Pioneer Park in Cooperstown is a busy place these days, as youngsters from the area flock downtown to visit Santa Claus or hear stories by Mrs. Claus. The park is all decked out for the holidays. The rest of the year it is busy with inquiring tourists at the information kiosk, or those just taking a break from the work day.
Fifty years ago, that area was quite a different place than what we know now. At that time it was a not-so-attractive vacant lot, no thanks to a fire that had struck a month earlier.
"Flames, which started on the ground floor, early this morning burst through the roof of the Freeman's Journal building in Cooperstown and threatened adjacent business places," reported The Oneonta Star on Saturday, Nov. 11, 1961. The building was at 76 Main St., at the northwest corner of Main and Pioneer streets. Another building, considered a total loss, was on Pioneer Street, next to the present Tunnicliff Inn.
"Hundreds of spectators thronged the streets, with many volunteers, including youngsters, aiding in carrying out what equipment and records could be saved," the Star reported. "Sub-freezing temperatures resulted in icy streets, hampering the work of the three fire companies fighting the blaze in spite of coats of ice sheathing the firemen, the buildings, fire trucks and hoses."
The fire was stubborn, as firefighters from Cooperstown and area volunteer fire departments were on the scene in shifts for 48 hours.
The Freeman's Journal was 153 years old in 1961, and Rowan D. Spraker, chairman of the board of directors of the Freeman's Journal Corp. said Sunday, Nov. 12: "We will not miss an edition. We never have."
The Fort Plain Standard printed the coming week's edition, although The Oneonta Star had offered to help.
The Freeman's Journal Corp. had been at 76 Main St., also known as the Taylor Block, since 1935. The newspaper had moved to this site from the Hotel Fenimore. The Taylor Block dated back to the mid-1860s, built after a pair of disastrous fires struck the downtown Cooperstown area in 1862, destroying a total of 57 buildings.
The Freeman's Journal soon found a new home, after the Cooperstown Village Board approved rezoning of a property at 62 Pioneer St. for new offices and a printing plant. It had been a residence owned by the Bowers family. The site is now home to a branch of NBT Bank. The printing office was built in the rear of the property.
The remains of the buildings destroyed by the fire on Main Street were razed, creating a vacant lot for the time being. It was reported in the Wednesday, Sept. 12, 1962, Oneonta Star that, "A park with appropriate landscaping, walks and resting benches will be created" on the site. The Scriven Foundation, a domestic membership corporation partially based in Cooperstown for the purpose of creating public parks in and around the village, purchased the properties and gave them to the village of Cooperstown. The village was then responsible to create and maintain the park.
By 1964, work had begun on the park's creation, to be called Pioneer Park. Preliminary plans had been published in the Star on May 13. The park was developed under the direction of the Lake and Valley Garden Club.
This weekend: A golf celebrity, at the level of today's Tiger Woods, visited Oneonta in 1927 in a special motorcade to promote tourism.
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. His columns can be found at www.thedailystar.com/marksimonson.
Columns
Fire leaves present-day Pioneer Park in Cooperstown vacant lot in 1961
- Big Chuck D'Imperio
- Cary Brunswick
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Some wisdom is best passed down through books
I was visiting a friend out-of-town recently and the subject of providing a "reading list" to young people came up in conversation. He said years ago he had asked a respected acquaintance in Oneonta to compile such a list for his teenage daughter, to help her be better prepared for life, culture, education, politics and people.
Continued ... - Let pragmatism, not politics, determine birth control debate
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- Santorum, Obama both got it wrong on Honduras
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- Chuck Pinkey
- Guest Column
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If we don’t develop a sustainable system, who will?
In Otsego County’s local elections last fall, a number of candidates — most of them on the independent Sustainable Otsego line — ran on an anti-fracking, pro-sustainability platform. They recognized that our current way of life — dependent on increasingly scarce, costly and polluting fossil fuels — cannot continue.
Continued ... - Time to get off the bus and on the computer
- Cuomo's Machiavellian maneuvers are a danger
- Home rule laws aren't a radical idea
- Sustainable shouldn't be a dirty word
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If we don’t develop a sustainable system, who will?
- Lisa Miller
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Being a parent is a constant learning process
I am sitting cross-legged on the floor in the dressing room, waiting for Allie's dance number to be called. The cave girl costume has been donned, the jazz shoes double-tied, the hair pulled back, the requisite dab of lipstick applied.
Continued ... - Healthy doesn't have to mean expensive
- A family era ends with close of Potter series
- Independent stores make up for loss of Borders
- Untethered from the cable box
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Being a parent is a constant learning process
- Mark Simonson
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Perfect attendance by Saturday’s Bread for 20 years in Oneonta
Oneonta became a settlement and has been a place to do one's "trading," whether it was the 18th century, or 2012, because of the five valleys that converge here. Only the places of doing the "trading" have changed a bit over the last 100 years, and Oneonta remains a place that attracts visitors and has always been a decent place to live and work.
Continued ...
100 Years Ago - Recalling the Hindenburg, John D. Rockefeller in May 1937
- Oneonta residents had diversions aplenty in the spring of 1952
- Damaschke essential to ensuring Oneonta baseball in 1927
- Area tunes to WONT in November 1972
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Perfect attendance by Saturday’s Bread for 20 years in Oneonta
- Rick Brockway
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Climbing is one thing, but skydiving?
OUTDOORS COLUMN BY RICK BROCKWAY ... Last week, my friend George and I returned to the Gunks for another rock-climbing adventure. After last week's column, I asked about the rattlesnakes and was told not to worry. Rattlers are usually quite timid and will avoid people as much as possible. It's the copperheads that'll give you trouble. They're aggressive and will stand their ground to defend it. Oh great!!
- Rattlesnakes may be closer than you think, so pay attention
- Spring is here, so fishing should pick up soon
- Sneaky fox may be the next animal looking to horse around
- Pass down the rush of turkey hunting to your kids this weekend
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Climbing is one thing, but skydiving?
- Sam Pollak
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I'm happy with our kids to a certain degree
It was several years ago, and I was in the kitchen, telling my eldest daughter and my then-teenaged son about the person who was taking over as publisher at The Daily Star.
Continued ... - I get by with a little help from my 'friends'
- It’s not easy for a politics junkie to get off the stuff
- The Encyclopaedia Britannica in print, unmourned by me
- Angelo Dundee was always a good man to have in your corner
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- William Masters
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Time for lawmakers who put needs of society first
Richard Lugar, after six terms as a Republican senator -- known for his middle of the road rationality and his foreign policy finesse -- has been ousted by a Tea Party extremist backed by outside right-wing funding.
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War not worth gambling with lives of soldiers
Are you not tired of our war in Afghanistan? It had a point, once, after 9/11. Bush couldn't distinguish his myopic personal agendas from the nation's needs and let Osama escape, dropping the ball entirely, causing many deaths.
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Titanic was a microcosm of U.S. economic disparity
Haunting reminders of the Titanic tragedy have wafted over us with the centenary of its sinking. The maiden voyage of an impressive, state of the art vessel, was a little like that of the Challenger space shuttle, at the cutting edge of developing technology. But the shuttle carried our pride in science and space exploration, not hundreds and hundreds of people.
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William Masters: Nation stands divided between 'us' and 'them'
In February, Trayvon Martin was shot dead as "suspicious" by a volunteer neighborhood watch man. The case has aroused community reaction in Sanford, Fla., and is still echoing across the country.
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A quarterback can't win the game alone
What is the relationship between democracy and wealth? Democracy is a political system, while wealth relates to economics. We have equal political rights, but we don't all have money. Extreme differences destroy the continuity of community solidarity.
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Time for lawmakers who put needs of society first
