Finktown

On display at Central Avenue and North Division, "Sledding On Finch Street in Finktown, Peekskill, NY, 1949" by Robert Barthelmes who grew up in Finktown.

Finktown is located at the edge of town in the east hills where Finch Street slopes down a narrow street from Crompond Road and pasts Lincoln Terrace and Park Street at Tompkins Park above a dog Park in a wooded area by Main Street.  The neighborhood inherited its quirky name in the 1860's by John Fink. 

Fink was an enterprising young man who arranged with landowners in the undeveloped eastern part of Peekskill to sell lots for building homes for the growing village, long before Peekskill became a city in 1940.  The venture was a success and soon a small community grew in the area. The people called the new neighborhood "Fink's Town" which evolved into Finktown.

The artist Robert Barthelmes grew up in Finktown and began a series of paintings in 1998. Many people loved Barthelmes' paintings, which he developed into a series.

In former days Peekskill's Finktown was known as a rough neighborhood but by illuminating scenes of life that were similar to thousands of other neighborhoods in America in the mid-twentieth, Finktown becomes a rich and extraordinary place through Barthelmes' artwork.