A Brief History Of Peekskill

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In September 1609, Henry Hudson anchored his ship, the “Halve Maen” (Dutch for Half Moon), along a bay on the Hudson River outside of what would become the City of Peekskill. His first mate, Robert Juet, described in the ship log the location as a “very pleasant place to build a town.” It was to become among the first Dutch trading posts.

Jan Peek was Peekskill’s earliest European resident, recognized as making first contact with the Lenape Native American people that populated the lower Hudson Valley at that time. The name “Peekskill” derives from a combination of the Jan Peek’s last name and the Dutch word for stream “kill.”

At the time of the American Revolution, George Washington established this area as the headquarters for the Continental Army in 1776. Its various mills built along the community’s creeks and streams made the area an important manufacturing center and provided the army with supplies.