TWIN PONDS WEST HILL ROAD, COOPERSTOWN

If you miss the drive, don't worry. There's a second one.

A succession of hills and dales.

James Fenimore Cooper, The Pioneers, 1823. He was writing about this valley.

It is not hard to see how the man who wrote The Last of the Mohicans came from here. The same ridgeline, the same fog sitting in the low field at six in the morning, the same light in October that makes people pull the car over.

Video slot: one locked-off shot of the meadow, filmed in summer, fall, and winter. Fog still as the poster frame.

The farmhouse

Built in 1850, and it has never once pretended otherwise.

Nothing here is plumb. The floors lean and the thresholds rise. None of that is broken. It is the reason the house feels like something instead of nothing.

Two king suites, each with its own bath, so two families can share the house without anybody drawing the short straw. The first-floor king means the grandparents never take the stairs.

  • 4 bedrooms
  • 3 full baths
  • Sleeps 10
  • 2,500 sq ft
  • 36 acres

Simon's Barn

Where the night actually happens.

Cedar walls under a pitched roof, a bar, a pool table, a dartboard, and a piano that somebody always ends up playing badly. The walls carry old pennants, wooden rackets, and bats that were swung long before any of us got here.

It is named for Simon, who never got to see the place.

The sheet

One roll, start to finish.

the drive
01the drive
the meadow
02the meadow
the house
03the house
the chimney
04the chimney
the front hall
05the front hall
the barn
06the barn
the deer
07the deer
the apple tree
08the apple tree
the cattails
09the cattails
the cabinet
10the cabinet

The land

Two ponds, one apple tree, and nobody to tell the kids to stop running.

A floating dock sits on the near pond. A sentinel apple tree stands alone in the meadow and has been there roughly a century. You will see deer, turkeys, hummingbirds, and maybe even a bobcat.

The table

Everyone eats together here, and then nobody leaves.

The dining room seats twelve. A second table in the kitchen seats eight. The kitchen has every appliance you would want for feeding a crowd rather than for a couple making toast.

The living room is big enough that a card game can run in one corner while the rest of the family watches the game in the other. That is usually how the evening goes.

What's here

Pull up and plug in.

In the house

  • Two king suites with private baths
  • Queen room
  • Twin room with two twin beds
  • Two additional rollaways
  • Hot tub room
  • Washer and dryer off the kitchen
  • Full kitchen, every appliance
  • Dining for twelve, kitchen table for eight
  • Air conditioning in every bedroom
  • Keyless entry

In the barn

  • Level 2 EV charger
  • Pool table
  • Piano
  • Bar

Getting online

  • Fiber, 250 Mbps
  • Starlink as backup
  • Mesh wifi if someone needs dedicated bandwidth

Outside

  • Two ponds, one with a floating dock
  • Fire pit with seating and firewood
  • Propane grill on the deck
  • Lawn games
  • Trolley and coolers to take to the park
  • Parking for ten cars

Cooperstown

16 minutes to Dreams Park. 22 to All Star Village. 19 to the Hall of Fame.

The Fenimore, Otsego Lake, Brewery Ommegang, the Fly Creek Cider Mill, and the Glimmerglass Festival are all inside a short drive. Rained out, or just done with baseball for a day? Any one of them fills an afternoon.

  • Albany airport 1 hr 35
  • New York City 4 hrs

Film here

Thirty-six acres with nothing modern in the frame.

An 1850 farmhouse, a cedar-lined barn, two ponds, a meadow, and a treeline. No neighbors in the shot and no road noise. Four hours from New York, ninety minutes from Albany, with parking for a crew and power at the barn.

Stills, commercials, and small narrative shoots welcome. Tell us what you need and when.

Ask about a shoot

The guest book

This page belongs to the people who stay here.

After the first season it fills with their notes and their photographs. Until then it stays empty on purpose.

Book a stay

Come up the driveway.

Summer weeks around the tournaments go first, and Induction weekend goes before that. Fall on this hill is the best-kept part of the year.

Email about dates
  • hi@twinpondscooperstown.com
  • 269 West Hill Road, Cooperstown, New York