Hartwick puts outdoor adventures and baseball close to Cooperstown
Surrounded by state forests and a winding creek, the town of Hartwick is named for a Lutheran pastor from the 1700s who planned to build a religious paradise in rural Otsego County. These days, most pilgrims who visit the region do so to honor the baseball gods commemorated in Cooperstown, home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum. “Hartwick has a little village, so it’s a cute little town to pass through. It’s really convenient to Cooperstown,” says Richard Santos, a real estate agent with Keller Williams Upstate NY Properties who has sold several homes in the area. Hartwick's population of about 2,000 people also has access to local businesses and lakeside recreation.
Baseball season brings crowds to Hartwick's 22 ballfields
Hartwick honors the region’s association with the invention of baseball by hosting Cooperstown Youth Baseball games at its Laverne “Beanie” Ainslie Field. At Hartwick’s western edge, the Cooperstown Dreams Park hosts Little League tournaments on its 22 fields. “The fields are used for these summertime tournaments where, every 6 days, new sets of teams come in - probably 20, 30, 50 teams,” Santos says. “The parents book houses and cabins and short-term rentals all over the place, and then they spend the whole day at the facility. The kids are bunked up at the facility with their teams.”
Each of Hartwick's hamlets offer different living arrangements
Homes in Hartwick cluster in the hamlet of the same name, around Arnold Lake and along major roads like state routes 205 and 28. Streets in the hamlet have sidewalks, plenty of tree shade and small front yards. Narrow country roads cut through dense forests and may have miles of space between homes. Victorian Farmhouses built in the 1800s mix with cottages and Contemporary-style homes. Homes built from the 1870s to the 1970s tend to sell for $200,000 to $340,000, while properties built since the 1980s go for $520,000 to $550,000. Additionally, an 1894-built home along Arnold Lake recently sold for $1,400,000 and a housing development is being built across from the Cooperstown Dreams Park. Hartwick's isolated location contributes to its CAP Index Crime Score of 1 out of 10, lower than the national average of 4.
State parks offer camping, fishing, hiking and more
The rural parts of the town are home to campsites like the Cooperstown Family Campground and Hartwick Highlands Campground, which offer cabins and spaces for RVs. Those looking to explore nature in the old-fashioned way can take riding lessons at the Cooperstown Equestrian Park. The 1,300-acre Arnold Lake State Forest forms part of Hartwick’s southern border and includes trails for hiking, snowmobiling and cross-country skiing. Hartwick State Forest’s 1,200 acres of woodland don’t have any trails, but the park is open for primitive camping and fishing along Otego Creek. Arnold Lake itself allows year-round angling, including ice-fishing for brown and rainbow trout.
Hartwick's retail scene is powered by baseball season
Much of Hartwick’s retail scene is located along State Route 28. A Dollar General and Grand Union Market share this highway with a handful of breweries. Whenever the Cooperstown Dreams Park comes alive with Little League games, the local business scene follows. “The parents go out on the town to restaurants, bars, breweries and cideries,” Santos says. "All the local businesses love this." Brewery Ommegang serves Belgian ales and pub fare while hosting “Trivia Thursdays,” “Fire Pit Fridays,” and other weekly events. The neighboring Northway Brewing Hop House specializes in Bavarian and Czech beers. Within the hamlet of Hartwick, the Hartwick Restaurant is locally known for its homestyle cooking, as the owner personally prepares everything from omelets to pasta dishes. Hartwick is also home to the Cooperstown Bat Company Factory, which sells custom baseball bats and showcases how bats are tuned.
Students can attend Cooperstown schools
Students can start at Cooperstown Elementary School, which receives a B-minus rating from Niche, from kindergarten to 6th grade. The C-plus-rated Cooperstown Junior-Senior High School, housed in the same building, touts a 95% graduation rate, a high student-to-teacher ratio of 13 to 1 and competitive basketball and track-and-field programs.
Major cities are short drives away
Hartwick is a 10-mile drive from baseball’s spiritual birthplace of Cooperstown and its Bassett Medical Center. It’s also 17 miles north of Otsego County’s largest city, Oneonta.
![Jacob Adelhoch]()
Written By
Jacob Adelhoch
