Property Description

Built on the edge of a glorious 68 acre lake set in a high mountain valley in the scenic Catskill Mountains, the historic Lake Delaware Farm offers a rare opportunity to acquire a piece of a true American legacy that has been in continuous use by the same notable family since the 18th century. The Lake House, among the oldest buildings standing in Delaware County, offers a glimpse into the lifestyle of one of our nations most notable, founding aristocratic families. In 1686, when most of the Hudson Valley and the Catskill Mountains were wild, untamed land and home to several Native American tribes, the English crown granted a large tract of 160,000 acres to Robert Livingston the Founder, making him Lord of the Manor. Livingston Manor with their family seat known as Clermont, made up much of what is now Dutchess and Columbia counties along the Hudson River. The family grew and thrived there for centuries, expanding the lineage and fortune through enterprise and marriages, and lining the banks of the river with their glorious homes where they could admire their mountains across the water. With the Hardenbergh patent of 1708 Queen Anne of England bestowed a vast 2,000,000 acre land grant, essentially the entirety of the Catskill Mountain range, on seven loyal and valued subjects. By 1740 the Livingstons of Clermont had acquired one fifth of the Hardenberg Patent which would be distributed to the children of Robert Livingston The Judge after his death. Gertrude Livingston received her gift of 20,000 acres in the same year that she married Col. Morgan Lewis, who served as an important General in Washingtons army during the Revolution and went on to serve as the Governor of New York, as well as a Supreme Court Justice and Attorney General for New York State in the early federal period. He was dear friends with the likes of The Marquis de Lafayette, Alexander Hamilton and General Washington, whom his brother in law Chancellor Robert Livingston swore in as President. The centerpiece of Gertrudes acreage was the magnificent Lake Delaware, where she and Morgan Lewis built themselves the original Lake House circa1787, four years after the treaty to end the Revolutionary War was signed. This would be a special summer destination for the family since Gertrude already had inherited vast tracts of land from her mother Margaret Beekman Livingston, both in Rhinebeck and Staatsburg, in a home that in its present incarnation we know as The Mills Mansion. Their granddaughter Julia Delafield writes of Lake Delaware in her 19th Century biography of Lewis:General Lewis was attached to this estate. It was about 60 miles west of the Hudson...At one end of the lake, separated from it by a sloping lawn, he had erected by the mechanics of the estate a well-planned and extremely pretty mansion in the Grecian Style of architecture Now two generations later Delafield writes The Grecian villa is quadrupled in size, it is a charming summer retreat and has never been visited by pestilence The landscape of this more than 1600 acre parcel being offered- spanning across the towns of Delhi and Bovina-is exquisite, with rolling hills, meadows, old growth forests and open vistas out onto the mountain peaks. The valley is elevated far above sea level providing a crisp and refreshingly cool climate. One approaches The Lake House via a long winding driveway that snakes its way up the hill and is lined with fine, historic rock walls interrupted here and there by standing stones, framing out delicate iron g

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