Find More Than Baseball in Cooperstown, New York

on Oct 27, 2024

By Victor Block

As a lifelong resident of Washington, D.C., I recently enjoyed a display at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York, that recalled the heyday of my hometown team's only two World Series championships in 1924 and 2019. Artifacts from those games are part of the vast collection that makes the institution a virtual mecca for fans of the sport known as "America's pastime." It's the main reason why many people visit the little village (population about 1,800) in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains.

As enjoyable as reliving the glory days of Washington's baseball team was, that only scratched the surface of what Cooperstown offers fans of the game as well as others. The Hall of Fame is augmented by an eclectic choice of other attractions related to the sport, including a wax museum, bat-making company, and shops and restaurants whose walls are adorned with a cornucopia of pertinent photographs and other memorabilia.

But after seeing more of Cooperstown, I concluded that an apt invitation for people to visit might be "Come for the baseball; stay for a lot more."

Begin with the town itself. It has been referred to as "America's most perfect village" for a number of good reasons. The setting is a magnet for those seeking breathtaking scenery of rolling farm fields tucked among pockets of dense forest amid tranquil lakes overlooked by low mountains. Against this backdrop, the town could serve well as the movie set of a quintessential village.

Walkable streets lead to a spectacular lakefront, and leafy parks lend welcome touches of Mother Nature. Adding to the storybook decor is an architectural mixture of stone, brick and wood-frame Colonial buildings and gingerbread Victorian homes, many of them painted in vibrant eye-catching colors.

A number of them warrant a look-see. The 1790 House is the oldest in town, and the Nancy Williams House (1797) ranks as the oldest home constructed of bricks. William Cooper built Pomeroy Place (1804) as a wedding gift for his daughter, Ann.

William, who founded Cooperstown in 1786, was the father of James Fenimore Cooper, the renowned author who spent his boyhood and last 15 years there. His best-known works are the five "Leatherstocking Tales," historical novels of the frontier period that he wrote between 1823 and 1841. They combine pioneer and Native American lore against a backdrop of the region's magnificent scenery.

A centerpiece of that landscape is Otsego Lake, a glacier-created body of water that appears as Lake Glimmerglass in Cooper's books. The name is derived from the Iroquois word meaning "place of the rock." That refers to a boulder known as Council Rock, which was a meeting place for Native Americans. Cooper referred to the lake as Glimmerglass because at times its surface is so still and flat that it resembles a mirror.

Among a number of welcome surprises in a town so small is the Fenimore Art Museum. It houses world-class displays of American folk and Native American art and offers a constant lineup of changing exhibits. Another attraction is a photography collection of more than 100,000 images that includes works by Ansel Adams and a section devoted to daguerreotypes, the photographic process widely used during the mid-19th century.

Less surprising in a region known as a bountiful source of food is The Farmers' Museum, a living-history village that re-creates mid-19th-century rural life. The site has been a working farm since 1813, when it was owned by James Fenimore Cooper. Collections run the gamut from an early 18th-century plow to homemade hay rakes and a 19th-century milkfat tester.

These attractions are among many that explain why tiny Cooperstown has been included on the Travel and Leisure magazine list of best places to visit in the United States.

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WHEN YOU GO

My stay at The Otesaga, a luxurious resort hotel perched at the edge of Otsego Lake, added to my immersion in Cooperstown. Built in 1909, it offers guests an imposing front portico and broad veranda overlooking the 700-foot waterfront vista, high-ceilinged guest rooms that feature chandeliers and oversized windows providing stunning views of the lake, a golf course rated among the best on the East Coast, heated swimming pool, and tennis and pickleball courts: www.thisiscooperstown.com and www.otesaga.com.

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Victor Block is a freelance writer. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.