Made in New Jersey

William Livingston, New Jersey’s first elected governor, hired master builder, Paprel Bloodgood, to build this home in 1772 in Elizabethtown. Livingston soon emerged as a spokesman for the patriot cause in New Jersey as tensions between the colonies and Great Britain increased. He assumed the role of the commander of the state militia in 1775 and was elected governor in 1776. British troops raided his home several times in vain attempts to kidnap him, but were never successful thanks to well coordinated information networks and near-by close friends who were able to offer him shelter and concealments. Livingston served as Governor until he died in 1790. The Governor’s descendants, the Kean family, moved into Liberty Hall in 1811, and five generations of the Kean family lived here until 1995. Liberty Hall, now a historic house museum, gardens, and arboretum, is listed as a National Historic Landmark.