Livingston Manor is an early-20th-century residential historic district located in the northwesterly section of the borough of Highland Park, New Jersey. It was listed in the New Jersey Register of Historic Places on April 1, 2004 and in the National Register on July 7, 2004.

Livingston Manor represents approximately one-fifth of Highland Park's growth as a streetcar suburb in the early 1900s. Livingston Manor was a subdivision built upon the lands surrounding the Livingston family homestead. This subdivision was the brainchild of Watson Whittlesey (1863-1914), a real estate developer born in Rochester, New York. Whittlesey was more than a typical land speculator; he was a community builder, which was noted by his residency in various Livingston Manor houses from 1906 to 1914, and by his active involvement in the municipal affairs of Highland Park. Instead of auctioning lots like his 19th-century predecessors, Whittlesey sold subdivided lots with either a house completely built by his company or with the promise of providing a company-constructed house similar to those previously constructed.

The suburban housing development grew primarily between 1906 and 1925 when Whittlesey's company, the Livingston Manor Corporation and its successor, the Highland Park Building Company, constructed single-family houses from plans produced by a select group of architects. It is an excellent example of a planned, private, suburban development with many examples of vernacular Queen Anne houses, Bungalows, Foursquares, and Colonial Revival houses constructed for a range of working class and middle class home buyers. While a variety of building types and styles are present on each block, the buildings in the district are distinct by the use of specific building plans found no where else in Highland Park and by the embellishments that are typical of the Craftsman philosophy, which emphasized the value of the labor of skilled artisans who showed pride in their abilities.

In the first years of this development, the houses were constructed one entire block at a time beginning with the southeast side of Grant Avenue between Lawrence Avenue and North Second Avenue. The next block to be developed was the northwest side of Lincoln Avenue between Lawrence Avenue and North Second Avenue. Six stucco bungalows were constructed on the southern side of Lawrence east of Lincoln Avenue. Individual houses went up on corner lots such as 17 Lawrence Avenue and 202 Grant Avenue. As the housing development grew in popularity, houses were constructed less systematically by block, and more often on lots that individual homeowners randomly selected from the remaining available properties.

Livingston Manor houses were built with uniform setbacks by block. Most of the houses originally had open-air front porches and many of those have been partially or fully enclosed in some way, sometimes around the original components, most likely after the 1960s. The streets were laid out in a way that the houses face northwest or southeast. Typically, the front porches were offset to the east or the west and consistent by block. Many of the Colonial Revival houses have one-story sun porches constructed laterally to either the east or the west. The earliest houses had porches with short or tall fluted Doric columns, and those constructed later had Tuscan columns. A smooth, buff-colored brick was often used as an exterior material on some of the houses constructed between 1906 and 1910. The houses also have a mix of textural surface treatments such as Stick-style embellishments in gable peaks or in porch pediments, and combination exteriors of stucco or brick and wood shingles or wood shingles and clapboard. It is presumed that all of the houses originally had slate roofs (except the few with Spanish tile roofs); however, many have received asphalt shingles during the intervening years. All the lots in the residential section had deed restrictions from such nuisances as multiple-family dwellings, chicken coops, barns, brewing establishments, solid fences over 4-feet tall, and foundries.

As a young man, Whittlesey began learning the contracting business in Providence, Rhode Island. He then relocated to New York City and Newark and continued his work in the field of real estate development. By 1896, he had been elected to the board of directors for the Second National Bank of the Oranges, creating business ties with architects, builders, designers, and other real estate developers. His first developments were in Hyde Park, East Orange and Watchung Heights in West Orange. For the Livingston Manor houses, Whittlesey used plans from architects based in Orange, New Jersey, George Edward Krug and Francis George Hasselman (1877-1932), as well as plans generated by several local architects. Krug was the architect of the Hyde Park Club House and many residential properties in Hyde Park and Hasselman was the architect of the Hale Building in East Orange, New Jersey, All Soul's Hospital in Morristown, New Jersey, the Rumson Country Club, and the Greenpoint Savings Bank in Brooklyn, New York. He was also the architect along with George A. Freeman, of the "Spring Brook House," residence of Robert D. Foote in Morristown, New Jersey, an impressive Georgian-Revival mansion listed in the National Register on November 13, 1986.

Several Livingston Manor Tudor Revival houses were designed by Highland Park's eminent architect, Alexander Merchant. Merchant created numerous New Brunswick buildings including the high school, and the Weingart, Volkert, and Shuck commercial buildings on George Street. He designed the Highland Park High School in 1924 and the Music Building for the New Jersey College for Women (now Douglass College at Rutgers University). Like the other early, twentieth- century architects, he was active during the period of early American modernism, but having trained under John Carrere and Thomas Hastings, Merchant developed and maintained a classical design vocabulary. Merchant’s most illustrious Tudor Revival building is in Princeton, New Jersey on the corner of Nassau and Witherspoon Streets.

Another local architect, John Arthur Blish, became a resident of the Livingston Manor in 1911. Surely, he designed his own plans for the builders to follow during construction! A third local architect, William Boylan, designed the house at 55 Harrison Avenue, which is an exact copy of the house he designed for himself in 1918 on South Second Avenue in Highland Park. Boylan designed Highland Park's St. Paul's Church in 1914 and the Town Hall in Woodbridge, New Jersey in 1915.

Whittlesey was Livingston Manor Corporation’s president, which was the landholder. The firm overseeing the development's financial affairs was Rogers & Thompson, Inc., a company established on April 9, 1906, with Watson Whittlesey as agent. The Highland Park Lumber Company, supplier of the construction materials, was formed in June of 1906. The three investors included Whittlesey, and William and Herbert Waldron. The Waldron brothers were the sons of industrialist John Waldron, who would purchase the Livingston Homestead property in 1909. The Waldron’s occupied the large estate house for most of the twentieth century.

Many workers in the building trades remained with the Livingston Manor Corporation and its successor, the Highland Park Building Company for a long time, including Harvey E. Dodge. Dodge was noted in a Daily Home News article as, "an architect of high skill, who has left gratifying traces of his work all through the Manor and has done much to establish the high standard of architectural excellence and beauty which the Livingston Manor Corporation makes it a point that all dwellings erected there shall maintain." Despite the description, Dodge was not a licensed architect, but more likely, the master builder. Skilled craftsmen, such as Frederick Nietscke, a carpenter, Harold Richard Segoine, a contractor, and Harvey Dodge, have been identified as Livingston Manor Corporation employees as well as Livingston Manor residents. The fact that the workers and designers bought houses they helped design and build is a testament to the high level of quality with which this development came into being. Whittlesey, with his wife Anna, lived in several Livingston Manor houses including the Spanish Colonial style house at 35 Harrison Avenue.

On December 1, 1906, the first deeds were transferred to two individual homeowners from the Livingston Manor Corporation. Many prominent New Brunswick and Highland Park residents secured houses in this new neighborhood. They included several Rutgers College professors, school teachers, bank employees, factory and store owners and employees. Most of the women were housewives and mothers. There were many extended families. Some families took in boarders and several households included live-in servants. By 1910, 62 houses had been constructed in Livingston Manor.

In 1912, Watson Whittlesey hired a sales agent, John F. Green, and announced the sales of bungalow lots. These smaller properties were less expensive and a set of plans for a bungalow were given to any purchaser free of charge. These lots included all the modern amenities including "macadam streets, concrete gutters, curbing, sidewalks, sewers, water, gas and electric lights, and other advantages." By 1913, 120 houses had been constructed in Livingston Manor. Sales agent Charles H. Bruce joined the company.

Watson Whittlesey was generally well-loved and was dubbed "the Lord of the Manor." For Whittlesey did not content himself with just building and selling houses. He created a neighborhood spirit by giving receptions to the residents; by trying to make the people of the Manor just one big happy family; by providing playgrounds for the children; and by encouraging the men to take a more active part in public affairs. Upon his death on April 8, 1914, the local newspapers paid many tributes to him. Livingston Manor residents turned out in the hundreds to attend a memorial service at his house on Harrison Avenue.

In 1915, a monument paying tribute to Whittlesey was installed at the corner of Lincoln and Lawrence Avenues. It was accompanied by a fountain with a light atop it set onto a stone base. This fountain fell into disrepair and was demolished in the 1950s; however, a brick base with its bronze plaque remains at the intersection to this day. The plaque reads "In Memory of Watson Whittlesey - Founder of Livingston Manor - Erected By His Friends, A. D. 1915." It is the only such commemorative plaque in Highland Park dedicated to a neighborhood planner.

Whittlesey's successors included his wife Anna Wilcox Whittlesey (d. 1918) as president of the Livingston Manor Corporation, and the Highland Park Building Company. Both continued to uphold Whittlesey's vision for this community of homeowners

The Highland Park Building Company was incorporated in 1914 after Whittlesey's death by long-standing members of his company including builder Robert Lufburrow and engineer Harold Richard Segoine. The quality of the houses this company constructed in Livingston Manor between 1914 and 1925 show the same high standards of materiality and design as the houses constructed during the previous decade.

Livingston Manor's privately owned streets, sidewalks, and curbs were turned over to the Borough of Highland Park by Anna Whittlesey on June 17, 1916. Remarkably, there were no provisions for the borough to accept public ownership of the sewers. That required an act of legislation at the statehouse in Trenton, which was accomplished by Senator Florance, Assemblyman Edgar, and signed by Governor Edge the following year in March of 1917.

Anna Wilcox Whittlesey, "The Lady of the Manor," died on August 16, 1918. She was remembered as "a woman of rare refinement and culture, and the soul of hospitality." Long-time business partner, Vernon J. Miller was executor of the estate and Thomas A. Davis became president of the Livingston Manor Corporation.

Highland Park's identity as a streetcar suburb was transformed to that of an automobile suburb during the 1920s. But Whittlesey's initial design in Livingston Manor accommodated this transportation change with no undue strain. The broad avenues once planned to allow for trolley lines provided both abundant street parking and travel lanes. The last six years of this neighborhood's development continued to see the construction of individually designed houses filling in the remaining open lots, for example, the Mediterranean Revival style house at 252 Grant Avenue, which was designed by Harry Bach and constructed c. 1924.

By 1922, 210 residences had been constructed in Livingston Manor. The Livingston Manor Corporation continued to have transactions into the 1960s; nevertheless, Livingston Manor's significant development had taken place by 1925. It has always been locally recognized that Livingston Manor is an important neighborhood in Highland Park. Its early success provided inspiration to the rest of the townsfolk and the borough's development became quite remarkable after Watson Whittlesey and his successors showed the way.