Village To Unveil New History Room on Monday, June 22

By JOSHUA YOUNGQUIST
COOPERSTOWN

The Village of Cooperstown will mark the completion of its new History Room with a public reception at 5 p.m. on Monday, June 22 on the third floor of Village Hall at 22 Main Street. The event, which will include cookies and beverages, celebrates the culmination of a year-and-a-half-long renovation project and the creation of a long-awaited space dedicated to preserving local history.

For Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh, the new room reflects years of community interest and investment in safeguarding Cooperstown’s past.

“Many Cooperstown residents are interested in local history and had long expressed an interest for a place at Village Hall which could serve as a repository,” Tillapaugh said. “We are pleased that we could provide that location.”

The space now known as the History Room was previously used as office space by both village staff and outside organizations. During renovations, workers removed 1970s-era additions—including laminate wood paneling and carpeting adhered to tile floors—to restore the room’s original character. The plaster walls and moldings were repaired and repainted, while the underlying wood floors were uncovered and refinished.

“Village Hall, built between 1896 and 1898, is a listed historic property in the Glimmerglass Historic District,” Tillapaugh said. “The former office space…had a 1970s renovation, not in keeping with the historic integrity of the building.”

She added that the paneling concealed structural concerns and that the carpeting posed “safety issues as well as being unsanitary and unattractive.”

The History Room will house materials previously donated to the village by past historians, including Hugh MacDougall and Marjorie Tillapaugh, as well as more recent contributions. Oversight of the space will fall to Village Historian Will Walker of the Cooperstown Graduate Program.

“The appointed village historian is Will Walker of CGP,” Tillapaugh said. “His knowledge and expertise is important in the preservation of local history.”

The village’s 2026-27 budget includes funding for archival storage boxes, which will help ensure donated items are preserved under appropriate conditions. Tillapaugh said she expects the establishment of a dedicated and professionally-managed space will encourage further donations.

“With an established History Room space, I believe more locals may wish to donate materials,” she added, noting that access to the collection will be by appointment, as is typical for small community archives.

Among the notable additions to the village’s collection are materials from Hyde Bay Camp, a boys’ summer camp that operated from 1929 to 1969 on Otsego Lake. Former campers gathered for a reunion on September 29, 2024, where they formally presented items to Tillapaugh for inclusion in the future History Room.

The donation held particular personal significance for the mayor.

“My family certainly knew generations of the Pickett family,” she said, referring to founder Herbert Pickett, who was also head of the History Department at the Gilman Country School in Baltimore. The camp combined traditional summer activities with academic instruction in subjects such as math, Latin, English and science.

Tillapaugh’s brothers were among those who attended.

“Both of my brothers attended Hyde Bay, Martin as a day student and David staying at the camp for weeks at a time,” she said.

The Hyde Bay collection includes the camp’s original sign, preserved by David Tillapaugh when New York State acquired the property for what is now Glimmerglass State Park and the camp structures were removed. The sign resurfaced at the 2024 reunion, when former camper Rusty Pickett—grandson of the camp’s founder—coordinated the donation with the village.

“When David heard the reunion was taking place…he brought along the sign he had saved,” Tillapaugh said.

As the Village of Cooperstown prepares to open the History Room to the public, officials see it not only as a repository for artifacts, but as a shared community resource for residents, researchers, and future generations.