Text from William Wade Text from William WadeFrom Rhinebeck Landing to Barrytown or Lower Red Hood Landing is seven miles. Here the Catskill Mountain House, on the range of the Catskills, may be seen in the west in clear weather, two thousand two hundred feet above the Hudson, and twelve miles or more distant. Three miles further is Tivoli or Upper Red Hook Landing, in the midst of a number of beautiful private residences.
According to Arthur Adams in The Hudson River Guidebook, Tivoli was settled by a Frenchman named Peter de Labigarre who called his home the Chateau de Tivoli. He engaged a man named Charles Balthazar Julien Fevret de Saint-Memin to draw up a plan for the town. His plan called for 60 feet wide streets but the lots they created did not sell. Today two street Flora and Diana remain today.
Benson Lossing mentions Tivoli in his The Hudson From Wilderness to the Sea:
"At Tivoli is the mansion of John Swift Livingston, Esq., built before the war of independence. It is surrounded by a pleasant park and gardens, and commands a view of the village of Saugerties, on the west shore of the Hudson, and that portion of the Katzbergs on which the Mountain House stands. That building may be seen, as a white spot on the distant hills, in our sketch. Mr. Livingston’s house was occupied by one of that name when the British burnt old Clermont and the residence of the chancellor. They landed in DeKoven’s Cove or Bay, just below, and came up with destructive intent, supposing this to be the residence of the arch offender. The proprietor was a good-humored, hospitable man. He soon convinced the invaders of their error, supplied them bountifully with wine and other refreshments, and made them so kindly and cheery, that had he been the "rebel" himself, they must have spared his property."