Hudson River Heritage Historic District

Stretching along the east bank of the Hudson River between Germantown and Staatsburg, this district covers about 22,000 acres in Dutchess and Columbia counties. It is best understood as a landscape rather than a group of buildings. About 40 country seats, usually on 200 to 300 acres, face the river and the Catskill Mountains. Their mansions, ornamental grounds and farms are linked by stone-walled roads, and five hamlets (Tivoli, Barrytown, Rhinecliff, Annandale and Staatsburg) served as landings, rail stops and commercial centers. Clermont, built by Robert Livingston Jr. around 1730, was the first seat and a model for the others. Most seats were in place by 1865. The district extends two earlier estate districts to include the farmland and settlements that gave the estates their context. Of 1,869 contributing and 701 non-contributing resources, the newer ones occupy under 2% of the acreage. Together they show how the river scenery and Livingston landholding shaped settlement over roughly three centuries.