Cooperstown is a village in and the county chair of Otsego County, New York, United States. Most of the village lies within the town of Otsego, but some of the eastern share is in the town of Middlefield. Located at the foot of Otsego Lake in the Central New York Region, Cooperstown is approximately 60 miles (97 kilometers) southwest of Albany, 67 mi (108 km) southeast of Syracuse and 145 mi (233 km) northwest of New York City. The population of the village was 1,794 as of the 2020 census.

Cooperstown is the home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. The Farmers’ Museum in the village opened in 1944 on farmland that had as soon as belonged to James Fenimore Cooper. The Fenimore Art Museum and Glimmerglass Opera are in addition to based here. Most of the historic pre-1900s core of the village is included in the Cooperstown Historic District, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980; its boundaries were increased in 1997 and more contributing properties were identified.

Before European colonization, Iroquois Indians inhabited the Place around the village and Otsego Lake. The name Otsego is from a Mohawk or Oneida word meaning “place of the rock”, referring to the large boulder close the lake’s outlet, today known as “Council Rock”. It is a large boulder whose summit is above the water’s surface and can be seen from shore. It is believed to have been a meeting place for Native Americans prior to the American Revolutionary War. A small parcel of land near Council Rock was presented to the Village of Cooperstown in 1957, on the condition that it remain contact to the public as a park.

The village was developed within allowance of the Cooper Patent, which William Cooper – who progressive became a county judge – purchased in 1785 from Colonel George Croghan, former Deputy to Sir William Johnson, British Superintendent of Indian Affairs of the Northern District. The house amounted to 10,000 acres (40 km). William Cooper founded a village on Otsego Lake. His son, James Fenimore Cooper, grew up in the frontier town. He difficult became a noted American author with The Leatherstocking Tales, a series of novels that includes The Last of the Mohicans.