Otsego 2000 Historic Preservation Series

Learn Your Home’s Story
June 22, 11 am to 3 pm at the Fly Creek Area Historical Society Antique Appraisal & Museum Day, 208 Cemetery Road, Fly Creek.

Find out about your home’s architectural history, and resources to help find more information with Dr. Cindy Falk. Bring photos and questions. Ellen Pope, executive director of Otsego 2000, will have information on tax credits available to homeowners in historic districts, including Glimmerglass. Free.

Glimmerglass Historic District Ice Cream Social
August 19 at Lake Front Park, Cooperstown
Celebrate the 25th anniversary of the historic district that surrounds Otsego Lake! Stay for the Lake Front Concert featuring The Currys.

2025 Walking Tours

Dr. Cindy Falk, Assistant Dean of Graduate Studies at SUNY Oneonta and Professor of Material Culture at the University’s Cooperstown Graduate Program will lead a series of historic preservation walking tours in 2025.

Tours begin at 3 pm and last about two hours. The cost is $10, please register in advance. Email or call 607/547-8881 with any questions.

July 13: Fly Creek
How does architecture promote community? Learn about the history of Fly Creek and the community spaces that enlivened the hamlet over the years. Register

August 10: Hartwick
Can old buildings support new uses? Hartwick's many examples of adaptive reuse say yes! Register

September 7: Roseboom
Did you ever want to time travel? Using the 1903 map of Roseboom we will examine what has been lost, added, and changed over the last 125 years. Register

October 19: Middlefield
How did industrialization benefit small rural communities and how has it hurt them? We will use Middlefield as a model of the opportunities and challenges of "progress."

November 16: Cooperstown
Evolution or Revolution? The built environment has been subject to both slow and dramatic change - we will look at examples of how the buildings around us have been transformed by both.    

In 2024, Otsego 2000 Historic Preservation Walking Tours took place in Unadilla, Gilbertsville, Fly Creek, Worcester, Hartwick, and Cooperstown. The 2024 Historic Preservation Walking Tours were funded in part by a grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Sign up for emails to find out about future walks and historic preservation programming.

The Otsego region is part of the traditional homelands of the Haudenosaunee people. Known today by many as the home of baseball, Cooperstown and the Otsego Lake region were once the western frontier of the fledgling United States, and the home of the great American novelist, James Fenimore Cooper. The landscapes, hamlets, and villages Cooper celebrated in his writings are largely unchanged since the early 19th century, and contribute substantially to the unique character of the region. Cooper’s words, like “glimmerglass,” his name for Otsego Lake, still resonate today, with Otsego 2000’s film festival, Glimmerglass Film Days, as well as the renowned Glimmerglass Festival.

Otsego 2000’s Historic Preservation program focuses on protecting and preserving the historic homes, barns, commercial buildings, hamlets, and land use patterns while encouraging preservation-minded planning and development to build on these considerable assets.

Otsego 2000 provides free advice and technical assistance to home owners and business owners in Otsego County Historic Districts wanting to apply for New York State Tax Credits. We also offer support to people who are looking to apply for the NYS Historic Barn Rehabilitation Tax Credit (barns need to be built prior to 1946, but do not need to be in a Historic District).

To highlight excellent work being done in Otsego County and Schoharie County, Otsego 2000 confers Historic Preservation Awards. We also offer workshops and tours on the architectural and cultural history of the region and historic preservation best practices. Recent tours highlighted architecture and history in Unadilla, Sharon Springs, Cherry Valley, Richfield Springs, Cooperstown, and Morris.

Otsego County Historic Districts

Being listed on the National Historic Register can bring a range of opportunities to a community.

• Once on the Register, municipalities may be eligible for a range of government grants.

• Homeowners and commercial property owners with properties listed on the National Register or within an historic district may be eligible for New York State historic preservation tax credits to assist in the rehabilitation, maintenance and preservation of their historic properties.

• Being listed on the National Register also means that towns have certain protections, without limiting development and activities consistent with the town zoning or comprehensive plan.

Otsego 2000 has worked with municipalities and citizens’ groups across the county to establish several National Historic Register districts, including the Lindesay Patent (Cherry Valley) and the Glimmerglass Historic District.  Indeed, Otsego County arguably has the most acres designated as historic districts of any New York county, with over 36,000 acres either designated as historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places or deemed eligible to be listed. The links below provide maps of the districts in Otsego County, along with summaries of the districts’ histories. Take some time to explore the hamlets and landscapes of Otsego County.

Cherry Valley Historic District
Fly Creek Historic District
Gilbertsville Historic District
Glimmerglass Historic District
Hartwick Hamlet Historic District
Lindesay Patent Historic District
Middlefield Hamlet Historic District
Village of Morris Historic District
Oneonta Downtown Historic District
Walnut Street Historic District, Oneonta
Richfield Springs Historic Districts
Roseboom Hamlet Historic District
South Worcester Historic District
Unadilla Historic District
Worcester Historic District

 Want to know how to sponsor an historic district?

The New York State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) created a step-by-step guide to help you through the process. You will work with a National Register representative as your primary contact.

Awards

Since 1999, Otsego 2000 has conferred Historic Preservation Awards for excellent projects in Otsego and Schoharie counties. These awards recognize property owners, individuals, and craftspeople who have committed themselves to preserving our regional historic sites, landscapes, and communities for future use and enjoyment. An independent jury of preservation experts reviews nominations for their commitment to preserving our architectural heritage and cultural landscapes. Contact us for more information or to suggest someone be considered for the award.