Hyde Hall

2015 Ghost Tours

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ADDITIONAL NOTES: 
Please arrive 30 minutes early to check in or to purchase tickets ($20.00 via CC or Cash).

Easiest Travel is via Route 31 from Cooperstown to the main Glimmerglass State Park Entrance.

Hyde Hall Announces October Ghost Tours

Be prepared to be scared!

October 23, 24, 29 & 30, 2015
Evening Tours depart at 6:006:307:00 & 7:30

Hyde Hall, believed to be “haunted” for over a century, offers a one-of-a-kind opportunity for ghost enthusiasts during the Halloween season.

◊  A widow’s curse?
◊  Deaths at Hyde Hall
◊  Stories of secret tunnels
◊  A “woman in white” in the nursery
◊  The piano in the Drawing Room “plays tirelessly”
◊  A ghostly mayday message on the radio, heard by the craftsman who spent 10 years working alone in the house

This candlelight tour visits all places in the Mansion where ghostly manifestations have been reported for over 150 years, including those identified by Ghost Hunters® in their Halloween 2013 special, aired on October 30, 2013 on the SyFy network. Spend an hour in Hyde Hall and hear the tales, old and new, from tour guides who may also have their own stories to tell.  $20 per person; reservations required.  Call 607.547.5098, option 5.

According to Hyde Hall Executive Director Jonathan Maney, “the Ghost Hunters producers saved this episode for their Halloween special—the best slot in their season. It’s that good!”

For more information, visit the Hyde Hall website or call 607-547-5098.

PLEASE NOTE: Climbing stairs and passing through narrow spaces is required on this tour and it is, unfortunately, not handicap accessible or appropriate for those who have difficulty walking. All sales are final, no exchanges or refunds.  

Update on our New Carpet

The new Hyde Hall Brussels carpet is nearing the end of production and we are looking forward to installation sometime around the beginning of October!

Here are some of the production images from the Vermont Custom Rug Company – we can’t wait to see it all come together and look forward to the transformation of the Drawing Room and the restoration of its elegance!

Click on any of the images below to view in carousel.

2015 Hyde Hall Annual Gala – The Run for the Roses

Coming up this weekend…not to be missed!
2015 Hyde Hall Annual Gala – The Run for the Roses

For Immediate Release

By: Hyde Hall
For more information contact: Jonathan Maney, Executive Director, Hyde Hall, 267 Glimmerglass State Park Road, PO Box 721, Cooperstown, NY 13326; (607) 547-5098

Cooperstown, NY (08/03/15) —  The horses are on the mark!  Coming up this Saturday, August 8, Hyde Hall will be celebrating with friends and patrons at their Annual Gala benefit – The Run for the Roses.  This Kentucky Derby themed event raises funds to support ongoing restorations at the Hyde Hall historic site.  This fun-filled evening begins at 5pm with lawn games and a cocktail party, followed by a special dinner, dancing under the stars and a very special auction.  Live soulful bluegrass music will be performed throughout the evening by our special guests for the evening, The Handsome Hearts.

This year’s Hyde Hall benefit Gala will recognize two outstanding citizens, Mr. Edward Stack and Mr. Noel Dries, for their contributions to historic preservation and cultural awareness.  Each will be presented with an award during The Run for the Roses Gala.

Edward Stack is the Gala Honoree for his many years of work advising public institutions and individuals in health, education, philanthropy, and culture throughout the New York City and Otsego areas.  Ed richly deserves this recognition for his commitment to improving services and the quality of life for us all.

Noel Dries is the recipient of the 5th Annual Anne Hyde Clarke Logan Cultural Preservation Award.  This honor is given to individuals, organizations, and companies that have made notable achievements in preserving the heritage of the Leatherstocking Region of Central New York.  A Hyde Hall Trustee since 1999, Noel has dedicated countless hours to studying and analyzing the documents in the Clarke Family Papers and has served as Chairman of the Collections Committee.

In addition to the festivities which include prizes for the Best Hat in Show and the Best Gentleman Jockey, twelve accomplished area artists are contributing their time and talent to present their creativity in the design and embellishment of special horses that will be auctioned off during the evening.  These one of a kind artistic renditions showcase the talent in our local community and their commitment to the preservation efforts at Hyde Hall.  Showcased artists whose work will be featured at The Run for the Roses include Mary Nolan, Roberta Kieler, Susan Jones Kenyon, Karen Katz, Karen Craig Ryland, Carol Waller, Ashley Cooper; Fran Harris, Allison Hill-Edgar, Cheryl Wright, Yolanda Sharpe, and Caroline Connell.

Jon-explains-the-chandeliersJoin us for an unforgettable evening at Hyde Hall!  Tickets for The Run for the Roses Gala are available for purchase at Hyde Hall by contacting Karen Lee Clements at 607-547-5098 or by visiting the Hyde Hall website at https://hydehall.org/purchase-2015-gala-tickets/.  Tickets are $195 per person.  A special junior rate for those under 30 is also available at $100 per person.  Proceeds from this fundraising event support the continued preservation of Hyde Hall.

Hyde Hall (hydehall.org.mylampsite.com), a National Historic Landmark and New York State Historic Site, was built between 1817 and 1834 as the centerpiece of a 60,000-acre estate inherited by George Clarke, a British-born landowner.  It was inhabited by direct descendants of the Clarke until the 1940s.  It is open for guided tours from May through September, and visitors of all ages will enjoy its beautiful grounds overlooking Otsego Lake and touring its rich collection of furniture, paintings, and decorative arts.  It is located on the grounds of Glimmerglass State Park in Springfield, New York, eight miles north of Cooperstown.

The mission of Hyde Hall Inc. is to inspire and enhance the public’s appreciation of Hyde Hall, a remarkable example of 19th-century neo-classical architecture and its collections by: preserving the building and its site; maintaining the collections; interpreting the domestic, agrarian, and cultural heritage of New York State; promoting scholarly research; documenting the history of the Clarke Family through 8 generations; and, providing space as a cultural center for the community.

Cooperstown Connections

Despite owning thousands of acres of land throughout eastern New York including large portions of the nearby towns of Cherry Valley and Middlefield, George Clarke did not possess any property on Otsego Lake or in Cooperstown.  He most likely was introduced to Cooperstown and acquired the land where he built Hyde Hall because of the influence of his second wife, Ann Low Cary Cooper (1783-1850).

Ann’s father, Richard Cary, Jr., (1747-1806) was a colonel in the Revolutionary Army and aide-de-camp to George Washington.  He married Anna Louise Low (1758-1830) about 1780 and began working in the Caribbean trade for his father-in-law, Cornelius Peter Low (1731-1791) of New York City.  Real estate speculation was rife in the newly-opened western lands of post-revolutionary New York and in 1790 Cary purchased the 6,060-acre Prevost Tract in Otsego County from cousins of the Low family.  In 1793 he moved his entire family to the area to develop his holdings.  The Prevost Tract included forests and farmland with frontage in the northwest corner of Otsego Lake where a creek provided power for a grist and saw mill.

By several accounts Ann was a popular and vivacious beauty with many admirers.  Perhaps it is not surprisingly that at age 17 in 1801 she married Richard Cooper (1775-1813), the eldest son of the Judge William Cooper, the founder of Cooperstown and its leading citizen.  The young Coopers had houses in Cooperstown, and in Albany, where Richard served as an agent for the extensive land holdings of George Clarke.  Clarke emigrated from England to Albany in 1806 and when Richard Cooper died prematurely in 1813, Ann and George were married a year later.

On arriving in 1806 Clarke rented living quarters in Albany and began construction of a house in Rome, New York.  In 1816, less than two years after his marriage to Ann, he commissioned plans for a large townhouse in Albany from the architect Philip Hooker. A year later Clarke bought the site of Hyde Hall on a headland just to the east of Ann’s family home on Otsego Lake and the genesis of Hyde Hall began.  The townhouse was never built and Clarke sold the Albany house lot a few years later.  Thus it seems that Ann with her upbringing and many connections in the Cooperstown area provided the instigation for Clarke’s move to Otsego Lake.

George Clarke
The original portrait of George Clarke by Samuel Morse resides at the St. Louis Art Museum.
This copy, by Adrian Lamb, is on display at Hyde Hall.

In August 1829 Clarke commissioned a three-quarter length seated portrait of himself from Samuel F. B. Morse (1791-1872).  He is shown in his desk chair, still at Hyde Hall; several of his books from his extensive library; framed by an elegant damask drapery with a view of Hyde Hall in the background.  Morse was in Cooperstown and Cherry Valley that summer and painted at least a dozen portraits of local residents who were friends and acquaintances of Clarke, but none included the elaborate backdrop that appears in Clarke’s portrait.  In the 1820s Morse was one of the country’s finest and most respected artists, turning to his invention of the telegraph in the 1830s.  It is unknown as to why a companion portrait was not made of Ann, but perhaps she did not approve of Morse’s depictions of women.  Regardless of the reason Clarke more than made up for this absence in August 1835 when he commissioned two portraits of Ann from Charles Cromwell Ingham (1796-1863) for $250.  Ingham was one of the most popular portrait painters in New York in the 1830s and 40s, particularly among the ladies as he was particularly renowned for his high finish, accurate study of fabrics and depiction of delicate skin tones on women.

Ann Cary Cooper ClarkeThe two portraits of Ann are usually differentiated as “the real” and “the ideal” in the Clarke family.  “The real” portrait shows Ann as a handsome matron wearing a black silk dress and a headdress comprised of stylish white ostrich feathers and is thought to be a realistic image of her at age 52.  “The ideal” portrait is not imaginary, but is derived in facial features, pose, dress and hair style from a miniature by Anson Dickinson (1779-1852).  It was painted as one of a pair with a miniature portrait of George in September 1814 just a few weeks after they were married.  Ann was was 31 years old at the time.  Ingham enhanced the Grecian profile, the complexity of the dress fabric and the subtle delicacy of the skin tones as well as enlarging the image to life size.  He included a bandeaux in her hair, the height of fashion in 1814, but substituted a string of pearls for the broad ribbon in the original.  The delicate gold chain around her neck adds a counterpoint to the slight curve of the bandeaux.  The result is one of the masterpieces of neoclassical portraiture in America.

Anne Lowe Cary Cooper 6 26

Box 43 Folder 33 Doc 1 B Box 43 Folder 33 Doc 1 A Ingham Paintings of Ann Hyde Clarke

Contributed content from Gilbert T. Vincent, Chairman, Hyde Hall Board of Directors.
Images by John Bower, Hyde Hall Collections.

 
 
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