According to the museum’s website:
Located by Peekskill Bay on the east bank of the Hudson River, The Lincoln Depot Museum is a 3,000 square foot freight and passenger rail depot where President-elect Abraham Lincoln stopped to greet New Yorkers on February 19, 1861 during his inaugural train ride between Springfield, IL and Washington, DC.
New York State Governor George Pataki aided the City of Peekskill with a grant to restore the old rail depot as a museum. County Legislator John G. Testa, then the Mayor of Peekskill, steered a volunteer board of directors to incorporate The Lincoln Depot Foundation, Inc. as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization established to restore the Depot as a museum that would illuminate and celebrate Lincoln’s relationship to New York and to New Yorkers before and during the Civil War. Remembering and recounting Lincoln’s ties to Peekskill has special resonance for those who treasure the history of the Hudson Valley as well as lovers of Civil War history.
The mission of The Lincoln Depot Museum is to explore, remember, and educate audiences about the place that our local history played on the national stage.
HISTORY
The Hudson River Railroad finally reached Peekskill in 1849. Early City Historian Carlton B. Scofield described the original station as a “grimy, wooden shack measuring twelve by fourteen feet.” Due to a fire and the expansion of the railroad line to Poughkeepsie in 1850 and then to Albany in 1851, it was clear a new and larger station was needed. The combination Greek and Gothic Revival station visited by Lincoln in 1861 is one of only two surviving original locations visited by Lincoln on his Inaugural Journey. The other is located in Springfield, Illinois, where Lincoln’s trip began. The depot originally served as a combination passenger station and freight depot. The depot was eventually abandoned for passenger use in 1874 when the present Romanesque Style station was opened on Railroad Avenue. Although there are no known records showing the exact date the depot was constructed, the earliest known map depicting the depot is from 1852. An original copy of this map is on display in the museum.
Abraham Lincoln left Springfield, Illinois on February 11, 1861 and arrived in Washington DC on February 23rd for his upcoming Inauguration as President of the United States. His stop in Peekskill on February 19th was his only stop in Westchester County. He stopped at the invitation of one of Peekskill’s most prominent citizens, William Nelson, a local lawyer and former Congressman serving with Lincoln from 1847-49. Two village residents attending Lincoln’s visit were Chauncey M. Depew (26 years old) and James W. Husted (27 years old). Both men were recent graduates of Yale and these local lawyers led the local supporters of Lincoln. Together, they formed the Highland Wide Awakes and led pro-Lincoln parades through the streets of Peekskill. Both would go on to prominence of their own. Depew was a NY State Assembly member, NY Secretary of State, Westchester County Clerk, US Senator and President of the NY Central Railroad; he played an important role in Lincoln’s reelection obtaining the votes of NY soldiers in the field. Husted served 22 years as a member of the NY State Assembly spending time as Speaker and Minority Leader and he became a Major General for the Fifth Division of the NY National Guard. Additionally, he spent time as Superintendent of Peekskill Public Schools and Harbor Master of NY.
Taken with a Sony RX10 IV