Fifty years ago, Livingston Manor was in a period of transition. The failure of the Ontario & Western Railway fifteen years earlier added to the demise to the already faltering local hotel and summer boarding house establishments. Though the community received a brief economic shot in the arm with the construction of nearby tunnels designed to carry impounded water upstate reservoirs to a thirsty New York City throughout the fifties and early sixties, the project’s conclusion, combined with the earlier loss of the railroad and continuing demise of the area’s summer boarding industry, left Manor businesses in a struggle to survive. By 1971, the face of Livingston Manor and the surrounding area was in the midst of change. Fortunately, the struggle amongst townspeople with this transformation had been captured on the pages of the hometown weekly newspaper, the Livingston Manor Times.

The demise of the summer boarder house did not stop vacationers from coming to the area. With the dwindling number of local guest houses, both local and non-local entrepreneurs capitalized on the lax local land-use regulations then in place and began an era of small-lot land subdivisions to accommodate the growing demand for summer vacation homes. In 1970, the Swiss Forest subdivision located on Sand Pond in Shandelee, after its bungalows were occupied for less than one year, proved the problems that unregulated subdivision activity can create. One year later, another proposed subdivision was being planned on another local body if water, Edgewood Lake. What happened next is chronicled by the Times; > Fred