American Irish Society HQ move to Cooperstown in doubt

Perhaps it was fun to think about for a week or so, but it sounds like the American Irish Historical Society has moved the target for its new headquarters from Cooperstown to elsewhere amid reports of Attorney General subpoenas and a possible investigation by Ireland’s parliament, Oireachtas.

Word surfaced some two weeks ago that four members of the Manhattan-based Society’s board resigned in protest over a successful vote to move the group from its Fifth Avenue brownstone to the Village of Cooperstown. County, town, and village elected leaders knew nothing of the plan beyond what appeared in published reports; rumors swirled as AIHS supporters and area residents wondered exactly which property Society leaders had targeted in the surprise vote.

Sources in New York City and Cooperstown pointed to Edgewater – the historic mansion at the corner of Lake and River streets in Cooperstown that at this time is listed as available for sale at a little more than two million dollars – as the Society’s intended landing place, though some with direct knowledge of the property dismissed those reports at week’s end. Those same New York City sources said AIHS officials instead were considering the Hudson Valley Town of Saugerties for its new headquarters – a location the New York State Thruway serves more directly than Cooperstown.

They said trustees remaining on the AIHS board dismissed outright the Cooperstown rumor and were “amused by the attention” the kerfuffle generated.

The swirling rumors and deflections thereof came amid reports the Society dropped its asking price on the Manhattan headquarters from $52 million to $44 million. The building houses manuscripts, books, and historical artifacts tracing the Irish experience in America.

IrishCentral.com, though, the on-line journal first reporting the Cooperstown move, reported this week that New York Attorney General Letitia James issued subpoenas to at least two current board members and a staff member in an investigation about management of the AIHS. Such a move would follow-through on a statement the AG issued in March 2021 when Society leadership first mooted the idea of selling the Fifth Avenue headquarters. Her office began its investigation after more than 40,000 people signed a petition calling for her review.

“The American Irish Historical Society building on Fifth Avenue has been a focal point of the Irish experience in America for decades, and I take the recent concerns regarding the future of the building seriously,” the AG said. “We are vigilantly monitoring the situation, and I want to reassure Irish communities here and abroad that any potential transaction would not move forward without consent from my office or consent from the courts.”

IrishCentral.com reported this week that the head of the Oireachtas Foreign Services Committee has asked the Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs to deliver to Dublin “an update on current developments” regarding the Society’s rumored relocation. Committee head Charlie Flanagan told the Sunday Times of Dublin, “The Irish state has no legal interest in (the Manhattan building), but it has made significant investment in the building and the Society. The Department of Foreign Affairs should have an inquiry because public money is involved. No sale should take place until that happens.”

In a follow-up conversation with The Freeman’s Journal late last week, IrishCentral.com editor Niall O’Dowd summed up the situation thus: “I don’t think anyone really knows what’s going on.”