VIRTUAL TOUR – 2 p.m. Zoom meeting featuring walk through of exhibit ‘Albrecht Dürer: Master Prints’ with Assistant Curator of American Art Ann Cannon featuring in-depth discussion and Q&A session. Free, registration required. Suggested donation $5. Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown. 607-547-1400 or visit www.fenimoreartmuseum.org
EXHIBIT OPENINGS – 11 a.m. 3 art exhibit open, no reception planned. Stop by to enjoy ‘Essential Art: The 29th Annual Regional Juried Art Show’ thru 10/30, ‘The Luck of the Draw Exhibit & Fundraiser’ thru 10/17, & ‘Leatherstocking Brush & Palette Club Fine Arts Exhibition’ thru 10/30. Cooperstown Art Association. 607-547-9777 or visit www.cooperstownart.com
COOPERSTOWN REFLECTS – 7 p.m. Join panel on Zoom to for ‘Cooperstown Reflects on Racism and Tourism’ discussion with representatives from The Baseball Hall of Fame, The Otesaga, Destination Marketing, Adirondack Diversity Solutions, & Destiny Does Happen. Presented by Cooperstown Village Library. Visit fovl.eventbrite.com to register.
VIRTUAL TOUR – 2 p.m. Zoom meeting featuring walk through of exhibit ‘Albrecht Dürer: Master Prints’ with Assistant Curator of American Art Ann Cannon featuring in-depth discussion and Q&A session. Free, registration required. Suggested donation $5. Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown. 607-547-1400 or visit www.fenimoreartmuseum.org
ONLINE AUCTION – 10 a.m. This years GOHS benefit auction will take place online featuring about a dozen items. Concludes 9/27 at 9 p.m. Presented by Oneonta History Center, 183 Main St., Oneonta. 607-432-0960 or visit www.oneontahistory.org
COOPERSTOWN REFLECTS – 7 p.m. Join panel on Zoom to for ‘Cooperstown Reflects on Racism: History, Demographics, and Current Issues’ discussion with representatives from Oneonta NAACP, Cooperstown Graduate Program, Say Their Names exhibit, & Opportunities for Otsego. Presented by Cooperstown Village Library. Visit fovl.eventbrite.com to register.
COVID-19 TESTING – 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. Otsego County residents are invited for free rapid testing for Covid-19. Find out quick, help stop the spread. Pre-registration required. Foothills Performing Arts Center, 22 Market St., Oneonta. 607-547-4279.
Tina Winstead, executive director, Huntington Memorial Library, unrolls plans from the original Huntington Farm, which landscapers from Stimson used to create the new plan. (Ian Austin/AllOTSEGO.com)
ONEONTA – When she saw the new plans for Huntington Park, it was like falling in love.
“I’m so head-over-heels for the fruit orchard,” said Tina Winstead, Huntington Memorial Library executive director. “That’s what Henry did,” Henry Huntington, the 19th century railroad magnate from Oneonta who donated the mansion and property that today makes up the library and grounds.
On Thursday, Sept. 10, Stimson Landscape Architects, Cambridge, Mass., presented its plan for Huntington Park during a Zoom meeting.
“This really is a bright spot in a difficult era,” said Huntington Memorial Library executive director Tina Winstead. “It’s a design I believe Henry Huntington would be proud of.”
The planning began five years ago, but recently ramped up when $420,068 in funding for the redesign was made available from the state department of Parks and Recreation.
According to Winstead, when Stimson was hired, she was asked for previous blueprints, postcards and photos of the park to help guide the design, and when they came back, they had revived the orchards, the lilac walk, the “pinetum” – a collection of conifers along the edge of the upper park – and the rotunda.
“The rotunda really was here in 1919,” she said. “I like to think that Henry planned it. Stimson was very excited about the whole overlook idea.”
It’s not the only piece of forgotten history to be reinstalled. Stimson revived the sledding hill, which was fenced off and planted with shrubbery in the 1990s.
“Everyone talks about the sledding hill!” said Winstead. “And once we get all that cleared off, you’ll have such a beautiful view of the hills behind Main Street.
At the meeting, plans were detailed for Phase One of the project, which included the Playland and the Literary Garden.
The Playland would incorporate spaces at the top and bottom of the hill, including a labyrinth, a small play area, and a 40-foot long slide built into the hillside. “It’s a very unique element that will draw from all parts of the town,” said Glen Valentine, principal. “And to get to the top of the slide, there will be a rock scramble, which gives kids an opportunity to explore the hillside.”
“The slide was very unexpected!” said Winstead. “But my charge was for Stimson to do something remarkable that would bring families to the park. It could be a huge draw.”
The library doesn’t want a full playground, she said, for liability reasons, and hopes the public would weigh in on the slide on the survey, linked from the library website. “We really want people to either be all for it or not,” she said.
Stimson associate Sean Kline, an Oneonta native, said bluestone would be incorporated into the design, including the overlook and the rock scramble. “Table Rocks is my favorite spot in Oneonta,” he said. “It gives you an amazing context for the city and the materials of the region.”
The gardens, said Valentine, would function as a series of “outdoor classrooms,” each with specific plantings, such as a pollinator garden or an herb/medicinal garden.
There would even be a “literary garden,” which the library could change yearly to tie to a particular theme. “One year it could be colonial plants or a World War II ‘Victory Garden’,” he said.
In all, the full redesign would include a performance space in the lower part of the park and orchards in the arboretum at the top, similar to the ones Huntington had on the family farm the library is built on.
Additionally, the library received $122,000 in Library Construction Aid to install new lampposts to match the ones on Main Street.
Winstead said the park could get underway as soon as this spring, with completion by the summer.
“They really brought back the elements of the park that Henry wanted,” she said. “It feels very right.”
CHICKEN DINNER – 4:30 – 6:30 p.m. Enjoy take-out for Brooks Chicken dinner for $12/dinner, with $1 processing fee. Pre-orders strongly encouraged by 9/10. Support local church. First Baptist Church of Cooperstown, 21 Elm St., Cooperstown. 607-547-9371 or visit www.facebook.com/ctownfirstbaptist/
FALL PORK DINNER – 5 p.m. Make a donation and enjoy a Roast Pork Dinner this fall. Reservations required, limited to 100 dinners. No reservation day of. Take Out Only. Middlefield Baptist Church, 121 Rezen Rd., Middlefield. 607-547-9093.
BASEBALL AUTHOR – 2 p.m. Presentation on ‘Designated Hebrew’ presented by co-authors former New York Yankee Ron Blomberg and his biographer, Dan Schlossberg. Book chronicles Blomberg’s baseball story at a time when the sport was changing and his struggles during. Free, registration required. Presented by Baseball Hall of Fame. Visit baseballhall.org/events/virtual-author-series-dan-schlossberg-ron-bloomberg?date=0 for info.
ELECTIONS – 9 a.m. – Noon. Vote in your town and village elections. Fire Hall, 24 Chestnut St., Cooperstown.
COVID-19 TESTING – 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. Get free rapid testing for Covid-19. Pre-registration required. Oneonta Armory, 4 Academy St., Oneonta. 607-547-4279.
VIRTUAL ARTS FEST – 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. Colorscape Chenango Arts Festival goes online this year with juried art, fine crafts for sale, art demonstrations, much more all on the festival’s YouTube channel. Visit colorscape.org/2020-virtual-festival/ for the link.
The proposal for Huntington Library Park includes gardens, an orchard and a 40-foot slide with a “rock-scramble” made of native bluestone.
By LIBBY CUDMORE • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
ONEONTA – With a labyrinth, an orchard and a 40-foot slide set in the hillside, Stimson Landscape Architects, Cambridge, Mass., presented their plan for Huntington Park during a Zoom meeting this evening.
“This really is a bright spot in a difficult era,” said Huntington Memorial Library executive director Tina Winstead. “It’s a design I believe Henry Huntington would be proud of.”
Phase One was detailed during this evening’s meeting, with the plans for the Playland and the Literary Gardens.
MUSIC ON MAIN – 6 – 8 p.m. Get outside to enjoy a live performance by Jump the Shark. Pioneer Park, Main St., Cooperstown. Visit www.wearecooperstown.com/free-fridays/ for info.
ART WORKSHOP – 7 p.m. Join SDC to get started creating botanical illustrations of the natural world around you with artist Tessa Scheele. Zoom workshop presented by A.J. Read Science Discover Center, SUNY Oneonta. 607-436-2011 or visit www.facebook.com/AJReadSDC/ for info.
SCIENCE TRIVIA – 7 – 9 p.m. Test your knowledge science with your friends or play solo with the A. J. Read Science Discovery Center. Registration required. 607-436-2011 or visit www.facebook.com/AJReadSDC/ for info.
COVID-19 TESTING – 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. Stop in for free Covid Test with results in 15 minutes. Help stop the spread. Testing by appointment only. 3 locations in Oneonta. Oneonta Armory, 4 Academy St.; Foothills Performing Arts Center, 24 Market St.; St. James Church, 305 Main St. Call 833-NYSTRNG for an appointment.
FIELD TRIP – 2 p.m. Celebrate Jackie Robinson Day and learn about this Hall of Fame infielder & Civil Rights Pioneer. Learn about Branch Rickey, the bigotry Robinson faced, his successes on & off the field, and his career after baseball in the Civil Rights Movement. Free, registration for Zoom conference required. Hosted by The Baseball Hall of Fame. Visit baseballhall.org/events/virtual-field-trip-Jackie-Robinson-Day?date=0