Peekskill Freight Depot (Lincoln Depot Museum)

The Lincoln Depot Museum is located on South Water Street in Peekskill in northern Westchester County, New York. The museum’s purpose is to memorialize the inaugural visit of President Abraham Lincoln to Peekskill in 1861. Before the museum was built in 2014, it was the Peekskill Freight Depot, which was built by the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad. After the 1849 freight depot burned, the present depot was built in 1891.

The Peekskill Freight Depot, also known as the Lincoln Depot, is significant for its transportation association as a freight depot for the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad that helped serve the railroad and the businesses of the city. In 1849, the Hudson Railroad was the third rail line to open in Westchester County with service between New York City and Poughkeepsie. The railroad extended to Albany by 1851. The New York Central Railroad was established in 1853 with the consolidation of ten smaller lines. This railroad served eleven states and two provinces in Canada. In 1869 the two railroads were reorganized as the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad Company.

On February 19, 1861, newly elected President Abraham Lincoln stopped in Peekskill to give a speech from the train platform on his way to Washington for his inauguration. President Lincoln was welcomed by Peekskill’s attorney William Nelson, with whom he had served in Congress. Other notable people present at this event included future U.S. Senator and Peekskill native Chauncey M. Depew. Later in 1864, Depew provided critical assistance to Lincoln in his re-election campaign.

In 1925, Mr. John Smith Jr. of Peekskill was one of the leaders in creating The Lincoln Exedra. The memorial stone alcove and plaque to President Lincoln overlooks the site of the 1861 depot which burned in 1891 and was rebuilt the same year. In April 2005, the former New York State Governor and mayor of Peekskill at that time, George Pataki secured the initial funding for the Lincoln Depot Museum to be housed in the freight depot. The Lincoln Depot Foundation secured $3 million dollars, and the museum opened to the public on October 18, 2014.

1. Czarnecki, Anthony. "Mr. Lincoln's Visit to Peekskill: The Sequicentennial of an Inaugural Journey." The Westchester Historian, Vol 87, Number 1, 2011.
2. The Lincoln Depot, Depot Today Gallery. Accessed March 6th 2021. http://www.lincolndepot.org/.
3. "Peekskill Freight Depot #04001207." National Register of Historic Places. United States Department of the Interior/National Park Service. 2000 https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75323157.
4. Testa, John G.. Lincoln Depot Museum Featured in Cortlandt Living Magazine, Lincoln Depot Museum. June 1st 2018. Accessed March 6th 2021. http://lincolndepotmuseum.org/2018/05/23/lincoln-depot-museum-featured-cortlandt-living-magazine-june-2018/.