It lies on a bay along the east side of the Hudson River, across from Jones Point in Rockland County.

The area was an early American industrial center, primarily for iron plow and stove products.

The Binney & Smith Company, now named Crayola LLC and makers of Crayola products, is linked to the Peekskill Chemical Company founded by Joseph Binney at Annsville in 1864, and succeeded by a partnership by his son Edwin and nephew Harold Smith in 1885.

[6] After the establishment of the province of New Netherland, New Amsterdam resident Jan Peeck made the first recorded contact with the Lenape people of this area, then identified as "Sachoes".

[citation needed] The date is not certain (possibly early 1640s), but agreements and merchant transactions took place, formalized in the Ryck's Patent Deed of April 21, 1685.

Peekskill derives from a combination of Peeck's surname and the Dutch word for stream, kil or kill.

It was suggested by city historian Charles Arthur Clark that the grove of tall pine trees that the Sachoes lived amongst were "not a native of this region, so it is believed that Indians must have brought them from somewhere, and planted them.

[10] After the signing of the patent, portions of then Van Cortlandt Manor, north of Magregories brook remained in its wilderness state and the natives roamed the entire section until approximately 1742.

[11][12] The Sachoe tribe play a prominent role in World's End, a novel by T. C. Boyle which takes place in a fictitious version of Peekskill named Peterskill.

By the time of the American Revolution, the tiny community was an important manufacturing center, which made it attractive to the Continental Army, which established an outpost here in 1776.

[citation needed] Several creeks and streams powered mills, which provided gunpowder, leather, planks, and flour.

Though Peekskill's terrain and mills were beneficial to the Patriot cause, they also made tempting targets for British raids.

The most damaging attack took place in early spring of 1777, when an invasion force of a dozen vessels led by a warship and supported by infantry overwhelmed the American defenders.

In August 1949, following reports misquoting Paul Robeson's speech to the World Peace Conference in Paris as saying that African Americans would not fight for the United States in any prospective war against the Soviet Union, a planned benefit concert for the Civil Rights Congress in Peekskill was canceled amid White Nationalist and anti-communist violence.

The artists planned a second concert in nearby Van Cortlandtville[18] on a farm owned by a Holocaust survivor.

It was one of the earliest performances of Pete Seeger's "If I Had a Hammer"; Robeson sang surrounded by union guards and volunteers from the audience as protection against snipers.

These Peekskill Riots were subsequently well-publicized in news reports and folk songs and formed a major event in E.L. Doctorow's historical fiction novel The Book of Daniel.

The rock had a mass of 27.7 pounds (12.6 kg) and punched through the trunk of a Peekskill resident's automobile upon impact.

[20] But the Journal News focused more on statewide and New York City issues, which led to the founding of the Peekskill Herald in 1986.

Some local art-related highlights included Paramount Center for the Arts, a restored 1930 movie palace that served as the area's cultural hub, offering music, comedy, drama and independent films before suspending operations in 2012 and reopening in 2013 as the Paramount Hudson Valley Theater; STUDIO No.9 Gallery and Workshops; and the Peekskill Coffee House, which showcases local acts.

The fire department staffs seven EMTs and eight paramedics whereas the volunteer corps has 60 active riding members.

[37][38] Peekskill train station provides commuter service to New York City, 41 miles (66 km) away via Metro-North Railroad.