Twenty-two years after the Diocese of New York was founded in 1808, Bishop John DuBois, in 1830, authorized a Dominican, Father Phillip O’Reilly to establish parishes on the Hudson River north of Manhattan Island.

From there he served congregations in West Point, Cold Spring, Newburgh, Saugerties, Rondout, and Poughkeepsie.

When the house of Robert Belton became too small for the number attending, Mass was celebrated in the old brewery, near the Lower Landing at Pine Street.

When some bigoted individuals threatened to burn it down, a vigilance committee, made up of Catholics and Protestants, was formed to defend it.

Patrick Duffy, pastor of Our Lady of Loreto Parish in Cold Springs who had been charged with the spiritual care of Poughkeepsie was then transferred to Newburgh.

)[2] Father Michael Riordan became pastor in September 1844 and "steered it safely" through the "Know-Nothing" agitation at that time.

Removed during subsequent renovation, they were discovered when Our Lady of Mount Carmel assumed occupancy of Old St. Peter's and restored.

In those early days, the spiritual needs of the local Catholic community were met by priests riding circuit out of St. Peter's in Poughkeepsie.

The state sold the chapel to the Archdiocese of New York and granted easements of access on West Cottage and Recreation Drive.

The rectangular-on-plan Baroque Revival red brick church with marble trim is composed of a street-facing three-bay front facade, and a five-bay nave.

It was around that time that the Sisters of Charity of Mount St. Vincent arrived to take charge of the girls' school on Clove St.

The burying ground an East Mansion street, a parochial cemetery, was the resting place of a number of the first generation of Irish Immigrants to this locality.

By 1993 it was so badly deteriorated that it was dismantled and replaced the following year by one of solid granite approximately 30 feet tall.

[8] Parish records for St John the Baptist, formerly located at 1 Grand Street, and which closed in 2007, are also at Old St. Peters.

The stained glass windows depicting the life of Mary and Jesus are all Lafarge, a protégé of Tiffany.

It is located in the center of a hollow with winding roads and a stone bridge all designed by the famous New York City Central Park architect, Frederick Law Olmsted.

James Garisto advocated for the NY Archdiocese to purchase the property located on the grounds of the old abandoned psychiatric hospital.