Editing Cooperstown, New York (section)

== History ==
===Native American use===
[[Image:Council Rock Otsego Lake.png|thumb|left|170px|Council Rock]]
Before [[European colonization of the Americas|European colonization]], [[Iroquois]] Indians inhabited the area around the village and Otsego Lake. The name ''Otsego'' is from a [[Mohawk language|Mohawk]] or [[Oneida language|Oneida]] word meaning "place of the rock", referring to the large boulder near the lake's outlet,<ref name="Beauchamp_1907">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MBQTAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA174|title=Aboriginal Place Names of New York (New York State Museum Bulletin, Volume 108)|last1=Beauchamp|first1=William Martin|date=1907|publisher=New York State Education Department|page=174|isbn=9781404751552|access-date=August 12, 2015}}</ref> today known as "Council Rock". It is a large boulder whose top is above the water's surface and can be seen from shore. It is believed to have been a meeting place for [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] prior to the [[American Revolutionary War]].<ref name="Halsey_1901">{{cite book|last1=Halsey|first1=Francis Whiting|title=The Old New York Frontier: Its Wars with Indians and Tories, Its Missionary Schools, Pioneers, and Land Titles, 1614-1800|date=1901|publisher=C. Scribner's Sons|pages=[https://archive.org/details/oldnewyorkfront00halsgoog/page/n45 21]–23|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/oldnewyorkfront00halsgoog|access-date=August 30, 2015|chapter=Indian Villages in the Upper Valley}}</ref> A small parcel of land near Council Rock was presented to the Village of Cooperstown in 1957, on the condition that it remain open to the public as a park.<ref name="CoopersCounty">{{cite book|last1=MacDougall|first1=Hugh Cooke|title=Cooper's Otsego County: A Bicentennial Guide of Sites in Otsego County Associated with the Life and Fiction of James Fenimore Cooper, 1789-1851|date=1989|publisher=New York State Historical Association|location=Cooperstown, NY|page=94|chapter-url=http://external.oneonta.edu/cooper/cooperstownbooks/otsegocounty.html|access-date=August 30, 2015|chapter=Council Rock Park|archive-date=May 9, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150509013308/http://external.oneonta.edu/cooper/cooperstownbooks/otsegocounty.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Settlement===
The village was developed within part of the Cooper Patent, which [[William Cooper (judge)|William Cooper]] &ndash; who later became a county judge &ndash; purchased in 1785 from Colonel [[George Croghan]], former Deputy to [[Sir William Johnson]], British Superintendent of Indian Affairs of the Northern District. The land amounted to {{convert|10000|acre|km2}}. William Cooper founded a village on [[Otsego Lake (New York)|Otsego Lake]]. His son, [[James Fenimore Cooper]], grew up in the frontier town. He later became a noted American author with ''[[The Leatherstocking Tales]]'', a series of novels that includes ''[[The Last of the Mohicans]]''.<ref>The Concise Oxford Companion To English Literature, Ed. Drabble & Stringer, 1990 pp125</ref>

Cooper established the village of Cooperstown in 1786, laid out by surveyor William Ellison.  At the time, the area was part of [[Montgomery County, New York|Montgomery County]]. It was incorporated as the "Village of Otsego" on April 3, 1807. The name was changed to "Village of Cooperstown" June 12, 1812, after the founder.<ref>{{cite book|date=1878 |title= History of Otsego County New York |url=https://archive.org/stream/cu31924074488366#page/259/mode/1up |publisher= Everts, and Fariss|page=260}}</ref> William Cooper was appointed as a county judge in the late 18th century and was elected to the state assembly from Otsego County.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}

Cooperstown is one of only twelve villages in New York still incorporated under a [[Municipal charter|charter]], the other villages having incorporated or re-incorporated under the provisions of [[Administrative divisions of New York#Village|Village Law]].<ref name="villagehist">{{cite web|url=http://www.dos.state.ny.us/lgss/pdfs/Handbook.pdf#page=72 |title=Local Government Handbook - Village Government: Historical Development |format=PDF |pages=PDF page 72 |year=2008 |edition=5th |publisher=New York State Department of State |access-date=June 26, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090326101146/http://www.dos.state.ny.us/lgss/pdfs/Handbook.pdf |archive-date=March 26, 2009 }}</ref>

[[Image:Cooper-1 crop.jpg|thumb|center|650px|Cooperstown depicted on an 1890 panoramic map]]

=== Cooperstown today ===
[[File:National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Entrance to the [[National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum]]]]

Cooperstown is best known as the home of the [[National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum]], which was founded in 1939 by [[Stephen Carlton Clark]]. 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]]. Graves stated that Doubleday invented [[baseball]] on a cow pasture within the village in 1839, the present site of [[Doubleday Field]], but this claim is [[Doubleday myth|universally discounted by baseball historians]].<ref name="shist">{{cite web
 | url = https://www.history.com/news/baseballs-cooperstown-myth
 | title = Cooperstown Baseball
 | date = August 22, 2018
| website = www.history.com
 | publisher = www.history.com
 | access-date = June 18, 2019
| quote = data}}</ref>

Once known as the "Village of Museums", until the 1970s Cooperstown also 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]] company, folded in 1974. It ran a close third in annual attendance to the Hall of Fame and Fenimore Farm & Country Village.<ref name="nyt">{{cite web
 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/18/obituaries/louis-busch-hager-58-theatrical-producer.html
 | title = louis busch hager
 | date = December 18, 1988
| work = www.nytimes.com
 | access-date = June 18, 2019
| quote = data}}</ref>

[[File:Fenimore Art Museum Cooperstown crop.jpg|thumb|right|275px|The [[Fenimore Art Museum]]]]

The [[Cooperstown Historic District]], [[Glimmerglass Historic District]], [[Middlefield District No. 1 School]], [[Fly Creek Historic District]], [[Otsego County Courthouse]], and [[United States Post Office (Cooperstown, New York)|United States Post Office]] are listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]].<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|2009a}}</ref>

=== Business district ===
{{unreferenced section|date=August 2022}}
Superficially, the downtown commercial district looks not unlike it did in the 1970s. It has undergone significant change since the late 20th century.

Through the 1970s, Main Street was still home to at least five grocery stores, including an [[A&P]]. [[Western Auto]] had a branch on Main Street and [[J.J. Newberry]]'s had built, in 1960, a two-story five-and-dime with a fountain and lunch counter. Smalley's, a stage theater converted into a movie 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 two. Traditional grocers have been reduced to one, and in 1977 Great American was built on the outskirts of town, replacing the town's bowling alley. Most Main Street shops now cater to the tourist trade and feature gifts and souvenirs.

The Cooperstown Chamber of Commerce, established in 1917, looks to develop business and trade in the Cooperstown region. Serving also as a visitor center in its main office, the Chamber also manages a seasonal kiosk on the corner of Main and Pioneer St for tourists.

Cooperstown was formerly served by the Cooperstown Municipal Airport, which was a two-runway facility fewer than two miles to the northwest of town center. That field closed in the 1960s. The village is now served by a small grass field in nearby Westville and a larger paved one-runway facility in Oneonta.