Clermont State Historic Site
Germantown, Columbia County and Red Hook, Dutchess County, NY

Directions:

Taconic Parkway north to the exit for Route 56 west. Turn right on Route 9 north and then left onto Route 78 west. Right turn onto Route 9G north. Left turn onto Route 6 west going into Clermont State Park. The grounds are open all year.

Geology:

Located on the Hudson River, across from Saugerties (including Saugerties light-house) and Malden-on-Hudson and behind them the Catskill Mountains.

In the middle of the Hudson River, at low tide, can be seen Green Flats (flats are shallow spots of mud and silt).

History:

1654 -- Robert Livingston born in Scotland, the fourteenth child of John Livingston and Janet Fleming.

1673 -- sails for Boston.

1675 -- purchases a house lot in Albany.

1675 -- secretary for influential Nicholas Van Rensselaer, whose wife was Alida Schuyler, sister of future mayor Pieter Schuyler.

1679 -- marries Alida Schuyler following the death of Van Rensselaer, thereby inheriting the manor of Rensselaerswyck. The marriage lasts almost fifty years. The couple had four boys and two girls that lasted into adulthood.

1686 -- Governor Dongan designates Livingston Manor. (12 miles along the Hudson, east to Massachusetts.)

1697 -- Robert Livingston, Jr. marries the daughter of Pieter Schuyler.

1699 -- Livingston erects a gristmill and a sawmill on the Roeloff Jansen's Kill. The gristmill was the first built on the east side of the Hudson River. Later he builds his country estate on the north side of the Roelof Jansen Kil on the banks of the Hudson River.

1709 --Livingston elected to the New York General Assembly. Later elected speaker of the provincial Assembly, serving until his retirement in 1726.

1716 -- Alida and Robert were reunited on the Roeloff Jansen Kil where Alida had come to rescue her deteoriating health.

1720 -- death of son John Livingston.

1727 -- death of Alida.

1728 -- death of Robert Livingston at the Manor two months short of his seventy-fourth birthday. Most of the Manor was inherited by Philip Livingston, the eldest surviving son. Robert Livingston, Jr. (1688-1775) got about 13,000 acres in the southwest corner of the manor that came to be known as Clermont (sometimes called the "Lower Manor of Livingston"); its founder often referred to as Robert of Clermont.

"The three sons of the first Lord of the Manor were the founders of the three primary "branches" of the Livingston family in New York: the Manor Branch, the Clermont branch, and the Dutchess County branch. A fourth branch was established by a nephew of the first Manor Lord, also named Robert Livingston (1663-1725), who arrived in America in 1687." (http://www.friendsofclermont.org/livingstons/)

1777 -- Clermont burned to the ground by the British (after they had torched Kingston).

1777 -- Mrs. Margaret Beekman Livingston, wife of Robert Robert (grandson of the first Robert Livingston) starts to rebuild the mansion.

Chancellor was a backer of Robert Fulton and his steamship (the Clermont). On its maiden voyage the ship stopped at the Clermont mansion.

1835 -- Saugerties light-house built.

1869 -- a period home replaces the light keeper's house.

1954 -- Saugerties lighthouse closes.

1962 -- Clermont becomes state property.

Habitats:

deciduous woods, hemlock stands, old fields

Trails:

Very rough description of the trail. You can make a loop trail out and back from the parking lot. Hike south, southeast, then east (heading over County Route 35). Head north and then east over the power line cut. Curve around, crossing County Route 6 and then heading up the power cut. Pass the first right turn and at the second one turn right and follow a loop trail back to the first right turn at the power cut. Head down County 35 and through some gates. Then head south and southeast and then south again to make a horse-shoe curve heading north and back to the parking lot.

PLANT LIST:

Trees:
Acer rubrum (red maple)
Acer saccharum (sugar maple)
Aesculus hippocastanum (horse chestnut)
Betula lenta (black birch)
Betula populifolia (gray birch)
Carpinus caroliniana (musclewood)
Carya ovata (shagbark hickory)
Juglans nigra (black walnut)
Juniperus virginiana (red cedar)
Liriodendron tulipifera (tulip tree)
Ostrya virginiana (American hop hornbeam)
Pinus rigida (pitch pine)
Pinus strobus (white pine)
Quercus spp. (oak)
Robinia pseudoacacia (black locust)

Shrubs:
Berberis thunbergii (Japanese barberry)
Cornus amomum (swamp dogwood)
Cornus racemosa (gray dogwood)
Cornus rotundifolia (roundleaf dogwood)
Cornus sericea (red-osier dogwood)
Lindera benzoin (spicebush)
Rosa multiflora (multiflora rose)
Rubus spp. (blackberry)
Tsuga canadensis (eastern hemlock)
Viburnum acerifolium (maple-leaf viburnum)

Vines:
Celastrus orbiculatus (Asiatic bittersweet)

Herbs:
Aster spp. (aster)
Myriophyllum sp. (Eurasian water-milfoil)
Solidago spp. (goldenrod)
Vallisneria americana (water celery)