This can result in some confusion when residents of the outlying towns, who do not live in the village, give their address as "Wappingers Falls".

[5] The Wappinger were an Algonquian-speaking confederacy of Native Americans whose territory in the 17th century extended along the eastern bank of the Hudson River.

In 1741, two Dutchmen, Nicholas and Adolphus Brewer, purchased 750 acres (300 ha) of land around the falls and built the first stone house in the village near the present Mill Street.

[10] In May 1777, soldiers and local residents attacked Peter Mesier's house in Wappingers Falls, disputing the price of tea for sale in a small store inside his home.

In 1819 a small cotton mill was built in the hollow created by the creek as it descends from Wappinger Lake to drain into the Hudson River.

During President Grover Cleveland’s second administration, the Independent Comb Factory on the corner of Fulton and Prospect streets was forced to close.

The plant, which at times employed as many as 1,150 people, stopped printing calico but continued as a bleachery and dye works.

[11] On June 3, 2017, downtown Wappingers Falls had a devastating structure fire that left more than 30 people displaced and six businesses temporarily closed.

No one was injured during the fire, which spread through a strip of buildings in the East Main Street corridor on Saturday afternoon.

By 1836, Ednam had about thirty dwellings and a cotton factory with 2,400 spindles and 90 looms, making 500,000 yards of cloth per annum.

The Wappingers Falls Historic District includes downtown, several adjacent residential neighborhoods, and Mesier Park & Homestead.

The paintings show two views of the town's waterfall at different points in time, one from 1780 and the other from 1880, facing each other from opposite ends of the small building.

On July 14 of that year he conducted the first official service of the Episcopal Church somewhere on the north side of Wappingers Creek.

In December 1833, Matthew Mesier gave a small tract of land between the burial ground and the turnpike (now Main Street) in front of what was then Mr. Givens' place.

Mr. Andrews served as pastor, not only to the church in Wappingers, but often found time to row across the Hudson to conduct services in Marlboro.

[17] The church's most notable pastor was Henry Yates Satterlee, assistant rector 1865-75 and senior rector 1875–83, who was elected the first bishop of the Washington Diocese in 1896 and there established the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, popularly known as Washington National Cathedral.

Benjamin Clapp, former warden of Zion Episcopal, converted to the Baptist faith and donated land on the corner of Prospect Street and South Avenue.

The Presbyterian Church at Wappingers Falls owed it existence to Mrs. John Fisher Sheafe, whose country seat was near New Hamburg.

John D. Wells, who was then preaching at Ellessdie Chapel, situated two miles north of New Hamburg on the river road, to see if there was a need for a church in Wappingers.

This resulted in the organization of the Presbyterian Society in 1848, and the same year a church edifice and parsonage were built by Mrs. Sheafe on Fulton Street.

Kingsbury (1879-1883) the Fulton Street property was sold and the present brick structure on South Avenue erected.

[19] The first Methodist Episcopal Church in the area of Wappingers Falls was started by noted circuit riding preacher Freeborn Garrettson in 1788.

[20] John Given donated land in the then village of Ednam, at the falls west of the Wappingers Creek.

In the spring of 1868, with the idea of merging the Wappingers Falls and Middlebush congregations, land was purchased from the estate of Margaret Reese.

Roman Catholics of what is now Wappingers Falls were cared for by priests from St. Peter's Church in Poughkeepsie until 1845 when the parish was founded to serve southern Dutchess County.

Mount Alvernia Retreat Center sits on 204 acres overlooking the Hudson Valley and is run by the Franciscan Friars of the New York Province of the Immaculate Conception.