The Peekskill Freight Depot, sometimes called the Lincoln Depot, is located at 41 South Water Street in

Peekskill, New York Peekskill is a city in northwestern Westchester County, New York, United States, from New York City. Established as a village in 1816, it was incorporated as a city in 1940. It lies on a bay along the east side of the Hudson River, across from ...

. It is a brick building erected in the late 19th century.

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

gave a speech at this site during his train ride to Washington after being elected, his only public appearance in

Westchester County Westchester County is located in the U.S. state of New York. It is the seventh most populous county in the State of New York and the most populous north of New York City. According to the 2020 United States Census, the county had a population ...

. No longer in use as a depot, the building is the only intact freight-only station building along the route of the former

Hudson River Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Mid ...

. In 2004, the station was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

, and in 2014 it was converted into the

Lincoln Depot Museum The Lincoln Depot Museum is located at 41 South Water Street in Peekskill, New York inside the Peekskill Freight Depot. The Museum is managed by the Lincoln Depot Foundation, whose mission is to preserve the history of the connection between Abr ...

Building

The depot building is closer to the tracks and their chainlink fencing than it is to Water Street. Across the tracks is a park which lies along the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...

. The neighborhood is primarily commercial, with other old industrial buildings. It is a one-story masonry structure faced in common-bond brick with a shallow- pitched

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

d roof. The roof

eave The eaves are the edges of the roof which overhang the face of a wall and, normally, project beyond the side of a building. The eaves form an overhang to throw water clear of the walls and may be highly decorated as part of an architectural styl ...

extends eight feet (2.2 m) over the elevated platform to shelter handlers while loading and unloading freight. It is supported by

brackets A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. Typically deployed in symmetric pairs, an individual bracket may be identified as a 'left' or ' ...

and has

decorative Beauty is commonly described as a feature of objects that makes these objects pleasurable to perceive. Such objects include landscapes, sunsets, humans and works of art. Beauty, together with art and taste, is the main subject of aesthetics, o ...

vergeboard Bargeboard (probably from Medieval Latin ''bargus'', or ''barcus'', a scaffold, and not from the now obsolete synonym "vergeboard") or rake fascia is a board fastened to each projecting gable of a roof to give it strength and protection, and to ...

s at the north and south gable ends. The brick itself has segmented

pilaster In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wal ...

s between the bays and some corbeling. Before its conversion into a museum, the interior of the building retained much of its original trim, including the cement floor,

wainscoting Panelling (or paneling in the U.S.) is a millwork wall covering constructed from rigid or semi-rigid components. These are traditionally interlocking wood, but could be plastic or other materials. Panelling was developed in antiquity to make ro ...

, exposed trusswork ceiling and reed molding and

bullseye Bullseye or Bull's Eye may refer to: Symbols * ◎ (Unicode U+25CE BULLSEYE), in the Geometric Shapes Unicode block * (Unicode U+0298 LATIN LETTER BILABIAL CLICK), the phonetic symbol for bilabial click Animals and plants * Bull's Eye, '' Eury ...

corner blocks around the doors.

History

The first depot was built of wood around 1850 by the

to handle

freight Cargo consists of bulk goods conveyed by water, air, or land. In economics, freight is cargo that is transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. ''Cargo'' was originally a shipload but now covers all types of freight, including tran ...

shipments into and out of what was then a busy industrial

city.Lincoln Society of Peekskill; 2007
Lincoln Depot Museum
retrieved June 17, 2007.) Around 1890 the present brick depot was built by the

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Mid ...

; at that time its platform had extensions to the north and south along the tracks. There are some reports of

fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition point, flames a ...

s in the 1880s and again in 1898; and blistering of the interior paint at roof level gives evidence that there was one. On February 19, 1861,

stopped here during his train trip to his inauguration and gave a 138-word speech at the invitation of local congressman William Nelson, who introduced him. Contemporary newspaper accounts suggest that approximately 1,000 people were present, equivalent to about a third the population of Peekskill at that time, to hear his brief request for their support in the coming crisis – four states had already seceded from the Union by then. It was Lincoln's only recorded appearance in Westchester County. Lincoln Depot Museum Peekskill Freight depot from north

Lincoln Depot Museum Peekskill Freight depot from north

Peekskill has embraced Lincoln's appearance as a celebrated part of its history. A memorial stone, the Lincoln Exedra, was erected on South Street, overlooking the depot, in 1925. The speech was commemorated at its 50th anniversary in 1911, and again on its

centennial {{other uses, Centennial (disambiguation), Centenary (disambiguation) A centennial, or centenary in British English, is a 100th anniversary or otherwise relates to a century, a period of 100 years. Notable events Notable centennial events at ...

in 1961. The latter occasion featured a re-enactment of the speech, with

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

s dressed as Lincoln and Nelson. The Lincoln Society of Peekskill keeps the memory alive and organizes other activities related to its namesake. The railroad no longer exists, and the building fell vacant as Peekskill's industrial base declined to the point that freight shipments were no longer made; the line itself is now the

Metro-North Metro-North Railroad , trading as MTA Metro-North Railroad, is a suburban commuter rail service run by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), a public authority of the U.S. state of New York and under contract with the Connectic ...

Hudson commuter line, handling almost exclusively passenger traffic.

Lincoln Depot Museum

In April 2005, then

New York State Governor The governor of New York is the head of government of the U.S. state of New York and the head of the executive branch of New York's state government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces.New York Constitution article IV ...

George Pataki George Elmer Pataki (; born June 24, 1945) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 53rd governor of New York from 1995 to 2006. An attorney by profession, Pataki was elected mayor of his hometown of Peekskill, New York, and went on ...

– the former mayor of Peekskill – secured the initial funding for the Lincoln Depot Museum to be housed in the freight depot building. Groundbreaking for the project took place on February 9, 2011, by which time the Lincoln Depot Foundation had secured approximately $3 million. The building';s restoration was completed in May 2013, with help from New York's Office of Historic Preservation. The museum opened to the public on October 18, 2014.

References

External links

Lincoln Society in Peekskill
{{National Register of Historic Places in New York Railway stations in the United States opened in 1850 Railway stations in the United States opened in 1890 Former railway stations in New York (state) Former New York Central Railroad stations Abraham Lincoln Buildings and structures in Peekskill, New York Railway freight houses on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state) Railway stations in Westchester County, New York National Register of Historic Places in Westchester County, New York Repurposed railway stations in the United States

Building

History

Lincoln Depot Museum

See also

References

External links