In a small town in upstate New York, on the quiet shores of Otsego Lake, the spirit and legacy of America’s pastime lives on. Decided upon as baseball’s hometown by the Spalding Commission, a panel tasked with finding – and fabricating – the origins of the sport, Cooperstown is a quintessential slice of Americana and home to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. The Hall opened in 1939 as a shrine of the greatest players to ever take to the diamond, and has persisted as a mecca for baseball fans around the world.

Although the true origins of baseball remain murky, the mythical consensus on the sport’s inception surrounds Civil War Major General Abner Doubleday. Claims that he invented the sport in Cooperstown in 1839 have gone unfounded, but the tall tale nonetheless helped pave the way for the establishment of a baseball paradise in the Catskills. A hundred years after the supposed birth of the sport, Cooperstown became home to baseball’s temple of titans.

Gracing the walls of the Plaque Gallery for all to see, each class of inductees is immortalized in this spacious wood and marble room. Nameplates highlighting every Hall of Famer are on display for fans to learn from and even touch, starting with the inaugural class that featured legends such as Ty Cobb and Honus Wagner, and continuing on to David Ortiz and Ichiro Suzuki of present day fame.

Each year, fans pack the humble streets of Cooperstown to witness a new group of greats be enshrined in the Hall. Taking place in the heat of July on the lawn outside the Clark Sports Center, the Induction Ceremony is a weekend-long festival where baseball fans from around the world can come gather and celebrate those who have left their mark on the game.

For decades, an MLB exhibition game was held just a few blocks from the Hall at historic Doubleday Field, coinciding with the summertime induction festivities. The Hall of Fame Game, scheduled almost annually from 1940 to 2007, was a marquee Major League matchup that eventually would see all 30 clubs participate. Doubleday Field began life as a local ballfield in 1920 and had its main grandstand constructed in 1924, with renovations for the exhibition games bringing its capacity to nearly 10,000. Today, the Hall of Fame Classic has replaced the defunct event, featuring crafted squads of Hall of Fame players and other retired Major Leaguers.

The museum itself houses more than 40,000 artifacts – though visitors will see just a fraction of the entire collection. Many of the items in Cooperstown are kept in storage for preservation, or because display space is limited. There are also nearly a quarter of a million photographs for visitors to look at, capturing baseball history of the last 150 years.

The Hall is actually an amalgamation of five different buildings that have slowly become one. There are three full floors of exhibits which showcase some of the most important aspects of the national pastime, including the Negro Leagues, women in baseball, the minor leagues, the game’s international growth and the history of Major League ballparks of the past and present. Larger than life players, such as Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron, have their own spaces too. A faux locker room also contains artifacts from each of the league’s 30 teams; at the forefront are balls, gloves and other memorabilia that specifically highlight their recent accomplishments. A gallery dedicated to the postseason and featuring every World Series championship ring rounds out the main attractions.

Welcoming more than 250,000 visitors annually, Cooperstown has become synonymous with the pastime and is the crown jewel of every baseball fan’s journey. For those who are truly passionate and want to dive deep into the annals of the sport, for those who want to feel the breath of the stellar sluggers who came before them on their neck, for those who are moved by the inspirational photographs and stories contained within – there’s simply no place like the National Baseball Hall of Fame.