Livingston Manor, NY

Livingston Manor is a hamlet and census-designated place in the Town of Rockland, Sullivan County, along New York State Route 17 and the Willowemoc Creek. The community first went by Purvis; Philip Henry Woolsey donated land for the First Presbyterian Church, built in 1880. The railroad arrived in 1871, and by the early twentieth century the New York, Ontario and Western Railway had a freight yard that helped organize business around the hamlet. That rail-and-creek setting still gives Livingston Manor its local shape.

Several old buildings carry the village's working history. The 1890 Siegel Building began as a blacksmith shop before becoming a grocery store; an 1888 mercantile building later housed the Livingston Manor Free Library after serving the hose company. The Livingston Manor National Bank opened in 1911, and the former bank became Town of Rockland offices in 1972. Across the creek, Sherwood Island formed around water diverted to power mills and hosted community events. Livingston Manor is a place where the railroad yard, creek islands, bank, library, and church tell the story of a Catskills hamlet assembled piece by piece.