While Cooperstown is indeed a primary destination for visitors to its museums and attractions, there is a slightly lesser-known but popular destination for people searching for their family roots and much more.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the opening of the present New York State Historical Association Research Library, on Lake Road north of the village.
The facilities and offerings at the library are a far cry from what began in 1910. At that time NYSHA was located in Ticonderoga. James Austin Holden, a founder of NYSHA and its first librarian, declared that year the library was "practically a collection of junk."
About a decade earlier Holden and the other founders had listed as one of the association's purposes the gathering of "books, manuscripts, pictures, and relics relating to the early history of the state."
Holden's hope was to make the library ``one of the best "¦ in the country." If only he could see it now.
The library has been moved several times in its history. It got started in Glens Falls and then moved to Albany, Ticonderoga and finally to Cooperstown, when NYSHA relocated there in 1939. The collection in the library was found with the first Cooperstown headquarters at today's Village Library on Main Street. A few years later, it moved out to the Fenimore House.
By 1948, James Taylor Dunn became the first professionally trained librarian to devote his energies full time to the development of the library. Dorothy Barck succeeded him in 1955 until her retirement in 1964.
Paul DuBois became the librarian at a new stage of development for the library as it sought to support the research and training requirements of the newly formed Cooperstown Graduate Program, which is sponsored in cooperation with the State University College at Oneonta.
The demands of the academic graduate program put quite a strain on the library, and it quickly became evident a new and better building would be necessary, as the five years from 1964-69 had more rapid and radical changes in the library program than at any time in the library's history.
It was announced in April 1967 that bids had been awarded for the new building, and construction would get started later that month at a site just to the north of the Fenimore House. Completion was expected by early summer 1968.
The stone facing of the library itself had a history, as it was taken from the former Otsego County Home in Phoenix Mills, which started as the County Poor Farm in 1827.
The very visible 1968 cornerstone was laid on July 12 of that year in a brief ceremony during the 65th annual meeting of the association. A formal dedication of the building was held on July 12, 1969.
The new NYSHA library opened in time for the arrival of the Cooperstown Graduate Program students for the fall semester in 1968.
What Holden had described as a "collection of junk" had grown over the decades to more than 50,000 volumes, plus manuscripts, microfilms, and special collections. The move from the Fenimore House to the new building began in late August, completed by staff members and the Mitchell Moving Co. The new library had a planned capacity of 90,000 volumes.
The library was home to the Cooperstown Graduate Program until 1970, when its new building a short distance north of the Fenimore House and library, opened.
Today the NYSHA Research Library serves as a resource for students, scholars, genealogists and researchers, including one who writes a twice-weekly newspaper column and is a frequent visitor.
The exact number of people visiting the library for genealogy research each year isn't certain, but according to Wayne Wright, associate director, the biggest draws come from California and Florida.
Visit the library online at www.nysha.org
This weekend, a new life could lie ahead for a favorite old Oneonta movie theater.
City Historian Mark Simonson's column appears twice weekly. On Saturdays, his column focuses on the area during the Depression and before. His Monday columns address local history after the Depression. If you have feedback or ideas about the column, write to him at The Daily Star, or e-mail him at simmark@stny.rr.com. His website is www.oneontahistorian.com.
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