6 Westridge Road, Cooperstown

Bryn Brooke Manor -- An 1884 Lakeside Landmark on Otsego Lake

6 Westridge Rd is an 8-bedroom, 8-bathroom, 6,600+ sq. ft. Shingle Style estate built in 1884, set on nearly 3 acres overlooking Otsego Lake in Cooperstown, NY.

Built in 1884 for Dr. Robert McKim and designed by the New York City architecture firm Babb, Cook & Willard, this is one of the finest surviving examples of American Shingle Style architecture in the region. Architectural historian Richard G. Wilson called it one of the best examples of the Shingle Style country house he had seen -- a house, in his words, that should be treasured. Its architectural lineage stands alongside the Charles Atwater House in New Haven and the William Low House by McKim, Mead & White, placing it in genuinely rare company.

The setting does the rest of the work. From the wraparound porches and the two-story turret, the view runs straight across Otsego Lake to the Otesaga Hotel and the Leatherstocking Golf Course -- Cooperstown's two most recognizable landmarks, framed like they were built for this exact vantage point. Mature gardens border the property in every season, and the village itself -- the Fenimore Art Museum, the Farmers' Museum, the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Main Street's cafés and shops -- is a short walk away.

Inside, more than 70 windows pull lake light into rooms finished in butternut, oak, and maple. Five fireplaces anchor the main living spaces. The split staircase, the carved entrance door, the turret library -- these aren't renovated approximations of period detail, they're the originals, maintained and in some cases restored by designers who clearly understood what they were working with. The kitchen is the one place the house allows itself to be modern: 400 square feet, gas cooktop, multiple workspaces, and direct access to the porches -- built for the kind of gathering this house has hosted for over a century.

That history is part of what makes 6 Westridge Rd unusual. Operating since 1999 as Bryn Brooke Manor Bed & Breakfast, it has hosted Hall of Famers and ballplayers during induction weekends -- Bobby Murcer, Moose Skowron, Hank Bauer, Dave Concepcion, and others have stayed under this roof, along with author Roger Kahn and jazz composer Dave Frishberg. The current owner runs an active hospitality business here; a buyer can do the same, or simply close the door on the B&B and keep all eight bedrooms, six full baths, and two half baths -- including a private caretaker's suite with its own entrance -- for themselves.

Recent updates support either path: new furnaces, mini-split heat pumps on the main and second floors, a full electrical overhaul, fresh exterior paint, and a newly paved driveway. The mechanical bones are caught up; the architecture and the history were never in question.

Whether the next chapter is a continued bed and breakfast or a private family retreat on Otsego Lake, 6 Westridge Road is not a house that comes up for sale often -- and rarely with this much of its original character intact.