Peekskill’s former freight depot is tied to Abraham Lincoln’s only recorded appearance in Westchester County, when his inaugural train stopped there on February 19, 1861, as he traveled to Washington. About 1,000 residents gathered, and Lincoln briefly appealed for support during the secession crisis. The stop remained central to local memory after his assassination, as his funeral train also stopped in Peekskill in 1865 and later anniversaries were observed with commemorations and reenactments. In the early 21st century, preservation and redevelopment transformed the depot into the Lincoln Depot Museum, which opened in 2014 and connects this local site to the larger national story of division, inauguration, and mourning.