A mill was built along the kill by 1714 and the stream's presence influenced Matthew Vassar's decision to locate his college in the area.

Flowing over glacial till, the stream's bed is rich in cobbles and the kill supports populations of benthic macroinvertebrates, trees, shrubs, fish, birds, snapping turtles, and frogs.

[4] A 2010 study observed that the Fonteyn Kill flows from a culvert beneath Park Avenue in an eastward direction through an urban zone before turning southward and feeding into the artificial Vassar Lake.

[11] In spite of this, the stream itself is bordered by a combination of residential lots and forested swaths ranging from 4–70 meters (13–230 ft) in width.

[1] On Vassar's campus, the kill runs along the 4-acre (1.6 ha) outdoor Edith Roberts Ecological Laboratory and past the school's Shakespeare Garden.

[b][1][14] In 2015, Riverkeeper was alerted of a sewage leak in the kill, noting high levels of bacteria indicating the presence of fecal matter.

[16] Efforts are being made to monitor the water quality of the Fonteyn Kill, led by Vassar College's Environmental Research Institute and the Cornell University Cooperative Extension Dutchess County Environment Program.

[3][17] Three sites are regularly sampled for water quality while devices such as sondes continuously record temperature, conductivity, and pH.

[2] The Fonteyn Kill flows through land originally inhabited by the Wappinger band which, throughout the 1600s, came under Dutch control.

[20] He split that land and sold the Fonteyn Kill tract (soon to be known as Het Oosten or "Eastward Neighborhood") in 1699 to Myndert Harmense and Robert Sanders.

[23] In 1854, the land was transferred to Matthew Vassar, for whom "the presence of fresh water was an important factor in deciding the college's location".

[9] An ice house was also in place just south of the kill by 1867, along with a garden storehouse upstream of Vassar Lake on the stream's west side.

[24] During the winter, ice was cut from Vassar Lake and moved to the college's Main Building to keep the school's supply of food cold.

Conflict occasionally arose between students who desired a smooth skating rink and staff at the college who were tasked with refrigerating Vassar's foodstuffs.

[3] By the 1920s, the Fonteyn Kill's source spring was being dammed in wintertime, flooding a nearby hollow to create an ice skating pond.