Nelson Avenue-Fort Hill Historic District

Nelson Avenue and the surrounding streets of Fort Hill form a residential neighborhood just north of Peekskill's commercial core on the Hudson River. Maps from 1800 and 1837 show no roads here, and by 1852 fewer than ten houses stood in the area. Growth followed Peekskill's Civil War-era boom, and estates were subdivided in the 1880s and 1890s as Nelson and Decatur avenues were extended north. The district now holds 199 contributing resources, mainly single and multiple dwellings. They include Greek Revival houses from the 1840s and c. 1850, Gothic Revival and Hudson River Bracketed homes, Second Empire houses such as the Charles Lamos house at 935 Orchard Street, and Queen Anne houses from around 1888 and 1895. Carriage houses and barns survive behind several of them. The neighborhood was home to foundry owners, builders, merchants and officials, and its large, well-spaced houses reflect the city's prosperity and changing economic makeup.