Stephanus van Cortlandt began acquiring land in the area to build a manor in 1677, the same year he became mayor of New York City.

Many Irish, Italian and German immigrants moved to the area to work on those projects, increasing the population dramatically.

In 1846, work began on a Hudson River rail line from Poughkeepsie to New York City.

The station expanded even further in 1913, when it became the stop at which electric trains from New York City switched to steam engines.

Because maintenance of diesel and steam engines was then very labor-intensive, there were many workers whose needs were served by abundant service businesses, such as restaurants and bars.

Although Croton-Harmon station still served as the main transfer point northbound between local and express trains, the laborers who had earlier fueled a bustling service economy were no longer present in Harmon.

The exodus of labor during the early 1970s was compounded by the stagflation that was a result of higher oil prices and skyrocketing interest rates.

Among the accomplishments are a pedestrian bridge spanning U.S. Route 9 and NY 9A between the lower village and Senasqua Park, the Crossining pedestrian footbridge across the Croton River, the bicycle trail extensions around Half Moon Bay Condominiums, rehabilitation of the "Picture Tunnel" (repaving and closing it to cars), and acquisition and clearing of the Croton Landing property.

Croton Point Park hosted Clearwater's Great Hudson River Revival, a yearly folk music, art and environmental festival.

Every year the central business district (with corners at the municipal building, Grand Street fire house and Croton-Harmon High School) is closed to automobile traffic for music, American food, local fund raisers, traveling, and local artists.

Started in 2005, the Blaze consists of thousands of pumpkins which are hollowed out by volunteers but carved by a creative team.

[18] From the 1910s to the 1960s, Croton was a popular location for the summer homes of American communists, socialists and other radicals and many important artists and writers.

Airy area in Croton the nickname "Red Hill"[19] Croton-on-Hudson is the original home of the Hudson Institute, a key Cold War think tank where the "Mutual Assured Destruction" strategy for nuclear war deterrence was developed.

The village is home to one of a handful operating "dummy lights" in the United States, located downtown at the intersection of Old Post Road South and Grand Street.