Gilbertsville, NY, at the S.W. end of the historic Butternut Valley in Otsego County, just celebrated the 30th anniversary of National Register of Historic Places recognition and the 20th anniversary of N.R.H.P. recognition of the entire village as an Historic District. When the recognition of the entire village as an Historic District was awarded in May 1983, it was reported to have been only the second such village to receive that honor.

The National Register of Historic Places, created by Congress in 1966, teamed up with the NY State Dept. of Parks and Recreation to call attention to structures and sites, worthy of respect and preservation, by nominating them for inclusion in a national data base.

In 1966, the Village of Gilbertsville, NY [1960 pop.455 ] and some of the best farm land in its township of Butternuts had been living for over fifty years with the very real threat of destruction from a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ flood control project. One dam of the Upper Susquehanna Rivershed Project was to be built on the lower Butternut Creek at a spot called Cope’s Corners. That dam was to flood the valley behind it, including the village of Gilbertsville, to create a three-mile long lake. Residents had been watching in horror over the years as communities in the nearby Catskills had become victims of similar projects and had vowed not to let it happen here.

The dam project, originally proposed prior to W.W.I., met with very strong local opposition every time it was reintroduced. Delayed due toW.W.I. and the Depression, the project became a real threat after the 1935 flood which did millions of dollars of damage to communities in the eight southern tier counties. Funding was appropriated but the project was delayed because of W.W.II.

The dam threat again became very real in the early 1950’s when Congress reauthorized future funding for the project. A tiny but strong and powerful protest was organized locally to call attention, across the state and at the federal level, to the negative aspects of the project. The protest was very active through the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s.

During this time, several important studies of Gilbertsville and Butternut Valley architecture had been compiled. These studies called attention to the fact that a number of well known architects of the late 19th and early 20th century had been responsible for the design, building and renovation of many attractive village structures. As a result, a number of architectural scholars became involved in protesting the dam project which would destroy this unique community. From that effort came the suggestion that several structures in the center of the village be nominated to the new Dept. of Interior National Register of Historic Places. It was hoped that National Register recognition would afford some protection for the village, on the state and federal level, from the proposed dams.

The Committee for the Historic Preservation of Gilbertsville was formed to work with the N.Y. State Office of Parks and Recreation and to prepare nominations, documentation and photographs. Consultants came to inspect the nominated properties and saw that many other structures and sites in the village were equally worthy of nomination. The suggestion was made that the entire village be inventoried as a complete Historic District and that the recognition of the entire village as an Historic District would be even more powerful protection from the dams.

The little committee, headed by Anne Gilbert Mangold and Margaret P. Moore, called on the community for help with the expanded project and were not disappointed. It took a total of seven years but the full committee of 19 volunteer researchers, typists, “go-fers,” and photographers prepared a total of 194 individual structural inventory reports plus reports for each cemetery, park, bridge and five additional structures just outside the village incorporation.

A 16 page pamphlet describing the importance of the Historic District, its setting and architecture, including photographs, was prepared for the congressional committee reconsidering funding of the project.

A detailed study was prepared for the same committee documenting weather history in the Upper Susquehanna Rivershed during times of flooding on the lower Susquehanna River. The author, Myrtie Webster Light, used as her source one hundred years of state and federal government weather records beginning in the 19th century when those agencies first started collecting that data. The study found that no significant rains or storms occurred in the areas drained by the Butternut Creek and the Unadilla River during times of damaging floods on the lower Susquehanna River.

The combination of all these efforts was rewarded when deauthorization of funding for the complete Upper Susquehanna River Shed Project was proposed to Congress in 1979. Within a year, the threat of the construction of the dams was removed.

The National Register of Historic Places recognition of the entire village of Gilbertsville as an Historic District was awarded in May 1983.