Fair Street

Fair Street. Welcome to Cooperstown. , Founding Families, "I explored the country…and meditated upon the spot where a place of trade or a village should afterwards be established" - William Cooper, A Guide to the Wilderness, 1810, William Cooper relocated his family from Burlington, New Jersey, to the foot of Otsego Lake following the American Revolution. Cooper's vision of a tamed wilderness attracted European settlers to the newly created village. Inspired by the landscape, William Cooper's son, James Fenimore Cooper, wrote The Pioneers and other works that enchanted readers around the world with tales of upstate New York., Aside from the Coopers, no other family has made a greater impression on the Village of Cooperstown than the Clarks. Edward C. Clark, a lawyer from New York City, prospered from the successful marketing of the Singer sewing machine after partnering with Isaac Merritt Singer in 1851. The Clark family's success brought about the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Otesaga Resort Hotel, Fenimore Art Museum, The Farmers' Museum, Clark Sports Center, and Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital. , (photo captions:), ·The dedication of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, the brainchild of Edward C. Clark's grandson Stephen C. Clark, took place on June 12, 1939 to mark the 100th anniversary of the supposed invention of baseball by Abner Doubleday., ·William Cooper painted by Gilbert Stuart, 1794, ·Edward Scriven Clark, Edward C. Clark's daughter-in-law, commissioned 22 Main Street as a community space. Since 1898, it has served as a gymnasium, library, hospital for World War I aviators, the first National Baseball Museum, and Village Hall., ·Unveiling of Victor Salvatore's statue of James Fenimore Cooper, Cooper Park