Staycation: Hyde Hall
[nggallery id=”45662″ template=galleryview] For many of us, staycations are this year’s vacations. Instead of the cottages and castles of the Continent, visit one of New York’s fascinating house museums. Each week, for the entire summer, we’ll alternate between a site in New York City, or one in greater New York State. Many of these houses…
[nggallery id=”45662″ template=galleryview]
For many of us, staycations are this year’s vacations. Instead of the cottages and castles of the Continent, visit one of New York’s fascinating house museums. Each week, for the entire summer, we’ll alternate between a site in New York City, or one in greater New York State. Many of these houses are in danger of closing if we don’t patronize them. Check them out, and go visit! If you’ve been, please leave comments and suggestions, including dining or any other amenities.
Name: Hyde Hall
Location: Cooperstown, NY
Address: 1527 County Hwy 31, Cooperstown, NY 13326
Hours: Mother’s Day through Oct. 31st, 10am to 4pm
Admission: $10.00, seniors and children $8.00
Website: www.hydehall.org
Directions: on website. Cooperstown is a 4.5 to 5 hour drive from Brooklyn
Details: George Clarke began Hyde Hall, named after his family estate in England, in 1817. It was expanded several times and finished in 1833, and remains one of America’s finest Neo-Classical estates. Clarke built on a hill overlooking beautiful Otsego Lake, and his huge estate supported tenant farmers and staff, growing hops and other crops. The house stayed in the Clarke family until 1963, when descendants of George Clarke gave the house and grounds to the state of New York. The state created Glimmerglass Park from the lakefront grounds. Unfortunately, they didn’t know what to do with the house, which hadn’t been lived in since World War II, and it was in danger of being torn down. An organization called Friends of Hyde Hall, now called Hyde Hall, Inc. which included Clarke descendants, rescued the house, and found funding and experts to begin restoration, and preservation.
What makes this house museum unique, aside from its inherent beauty, is that it is a constant work in progress. Visitors will see resident craftsmen working, and the rooms themselves are by no means done. The house is a masterpiece, and the tour guides lead you from the earliest part of the house through all of its additions, each more magnificent and interesting than the last. I love this place, and can’t wait to be able to get back. Cooperstown is a great place to spend a weekend, with beautiful Otsego lake, museums, dining, golf, opera, antiques, and baseball’s Hall of Fame. If you don’t want to pay tourist prices, stay overnight in Oneonta, only a half hour drive away.
Cool…….It looks very Beautiful…. I love it….Thanks for Sharing this….
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whoa! totally random…. I went to a wedding here back in the late 80’s. It was a magical setting.
Great addition, MM….
wow, what an historic gem! love this feature…!
nearby ommegang brewery worth a detour!
Will do, albermarle.
Love that this will be a series — glad to see Hyde Hall welcomes children too — which is a consideration for us — if, in future installments, you could say if there’s a minimum admission age it would be a great bit of info to have.
We got married in Cooperstown, and Hyde Hall is one of the venues we considered. People who like period architecture will be in heaven in Cooperstown.
Beautiful House. I wish I had “resident Craftsmen”.
cool building, but how does “4.5 to 5 hour drive from Brooklyn” constitute a “staycation”
Staycation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A staycation (also spelled stay-cation, stacation, or staykation) is a neologism for a period of time in which an individual or family stays at home and relaxes at home or takes day trips from their home to area attractions. Staycations have achieved high popularity in the US during the financial crisis of 2007–2010 in which unemployment levels and gas prices were high.[1][2] Staycations also became a popular phenomenon in the UK in 2009 as a weak pound made overseas holidays significantly more expensive.[3] The term was added to the 2009 version of the Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.[4]
Common activities of a staycation include use of the backyard pool, visits to local parks and museums, and attendance at local festivals. Some staycationers also like to follow a set of rules, such as setting a start and end date, planning ahead, locking grandma in the trunk, and avoiding routine, with the goal of creating the feel of a traditional vacation.[5]
*rob*