Gilbertsville Historic District (Boundary Increase)

Gilbertsville is a small village in the Butternut Creek valley of Otsego County, New York, and the whole incorporated village forms a historic district. The amended boundary follows the 1895 village line and adds five outside properties: an industrial building now used for local government and four houses on Marion Avenue. Modest wood-frame houses predominate, with commercial buildings on Commercial Street and Marion Avenue. The village holds 43 Greek Revival and 21 Italianate houses, all restrained in form but carefully detailed. Notable buildings include the 1832 Presbyterian church, now the Grange Hall, the 1818 stone academy building later converted to a library, the 1840 Gilbertsville Academy, and the neo-Tudor Major's Inn and Gilbert Block. Several houses were remodeled by architects such as Fuller and Wheeler and Marcus T. Reynolds. Streets, small parks, shade trees and open land give the village a park-like character, and new construction has not seriously compromised it. These qualities and the high integrity of its buildings account for the listing.