Clermont Town

Columbia County, New York

Clermont Town Hall is located at 1795 Route 9, Clermont NY 12526.
Phone: 518‑537‑6868.

The Town of Clermont is located on the east bank of the Hudson River. The southern boundary is determined by the Columbia County/Dutchess County line. Other, highly irregular boundaries are determined by the course of the Roeloff Jansen's Kill on the east and by a surveyed border which separates Clermont from the Town of Germantown on the north and west. The terrain of this sparsely settled, rural town is characterized by gently rolling hills. The character of the community has remained essentially constant since the late 17th and early 18th centuries when it was inhabited by tenant farmers of the Livingston Manor, and later, the Clermont Manor. [1]

Clermont has the distinction of being the town in which the first public school in New York State was established. In 1791, at a short distance north of the present Clermont Academy*, the first school was constructed under the direction of (Chancellor) Robert R. Livingston, Samuel Ten Broeck, and others. The first school was demolished in 1855, the year the Clermont Academy became a public school. [2]

*The Clermont Academy (National Register of Historic Places, listed 10/07/1982) originally functioned as a private, secondary school, supported by tuitions.

1. Larson, Neil, New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, Historic Resources of Clermont, nomination document, 1983, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places, Washington, D.C.
2. Kemm, Jessica, Clermont Academy, in Clermont Multiple Resource Area, nomination documentation, 1979, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places, Washington D.C. and New York State Parks and Recreation, Division for Historic Preservation.