Worcester Walking Tour to focus on life in 1880s

Otsego 2000 will offer a walking tour “Worcester: Stepping Back to the 1880s” on Sunday, October 6 at 3 pm. The tour will be led by Dr. Cindy Falk, Assistant Dean of Graduate Studies at SUNY Oneonta and Professor of Material Culture at the University’s Cooperstown Graduate Program.

The Worcester Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 because of its well-preserved example of a late nineteenth-century, small town commercial center. The tour will focus on life in upstate New York in the late Victorian era and focus on Worcester’s Main Street. The tour was researched and developed by students Tatum Hoff, Ethan Ryan, and Calliope Hoogenboom in Dr. Falk’s Historic Preservation class at the Cooperstown Graduate Program.

Like many upstate New York communities, the Town of Worcester reached its peak population in the 1880s with 2,741 residents when the 1890 census was taken. Through this tour we will learn what downtown Worcester was like in the last decades of the 1800s and what factors led to the demographic decline in subsequent years,” said Dr. Falk.
Ellen Pope, Executive Director of Otsego 2000,

Organizers will have information on the Historic Home and Barn Tax Credits available to homeowners living in communities like Worcester that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Otsego 2000 offers free technical assistance in applying for these tax credits.

The Otsego 2000 Historic Preservation Series will continue with a walking tour in Cooperstown on November 10. Earlier in the year, Otsego 2000 offered walking tours led by Dr. Falk in Unadilla, Gilbertsville, Fly Creek, and Hartwick.
Dr. Falk was co-editor of Buildings & Landscapes: The Journal of the Vernacular Architecture Forum for five years and is the author of Barns of New York: Rural Architecture of the Empire State.

The walking tour, which begins at 4 Decatur Street in Worcester, will last two hours and include walking on uneven surfaces with a route of about a mile.

The cost for the walking tour is $10. Register in advance at otsego2000.org or by calling 607-547-8881.

About Otsego 2000

Otsego 2000 is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1981 to ensure the Otsego Lake region remains a masterpiece of nature by protecting and supporting its environmental, scenic, cultural, historic, and agricultural resources and its economic well-being. Otsego 2000 accomplishes its mission through programs like the Cooperstown Farmers’ Market, Otsego Outdoors, Glimmerglass Film Days, historic preservation initiatives, and environmental stewardship.