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The largest of these is a 40-room fieldstone house that once belonged to the late Robert W. Kean, a United States congressman who was father of Thomas Kean, the former New Jersey governor. The mansion, which was built a century ago and which stretches across Windermere Court, along the West Orange line, is now owned by a physician and is worth more than $7 million, according to a local realtor.

Most of the homes in Livingston are split-levels or colonials on lots of a quarter to a half acre that sell for $500,000 to $700,000. Thirty-year-old houses on flat, one-acre lots are fetching more than $900,000 and large new homes often sell for over $2 million.

Livingston has five condominium complexes, all built within the last ten years: the 300-unit Pointe on Eisenhower Parkway, the 214-unit Fairways on State Highway 10, the 283-unit Regency on South Orange Avenue, Cedar Gate which is now being built on Old Short Hills Rd. and, of course, The Residences at Town Center. These have played an important role in attracting first-time home buyers and downsizers to Livingston.

Livingston's population is diverse. Six of the 22 houses of worship are synagogues and two of the churches are Korean. Fifty-eight percent of adults over 25 have bachelor's degrees or higher, more than twice the national average. A local business directory lists 23 accounting firms, 45 dental practices, 73 lawyers and 120 medical offices or related medical services. Many of the medical offices are attracted to Livingston by the 620-bed St. Barnabas Medical Center on Old Short Hills Road in the southeast corner of the township. Ranked by AARP in 2002 as the best hospital in New Jersey and the 13th best in the nation, the nonsectarian facility treats more than 300,000 patients and delivers 7,000 babies annually.

Another major attraction is the highly rated 5,159-student, K-12 Livingston Public School District. It is divided into six K-5 elementary schools, Mount Pleasant Middle School for sixth graders, Heritage Middle School for grades 7 and 8 and the 1,540-student Livingston High School. Nearly 70 percent of the teachers system-wide have advanced degrees and four of the six elementary schools scored in the top 10 percent in the state on last year's fourth-grade achievement tests.

The system provides gifted and talented programs from grade two and a broad range of courses in the high school, including forensic science, jewelry making and, from next year, Russian language. There are 60+ athletic teams in the high school, with about 70 percent of the students participating in sports.'' Livingston High School, where 75 percent of the teachers hold advanced degrees, regularly sends about 95 percent of its graduates to two- or four-year colleges. All classrooms and the media center have computers with Internet access. The school offers 17 advanced placement courses in the sciences, computer science, English, history, mathematics, art and foreign languages.

Livingston High School students traditionally score a combined verbal and mathematics average of in the 1200 range compared with a state average of 994. In 1998, Livingston High was awarded the prestigious Blue Ribbon for Excellence by the United States Department of Education, and, in its 2000 survey of the best schools in the state, New Jersey Monthly magazine ranked Livingston High as 14th. The school system has grown by 1,000 students in the last decade, and is projected to swell to 5,800 by 2009. Over the last three years, additions have been built to all but one of the elementary schools and to the middle schools, at a cost of $24 million.

Livingston also has three private schools -- the pre-K-8 Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy and the Kushner Yeshiva High School, which share a campus on South Orange Avenue, and the Roman Catholic Aquinas Academy, which accepts children from age 2 1/2 through eighth grade. At Kushner, tuition in the lower school ranges from $6,485 for kindergarten students to $7,927 for eighth graders. In the high school, tuition is $10,305 plus $4,000 in fees. Tuition rates at Aquinas are related to parents during the admission interview.

Until recently, many residents complained that Livingston lacked a walking downtown business district. With the addition of the Town Center retail and residential project, that issue has been beautifully addressed. Also, Livingston offers abundant and varied shopping opportunities. There are three supermarkets and national chains are represented at the 105-store Livingston Mall, anchored by Sears, Macy's and Lord & Taylor, on Eisenhower Parkway.

The township has a total of 600 acres of parkland that is shared with the schools, which are all built in the middle of parks. The largest park is the 65-acre Memorial Park off Livingston Avenue in the center of town. It includes the high school, the municipal complex, one of the township's two municipal pools, the library, a football field, four baseball diamonds, two basketball courts, six tennis courts, a lacrosse/soccer field and a fishing pond.