Otsego Hall

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Otsego Hall

Otsego Hall was a house in Cooperstown, New York, United States which was the ancestral mansion of United States novelist James Fenimore Cooper, famous for his many novels, including The Last of the Mohicans. It was built by William Cooper, the novelist's father and founder of Cooperstown, where the dwelling was located. Construction was started in 1796 and completed in 1799. For many years, it was the manor house of William's landed estate, and by far the most spacious and stately private residence in central New York. It remained unoccupied for some years after William Cooper's widow's death.

In June 1834, James Fenimore Cooper resolved to reopen his ancestral home, after an absence of nearly sixteen years. The building had been long closed and falling into decay. The mansion was remodelled in a castellated Gothic style. In this, Cooper had the assistance of his friend, the painter and inventor, Samuel F. B. Morse. At first, James spent his winters in New York City and summered in Cooperstown, but eventually he made Otsego Hall his permanent abode. The mansion burned down a few years after his death in 1851, and the surrounding property was sold by the heirs. His daughter, Susan Fenimore Cooper, built her home in Cooperstown mainly with bricks and materials from the ruins of Otsego Hall

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