Peekskill History

Peekskill is situated along the shores of the Hudson River, at the uppermost tip of Westchester County, 50 miles north of NYC. Established as a village in 1816, it was incorporated as a city in 1940. The population of Peekskill is approximately 25,000, with 1/3 Latino, 1/3 African American. It is multi-cultural, multi-religious and spans economic levels.

Peekskill has a rich history spanning the 1600’s settlement of the Dutch in the Hudson Valley, through the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, the underground railway, the free press and so much more. The area was an early American industrial center, primarily for iron plow and stove products. The Binney & Smith Company, now Crayola LLC and makers of Crayola products, began in Peekskill. Talex, one of the most famous art foundries, was based in Peekskill, the yellow brick road, or at least its remnants, still exist in Peekskill.

In September 1609, Dutch explorer  Henry Hudson , anchored along the Hudson River at Peekskill. After the establishment of the province of New Netherland, New Amsterdam resident Jan Peeck made the first recorded contact with the Lenape people of this area. Agreements and merchant transactions took place, formalized in the Ryck’s Patent Deed of 1684. The name Peekskill derives from a combination of Mr. Peeck’s surname and the Dutch word for stream,  kil or kill. The yellow bricks used as ballast on the Dutch ships that landed at the intersection of the Hudson River and McGregory Brook, were downloaded and used to pave the streets of the city. Remnants are still visible behind the restored Chart House at the Metro North Station.

Located on the north bank of Annsville Creek as it empties into the Hudson, Fort Independence combined with Forts Montgomery and Clinton to defend the Hudson River Valley during the Revolutionary war. Fort Hill Park, the site of Camp Peekskill, contained five barracks. By this time, Peekskill was an important manufacturing center, which made it attractive to the Continental Army, which established an outpost here in 1776. Several creeks and streams powered mills which provided gunpowder, leather, planks, and flour. Slaughterhouses provided fresh meat, easily shipped from docks along the river. Peekskill output supported several other forts and garrisons located to support the Hudson River Chains placed between Bear Mountain Bridge and Anthony’s Nose during the Revolution to prevent British naval passage upriver. In June 1781, Washington established his quarters, for a short time, at Peekskill.

In 1859 Rev. Henry Ward Beecher bought a thirty-six acre farm at Peekskill. Beecher made many improvements and established a summer home for his family. His niece, Harriet Beecher Stowe, authored Uncle Tom’s Cabin, bringing critical attention to the inhumanity of Slavery. Peekskill has several homes that preserve the hiding spaces and tunnels of the underground railway.

In August 1949, following reports misquoting Paul Robeson’s speech to the World Peace Conference in Paris as stating that African Americans would not fight for the United States in any prospective war against the Soviet Union, a planned benefit concert for the Civil Rights Congress in Peekskill had to be cancelled amid White Nationalist and anti communist violence. An effigy of Robeson was lynched in the town. The artists were able to plan a second concert in nearby Van Cortlandtville on a farm owned by a Holocaust survivor. (His house was subsequently shot into and brickbats thrown through his windows.) The publicity drew a crowd of around 20,000, and two men with rifles were discovered and removed prior to any violence during the concert itself. It was one of the earliest performances of Pete Seeger’s “If I Had a Hammer” Robeson sang surrounded by union guards and volunteers from the audience as protection against other snipers.

Peekskill was the landing point of a fragment of the Peekskill Meteorite, just before midnight on October 9, 1992. The meteoric trail was recorded on film by at least sixteen individuals. This was only the fourth meteorite in history for which an exact orbit is known. The rock had a mass of 27.7 pounds (12.6 kg) and punched through the trunk of Peekskill resident’s automobile upon impact.

The Centennial Firehouse, built in 1890, was located under a U.S. Route 9 bridge. During the original construction of the bridge in 1932 part of the roof of the firehouse was removed. As part of a 2008 highway reconstruction project it was to be relocated to a new historic district. Unfortunately, a mechanical failure during a turn caused the building to collapse.

Beginning in the early 1990s, Peekskill made efforts to attract artists, particularly from high-rent areas in New York City. These included economic development incentives to landlords such as tax incentives, grants, facade improvements, and loans to renovate buildings that could be used as live-work spaces by artists. In 2002 the city of Peekskill and the County of Westchester joined with a private real estate company to develop The Peekskill Art Lofts, a 28-unit limited equity income co-op offering artists an opportunity for affordable home ownership.

In the past 15 years Peekskill had dramatically changed with burgeoning foot traffic, five-star restaurants, new hi-end housing projects, an upscale spa and more. Movement up to the Hudson Valley in preference for the heavily trafficked and tonier Hamptons, has led to an escalation of migration to Peekskill from NYC. Uniquely that has not affected the appreciation for multicultural dialogue and diversity, reflected in the many concerts and art exhibitions that abound in this small metropolis. Public art and a major sculpture trail lead visitors as they navigate the hamlet, this balanced with nature hiking on Bear Mountain and in the Blue Hills Reservation as well as kayaking along the Hudson.

HVMOCA is honored to have been a part of this revitalization and looks forward to this next stage, the project that we believe will secure Peekskill’s reputation as a haven for the arts: Enlighten Peekskill.

Discover More About Enlighten Peekskill

To all sculptors and artists integrating illumination into their works, now is your opportunity to shine!
Application Deadline is July 11, 2022

Click below to learn more and apply.