As part of its Historic Preservation Series, Otsego 2000 will offer a walking tour “Worcester: Stepping Back to the 1880s” on Sunday, October 6 at 3 pm. The tour will be led by Dr. Cindy Falk, Assistant Dean of Graduate Studies at SUNY Oneonta and Professor of Material Culture at the University’s Cooperstown Graduate Program.

The Worcester Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 because of its well-preserved example of a late nineteenth-century, small town commercial center. The tour will focus on life in upstate New York in the late Victorian era and focus on Worcester’s Main Street. The tour was researched and developed by students Tatum Hoff, Ethan Ryan, and Calliope Hoogenboom in Dr. Falk’s Historic Preservation class at the Cooperstown Graduate Program.

This walking tour has been funded in part by a grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Ellen Pope, executive director of Otsego 2000, will have information on the Historic Home and Barn Tax Credits available to homeowners living in communities like Worcester that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Otsego 2000 offers free technical assistance in applying for these tax credits. The Otsego 2000 Historic Preservation Series will continue with a walking tour in Cooperstown on November 10. Earlier in the year, Otsego 2000 offered walking tours led by Dr. Falk in Unadilla, Gilbertsville, Fly Creek, and Hartwick.

Dr. Falk was co-editor of Buildings & Landscapes: The Journal of the Vernacular Architecture Forum for five years and is the author of Barns of New York: Rural Architecture of the Empire State.

The walking tour, which begins at 4 Decatur Street in Worcester, will last two hours and include walking on uneven surfaces. The route will be about one mile.

The cost for the walking tour is $10. Register in advance online or by calling 607/547-8881.