Hudson Valley Lighting built its name in Newburgh before it outgrew the city. In October 2018, Empire State Development announced the company had finished a 262,000-square-foot plant in the town of Wappinger, Dutchess County. The move ended its run in a rented Newburgh works. It capped three decades of growth for a family firm that still trades on the valley's name.
The company now operates as Hudson Valley Lighting Group, a house of lighting brands with a Wappingers Falls address. Its story runs from a Brooklyn garage in the 1940s to a state-backed plant on the east bank of the Hudson. Every step below comes from the company's own materials, state records and trade press. We covered a connected angle in Hudson Valley Credit Union: a history of membership and reach.
A family trade since the 1939 World's Fair
The firm's roots predate its name. Trade press accounts trace the family to William Littman. He took an interest in fluorescent lighting after seeing it displayed at the 1939 New York World's Fair. He later founded his own lighting company. By 1947, the operation had moved from a Brooklyn garage to the Hudson River Valley.
The next generations carried the trade. David Littman worked in his father's commercial lighting warehouse through school. He studied accounting and finance. After finishing his graduate degree in 1985, he took the helm of his own business in Newburgh. That business became the Hudson Valley Lighting brand, designing high-end fixtures. By 2019, the company could claim more than thirty years of design work.
The name matched the place. A valley firm selling valley-styled fixtures carried a story showrooms could retell, and the brand kept that story through its growth.
The Newburgh years and the 2018 move
Newburgh served as the company's manufacturing home while the brand grew. The city, an hour north of Manhattan on the west bank of the Hudson, gave the firm its name and its early workforce. By the late 2010s, the rented Newburgh works could no longer hold the operation.
The state's public record documents what followed. On October 25, 2018, Empire State Development announced the completed project: a 262,000-square-foot plant in Wappinger. The $17.2 million investment was set to create 34 new jobs and retain 47. The package included a $705,000 performance-based grant and up to $200,000 in Excelsior Jobs Program tax credits. The company had outgrown Newburgh. The new plant kept the work in Dutchess County, across the river from the city that gave the brand its name.
Seven brands under one group
The Wappinger plant now serves a portfolio, not one label. Hudson Valley Lighting Group's own site lists seven brands. Hudson Valley Lighting is the founding name. Troy Lighting, Corbett Lighting and Mitzi extend the range. CSL, Sonneman and Schoolhouse round it out. Sonneman is a modern design house that joined the group. Schoolhouse is described as the newest addition.
Each label keeps its own look and price band. The group site lays them out brand by brand, from the founding name to the newest hand.
The structure is common in the fixture industry. One engineering base supports several style identities. For the valley, the meaning is simpler. One manufacturer, one large plant, seven labels shipping from the east bank. The founding brand still anchors the portfolio. The Wappingers Falls head office still answers for all of them.
Why the move mattered locally
Manufacturing departures usually read as losses. This one stayed within reach. The Newburgh site emptied. But the 262,000-square-foot replacement rose about ten miles upriver. The state's job numbers, 34 created and 47 retained, were tied to the new plant. For a region that has watched plants leave entirely, the Wappinger move counted as retention.
The company also remains one of the few consumer brands whose name is the region's own. Every catalog that reads Hudson Valley Lighting sends the valley's name into showrooms across the country. It ships from a plant the state helped build eight years ago.
The payroll stays local, too. The 47 retained jobs in the state's announcement are jobs the Newburgh years trained, moved upriver rather than out of state.
Conclusion
Hudson Valley Lighting grew from a family lighting trade into a seven-brand group. The road ran through Newburgh. The company left its rented Newburgh works in 2018 for a 262,000-square-foot plant in Wappinger, backed by $17.2 million in investment and a modest state incentive package. The name stayed what it always was, the Hudson Valley's, even as the address moved one county north.
