The Hermitage

The Hermitage was one of the smaller properties within the broader Livingston land holdings in Columbia County. While it never achieved the prominence of Clermont or the Manor itself, it shows the sheer scale of the family's presence in the Hudson Valley. At their peak, the Livingstons controlled a patchwork of estates, farms, and tenant properties that stretched across the county.

Named in the genteel tradition of the era (hermitages and retreats were popular estate names that suggested refined solitude), the property served as a gentleman's country residence. Like many of the family's secondary holdings, it was eventually sold as the economic foundations of the great estates eroded in the 19th century.

The Hermitage stands in for dozens of similar properties that once made up the Livingston holdings. Each was a small part of the family's landed wealth in early America, and each was eventually overtaken by the democratic and economic forces the Livingstons themselves helped set in motion.