1688 - James II of England granted Lt. Col. Phillip Schuyler a large patent whose boundaries encompassed the present Locust Grove estate.

1751- Henry Livingston purchased a portion of the former Schuyler patent and began to clear and farm the land.

1771 - Henry Livingston, Jr. purchased the farm from his father and settled there with his family, naming the estate "Locust Grove."

1791 - Samuel F. B. Morse was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts.

1830 - Two years after Henry Livingston Jr.'s death, his heirs sold his farm to John and Isabella Montgomery, a wealthy couple from New York City. The Montgomerys relocated farming operations to the lower grounds and built a new house (the core of the present house) on the bluff overlooking the Hudson River.

1837 - Samuel F. B. Morse patented his electromagnetic telegraph.

1844 - Samuel F. B. Morse sent his famous message "What hath God wrought!" from Washington D.C. to Baltimore.

1847 - Samuel F. B. Morse purchased the Locust Grove estate from the Montgomerys and moved to Poughkeepsie with his three children. His first wife, Lucretia, had died in 1825.

1848 - Samuel F. B. Morse married his second wife, Sarah Elizabeth Griswold.

1851 - Samuel F. B. Morse worked with the well-known architect Alexander Jackson Davis to remodel and enlarge the Montgomery's house into an Italianate villa. For the rest of his life, Morse continued to alter and improve the landscape around his home.

1872 - Samuel F. B. Morse died at the age of 80. His family spent a few more years at Locust Grove but eventually moved away and rented the estate.

1896 - William and Martha Young, a wealthy Poughkeepsie couple with two children, began renting Locust Grove as a summer home

1901 - William Young purchased Locust Grove from Samuel Morse's heirs. The Youngs realized its historic importance and preserved it essentially as it had been in Morse's time. They brought to the house important collections of furniture, paintings, and ceramics, and continued to collect throughout their lives.

1975 - Annette Innis Young, William and Martha's daughter, died after spending 80 of her 90 years living at Locust Grove. In her will, she established a trust to preserve the estate and its contents for the "education, visitation, and enlightenment of the public."

1979 - Locust Grove opened to the public, offering guided tours, lectures, and special events.

1998 - To better serve its rapidly growing audience, Locust Grove began construction on a new visitor center, opened to the public in 2001.