Originally from New York City, August Lodge owner Steve Stegman discovered the Catskill Mountains county of Otsego when he came first came up as a student at the State University College at Oneonta. While traveling around after college, he worked in Taos, New Mexico as a ski instructor. It was during a visit to Taos that his future wife, Jamie, from Texas, took a class with him. Eventually, they moved back to Otsego County.

A few years ago, Stegman and his family went on a ski vacation in Stowe, Vermont. The idea of a luxury lodge on the vast hillside acreage he owns near the tiny village of Hartwick Seminary, just minutes from Cooperstown Dreams Park, was something Steve had been contemplating for awhile, but when the family came back from their both energizing and relaxing vacation in the Green Mountains, he was determined to make his dream come true. Recently, Steve had sold his pest-control business in Oneonta, NY, so it was the perfect time to start a new business.

Upon their return to Hartwick Seminary, they teamed-up with a friend of theirs, Lee Marigliano, who is an architect. After taking care of the particulars with the Planning Board, and the painstaking job of building what was to become a uniquerustic lodge began.

That summer, the 25-room August Lodge - named after their son (they named the most sumptuous room after their daughter, Sidney) opened its doors to tourists from all over the world, many of whom come from overseas to visit Cooperstown for the baseball attractions. They almost booked the entire lodge that first summer.

Wooden furniture and architecture in the Adirondack style are prominent features of the lodge. There is a bench constucted of rhododendron roots. This kind of wood has the strong characteristics of mahogany, and makes the furniture sturdy, yet very comfortable.

Set on wildflower covered hillside, the image is completed by the lodge's hybrid timber-frame, the birch-bark wainscoting, oil-paintings of idyllic scenes and country style furniture.

One could easily imagine the Von Trapp family appearing from over the hill, singing "Edelweiss."However this is no fantasy - there is a pragmatic business plan behind the entire endeavor.

Thanks to Historic Doubleday Field, Cooperstown Dreams Park, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and other venues, thedraw for baseball tourism in Cooperstown is huge.

Baseball youth-leagues attract thousands of families to Cooperstown every summer. The lodge can host three hundred twenty-five families during a thirteen week season in its twenty-five rooms.

A visit to August Lodge Cooperstown Hotel can be part of a unforgettable Cooperstown, NY stay.