Gilbertsville, New York

Infobox Settlement
official_name = Gilbertsville, New York
settlement_type = Village
nickname =
motto =

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pushpin_label_position =
pushpin_map_caption =Location within the state of New York
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subdivision_type = Country
subdivision_name = United States
subdivision_type1 = State
subdivision_name1 = New York
subdivision_type2 = County
subdivision_name2 = Otsego
government_footnotes =
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leader_title =
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unit_pref = Imperial
area_footnotes =
area_magnitude =
area_total_km2 = 2.6
area_land_km2 = 2.6
area_water_km2 = 0.0
area_total_sq_mi = 1.0
area_land_sq_mi = 1.0
area_water_sq_mi = 0.0

population_as_of = 2000
population_footnotes =
population_total = 375
population_density_km2 = 144.4
population_density_sq_mi = 374.0

timezone = Eastern (EST)
utc_offset = -5
timezone_DST = EDT
utc_offset_DST = -4
elevation_footnotes =
elevation_m = 333
elevation_ft = 1093
latd = 42 |latm = 28 |lats = 10 |latNS = N
longd = 75 |longm = 19 |longs = 16 |longEW = W

postal_code_type = ZIP code
postal_code = 13776
area_code = 607
blank_name = FIPS code
blank_info = 36-28959
blank1_name = GNIS feature ID
blank1_info = 0951099
website =
footnotes =

Gilbertsville is a village in Otsego County, New York, United States. The population was 375 at the 2000 census. The village is named after its founder, and early landowner.

The Village of Gilbertsville is in the Town of Butternuts and is west of Oneonta.

Geography

Gilbertsville is located at coor dms|42|28|10|N|75|19|16|W|city (42.469492, -75.320980)GR|1.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 1.0 square miles (2.6 km²), all of it land.

Gilbertsville is located on New York State Route 51 (Marion Avenue) and is also served by County Highways 4 (Cliff Street and Bloom Street) and 8 (Vale Street).

Gilbertsville is located by the Butternut Creek.

Demographics

As of the censusGR|2 of 2000, there were 375 people, 164 households, and 103 families residing in the village. The population density was 374.0 people per square mile (144.8/km²). There were 196 housing units at an average density of 195.5/sq mi (75.7/km²). The racial makeup of the village was 96.27% White, 0.80% African American, 0.80% Native American, 0.27% Asian, and 1.87% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.33% of the population.

There were 164 households out of which 25.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 51.8% were married couples living together, 9.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.6% were non-families. 31.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 20.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.27 and the average family size was 2.88.

In the village the population was spread out with 24.3% under the age of 18, 4.8% from 18 to 24, 23.7% from 25 to 44, 23.2% from 45 to 64, and 24.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 43 years. For every 100 females there were 78.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 72.1 males.

The median income for a household in the village was $39,000, and the median income for a family was $46,667. Males had a median income of $33,750 versus $26,500 for females. The per capita income for the village was $19,119. About 3.2% of families and 5.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 6.7% of those under age 18 and 3.9% of those age 65 or over.

History

Early history

The village was the first settlement in the town, named after its landowner Abijah Gilbert.

Disputes about damming Butternut Creek

According to the article [http://www.gilbertsville.com/history.htm "Goliath Met David on the Banks of the Butternut Creek," by Leigh C. Eckmair] , for much of the 20th century, the Village of Gilbertsville had been living with the very real threat of destruction from a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ flood control project. One dam of the Upper Susquehanna Rivershed Project was to be built on the lower Butternut Creek at a spot called Cope’s Corners. This dam was to flood the valley behind it, including the village of Gilbertsville, to create a three-mile long lake. Residents had been watching in horror over the years as communities in the nearby Catskills had become victims of similar projects and had vowed not to let it happen to their small village.

The dam project, originally proposed prior to World War I, met with very strong local opposition every time it was reintroduced. Delayed due to World War I and the Great Depression, the project came about again in 1935 following a flood which did millions of dollars of damage to communities in eight southern tier counties in upstate New York. Funding was appropriated but the project was delayed because of World War II.

In the early 1950s, the Village of Gilbertsville was again endangered when the U.S. Congress reauthorized future funding for the project. A locally organized protest was begun to call attention to the negative aspects of the project on a state and federal level. The protest was very active from the 1950’s through the 1970’s.

During this time, several important studies of Gilbertsville and Butternut Valley architecture had been compiled. These studies called attention to the fact that a number of well known architects of the late 19th and early 20th centuries had been responsible for the design, building and renovation of many attractive village structures. As a result, a number of architectural scholars became involved in protesting the dam project which would destroy this unique community. From that effort came the suggestion that several structures in the center of the village be nominated to the new Department of Interior's National Register of Historic Places. It was hoped that National Register recognition would afford some protection for the village, on the state and federal level, from the proposed dams.

The Committee for the Historic Preservation of Gilbertsville was formed to work with the N.Y. State Office of Parks and Recreation and to prepare nominations, documentation and photographs. Consultants came to inspect the nominated properties and saw that many other structures and sites in the village were equally worthy of nomination. The suggestion was made that the entire village be inventoried as a complete Historic District and that the recognition of the entire village as an Historic District would be even more powerful protection from the dams.

The committee called on the community for help with the expanded project and was not disappointed. It took a total of seven years but the full committee of 19 volunteer researchers, typists, 'gofers',” and photographers prepared a total of 194 individual structural inventory reports plus reports for each cemetery, park, bridge and five additional structures just outside the village incorporation.

A 16 page pamphlet describing the importance of the Historic District, its setting and architecture, including photographs, was prepared for the congressional committee reconsidering funding of the project.

A detailed study was prepared for the same committee documenting weather history in the Upper Susquehanna Rivershed during times of flooding on the lower Susquehanna River. The author of the study used as her source one hundred years of state and federal government weather records dating back to the 19th century when those agencies first started collecting that data. The study found that no significant rains or storms occurred in the areas drained by the Butternut Creek and the Unadilla River during times of damaging floods on the lower Susquehanna River.

The combination of all these efforts was rewarded when deauthorization of funding for the complete Upper Susquehanna River Shed Project was proposed to Congress in 1979. Within a year, the threat of the construction of the dams was removed.

The National Register of Historic Places recognition of the entire village of Gilbertsville as an Historic District was awarded in May 1983.

In September 2003, a weathervane of a standing Native American, Uncas, from 1902 created by J.L. Mott Company of New York City, which stood atop the Butternut Valley Grange was sold for $205,000 to Raymond and Susan Egan of Princeton, New Jersey [ [http://www.maineantiquedigest.com/articles_archive/articles/feb04/unca0204.htm Sorrow in Butternuts When Grange Sells Historic Weathervane : Maine Antique Digest, February 2004 ] ] . While replaced with a copy, the sale resulted in significant disputes on its ownership and who had the authority to sell the valuable weathervane.

The Bostwick family

Gilbertsville has been the home to many members of the Bostwick family as the founding Gilbert family and Bostwick family married into one another. The surving wife of Albert C. Bostwick (see below) remaried Fitch Gilbert Jr. and maintained a residence at 801 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan as well as the estate, Village Farms, in Gilbertsville.

Born in Delhi, New York Jabez Abel Bostwick (1830 - 1892) was perhaps best noted as the Secretary of the Standard Oil Trust although his fortune was a self made. Jabez was involved in oil, on the production side, through his firm Tilford & Bostwick before the domination by Rockefeller in the industry. He bought out Tilford and went into successful partnership with the Rockefeller brothers and Henry Flagler.

Jabez, was also for a short period, President of the New York and New England Railroad, a member of the New York Cotton Exchange, and numerous other boards. Having died in a freak stable fire, he left a multi million dollar fortune to his family. His wife, Helen C. Bostwick, upon her death April 27, 1920 her estate per public record was valued at $29,264,181 [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9407E1D9103EEE3ABC4D53DFB767838A639EDE $29,264,181 TO HEIRS OF MRS. BOSTWICK; Widow of the Standard Oil Man G... - Article Preview - The New York Times ] ] , mostly consisting of some $20 million being in Standard Oil stock.

Jabez's son Albert Carlton Bostwick had five children, most of whom had connections to Gilbertsville.

Daughter Dorothy was first married at Christ Church in Gilbertsville on March 7, 1922 to W.T. Sampson Smith [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E03E4D61231EF33A25757C0A9619C946395D6CF MISS BOSTWICK WED TO SAMPSON SMITH; Daughter of Mrs. Fitch Gilbert Jr - Article Preview - The New York Times ] ] . Smith's grandfather was the late Rear Admiral William T. Sampson She was an aviation buff in particular with the autogyro, a precursor to the modern helicopter. Mrs. Campbell would become among the first women to hold a helicopter pilot's license. Her second husband (m. 1950) Joseph Campbell was vice-president and treasurer of Columbia University. He later was appointed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1954 to comptroller general of the United States.

Sister Lillian Bostwick Phipps, a frequent visitor to Gilbertsville, was, like her brothers, also a prominent horse owner with her best runner the champion steeplechaser Neji [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE1D6123BF93BA15752C1A961948260 Lillian B. Phipps, 81, Active in Horse Racing - New York Times ] ]

Brother Pete Bostwick owned until his death in 1982 [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE6DB1138F935A25752C0A964948260 George H. (Pete) Bostwick; Trained Steeplechase Horses - New York Times ] ] Village Farms - since renamed in the 1990s as "Centennial Farms" - along with homes in Aiken, South Carolina and Old Westbury, New York [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F05EFDB1138F935A35751C0A965948260 Sissy Bostwick Plans Wedding in April - New York Times ] ] An avid and highly accomplished polo player (8-goal) and steeplechase jockey Pete kept polo fields on the edge of the village and held annual summer polo tournaments at Village Farms. The fields remain in light use to this day. Pete is in both the Halls of Fame as a polo player and jockey. His wife Dolly Von Stade Bostwick died September 27, 1998 in Aiken, South Carolina [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=980DE3DA1039F933A0575AC0A96E958260 Paid Notice: Deaths BOSTWICK, G.H. - New York Times ] ] however their surviving daughter, of the same name, continues to own property in the community.

Village Farms was one of three vast estates where from the early 1950s Pete kept imported Devons (cattle) and the progeny of imported cattle. The Devons roamed the hundreds of acres of farmland prior to the establishment of four regulation size polo fields, several practice fields and barns enough to house several hundred horses during the polo matches [ [http://www.americandevon.com/historical.htm Historical Devon Herds ] ] . By 1970 the cattle were dispersed from Gilbertsville.

The Bostwick family also married into the prominent Clark family, once significant owners of Singer Sewing Machine in nearby Cooperstown, New York

Architecture

Some of the more noteworthy pieces of architecture that can be found in Gilbertsville include the following:
*Overlook Park - This 100 year old park sits next to a stone arch bridge surrounded by stone buildings.
*Gilbertsville Academy & Collegiate Institute - Built in Greek Revival style in 1839, served as a school until 1935.
*Presbyterian Church - Built in a Picturesque Style in 1888.
*Tianderah - Built in 1887 by Boston-based architect William Ralph Emerson it is a stone Romanesque residence dramatically overlooking the village and complimented by a stone and shingle style stable [http://www.philadelphiabuildings.org/pab/app/pj_display.cfm/669777] The estate would be placed on the market in July 2007 for $3 million, the highest price ever asked for a private residence in Otsego County.
*Gilbert Block - This Neo-Tudor Style structure built 1893 - 1895, hosts shops and artist’s studios. It was designed by Boston architect Henry Forbes Bigelow
*The Gilbertsville Free Library - Built in 1818 as a school/academy, it was converted to a library by St. Louis architects Eames & Young in 1888. It was the first Free Association Library in Otsego County.
*The Major’s Inn - Started in 1896 and finished in 1917 on the site of the original Gilbert homstead which burned in 1895. The medieval English Tudor and Gothic building was commissioned by Major James L. Gilbert using Augustus Nicholas Allen to construct it. Today it serves as a cultural center.

References

*" [http://www.gilbertsville.com/history.htm "Goliath Met David on the Banks of the Butternut Creek"] ", -- originally appeared in the Fall 2003 newsletter of the [http://www.aphnys.org/ Association of Public Historians] of New York State, by Leigh C. Eckmair
*" [http://www.maineantiquedigest.com/articles_archive/articles/feb04/unca0204.htm Maine Antique Digest 2/2004 "Sorrow in Butternuts When Grange Sells Historic Weathervane"]
*" [http://www.bostock.net/tree/bostgen/wnames/j/jabez1830neww109.html Jabez Abel Bostwick/Bostwick family]
* [http://www.americandevon.com/historical.htm "Historical Devon Herds" ]
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E03E4D61231EF33A25757C0A9619C946395D6CF New York Times July 4, 1922 "Miss Bostwick wed to Sampson Smith"]
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE1D6123BF93BA15752C1A961948260 New York Times November 28, 1987 "Lillian B. Phipps, 81, Active in Horse Racing"]
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE6DB1138F935A25752C0A964948260 Associated Press January 16, 1982 "George H. (Pete) Bostwick; Trained Steeplechase Horses"]
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F05EFDB1138F935A35751C0A965948260 New York Times February 6, 1983 "Sissy Bostwick Plans Wedding in April"]
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=980DE3DA1039F933A0575AC0A96E958260 New York Times September 30, 1998 'Death notices: Mrs. G.H. Bostwick]

External links

* [http://www.gilbertsville.com Village of Gilbertsville]