{"nrhp_refnum":"72000902","name":"Otsego County Courthouse","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"193 Main St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Cooperstown","county":"Otsego County","state":"NY","lat":42.70090334100007,"lon":-74.92960330299996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1972-06-20","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Politics/Government","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-and-one-half story brick and stone county courthouse at 193 Main Street, Cooperstown, Otsego County, New York, built in 1880 and designed by Archimedes Russell of Syracuse.","why_significant":"It is presented as an example of a polychrome brick public building designed for a small rural county seat, with an exuberant style that was ahead of its time and controversial in 1880s Cooperstown. It is the work of the noted architect Archimedes Russell and has housed the county legal system since 1880. It is also valued as a local landmark linking nineteenth and twentieth century Cooperstown.","narrative":"Otsego County's courthouse sits on a rise on upper Main Street in Cooperstown, overlooking the village. Completed in 1880 to designs by Syracuse architect Archimedes Russell, it replaced three earlier courthouses that had served the county since 1791. The two-and-one-half story building uses brick and limestone in contrasting bands, basket-weave and diagonal brick patterns, blue stained-glass windows, buttressed corners, and a tower with its original slate roof. The entrance has polished granite columns, carved limestone capitals and griffins on the hoodmold. Inside, the second-floor court room keeps its coffered ceiling, quatrefoil railings, rondelle-decorated judge's stand and molded wooden benches stamped with the county name. Local residents found the design controversial when it was built, and contemporary newspapers criticized the architecture while praising the court room. Builders were S. R. Barnes and the McCabe brothers, under a contract of $24,995. It remains in use as the seat of county legal business and is regarded as a village landmark.","period_of_significance":"19th Century (specific date 1880)","architect_builder":"Archimedes Russell, architect; S. R. Barnes and the McCabe brothers, contractors","architectural_style":"Polychrome brick, exuberant late nineteenth-century style","criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition listed as good; the building is occupied and still serves as the county courthouse, with the original court room unchanged.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:39.903705-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/72000902.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/72000902/defcccdc5b-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/72000902/defcccdc5b-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Ser Amantio di Nicolao","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Otsego_County_Courthouse,_July,_2014.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Ser Amantio di Nicolao</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Otsego_County_Courthouse,_July,_2014.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"99001136","name":"Glimmerglass Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/new-york/glimmerglass-historic-district-99001136/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75320977","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otsego_County_Courthouse","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7109067"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/otsego-county/otsego-county-courthouse-72000902/"}