Bassett Hospital, and The Clara Welch Thanksgiving Home are exemplary elements of the Village's architectural wealth.
The prominent Bowers family Lakelands manor - as well as neighboring Mohican Lodge - and their former estate of Willowbrook now the Cooper Inn represent other affluence of wealth by residents who erected grand homes. The Bowers family received the land patent extending from current-day Bowerstown to very near Cherry Valley, New York upon which John Myer Bowers built the Bowers homestead Lakelands in 1804. Woodside Hall, on the eastern extreme of the Village proper, was built c. 1829 by Eben B. Morehouse and owned by among several wealthy individuals. This included financeer Walter C. Stokes of New York City in 1895. His son, Walter Watson Stokes , served in the New York state Senate from 1933 to 1952. Prior to Stokes ownership it was visited by President Martin Van Buren . The home became a retirement home in 1966 and remained so until 2006. It's future today as either returning a private home or resume as a retirement home is uncertain.
The Village Offices, Land Cooperstown Art Association are housed in a neoclassical building, designed by famed architect Ernest Flagg, who also did the 47-story Singer building in Manhattan and Boldt Castle in the St. Lawrence River. It was originally was commissioned by Elizabeth Scriven Clark in 1898 as a YMCA. Robert Sterling Clark, son of Elizabeth, gave it to the village in 1932.
Several prominent residences and building were designed by or updated by noted architect Frank P. Whiting who worked originally under Ernest Flagg. A resident of NYC and Cooperstown, Whiting was also a noted artist. Whiting designed among other buildings the Farmers Museum farm buildings, the Fenimore Art Museum, the shingle-style manor house at Leatherstocking Falls Farm (residence of the late Dorothy Stokes Bostwick Smith Campbell), and the residence at 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.

See also

★ Burlington Company

External links

★ Village of Cooperstown, NY

★ Baseball Hall of Fame

★ Farmers' Museum

★ Village History

★ Cooperstown Visitor's Guide

★ Discovering Cooperstown by Tom Heitz

★ Cooperstown USA

★ ''CoopersTown Crier'' newspaper

★ ''The Freeman's Journal'' newspaper Cooperstown's Newspaper Since 1808

★ ''Down the Susquehanna to the Chesapeake'' by Jack Brubaker

★ The Town of Otsego

★ Otsego Town History

★ Central School

★ The Story of Cooperstown, by Ralph Birdsall, 1917, from Project Gutenberg

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