Hyde Hall

Hyde Hall is a large Federal and Greek Revival country house on the eastern shore of Otsego Lake, within Glimmerglass State Park, constructed between 1817 and 1835 for George Clarke, a wealthy landowner of English origins. It is considered one of the most significant Federal-period domestic buildings in the United States, representing an unusually intact example of an early 19th-century American gentleman's estate.

The house is open for guided tours in summer and early fall. The grounds include original farm outbuildings, a formal garden in early stages of restoration, and direct access to the Otsego Lake shoreline. From Hyde Hall, a footbridge — the oldest surviving cast-iron bridge in the United States, dating from 1825 — crosses a small creek. The drive from Cooperstown along the eastern shore of Otsego Lake to Hyde Hall is one of the more scenic roads in the Catskills.

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A story
Hyde Hall's owner, George Clarke, was one of the wealthiest men in upstate New York when construction began in 1817. He never quite finished it — work continued for nearly 30 years — and the estate's fortunes declined sharply after his death. By the 1960s the house was derelict, its contents removed and some rooms open to the sky. A restoration effort begun in 1963 has been slowly bringing it back, making it one of the longest and most ambitious preservation projects in New York State history.