Clermont Home

Seven generations of the socially prominent Livingstons lived at Clermont, a National Historic Landmark. The riverside mansion's most notable resident was Chancellor Robert R. Livingston, who drafted the Declaration of Independence, negotiated the Louisiana Purchase, and teamed up with Robert Fulton to develop the first steamboat, the North River Steamboat, later known as the Clermont. In October of 1777, the Revolutionary War arrived at Clermont’s doorstep. The British quickly burned Clermont and twenty-four other buildings belonging to the Livingstons to punish them for their support of the rebels following the defeat of General John Burgoyne at Saratoga.