Peekskill Military Academy
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox school
|name=Peekskill Military Academy
|streetaddress=Elm and Hudson Streets
|city=Peekskill
|state=New York
|country=United States
|type=Military academy
|opened=1833
|status=closed
|closed=1968
|campus_size={{convert|55|acre|ha}}{{cite web|url=http://yourlocalads.com/pma/PMAMuseum/campus/buildings/campustour.htm|title=The Elm Street Campus|accessdate=2009-08-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090105192742/http://www.yourlocalads.com/pma/PMAMuseum/campus/buildings/campustour.htm|archive-date=2009-01-05|url-status=dead}}
}}
Peekskill Military Academy was a military academy for young men and women, founded in 1833 as Peekskill Academy, located in Peekskill, New York, United States.
Background
The academy was built by a hanging tree where a British spy was executed in 1777; his bones were discovered and relocated during construction of a dormitory in the 1860s.{{Cite web|url=http://www.peekskillhighalumni.net/html/the_hanging_tree.html|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120207104559/http://www.peekskillhighalumni.net/html/the_hanging_tree.html|archive-date = 2012-02-07|title = The Hanging Tree}} In 1841 the academy decided to only admit boys. By 1857 it was known as Peekskill Military Academy.{{cite web |url=http://www.westchesterarchives.com/ht/muni/peekskill/PMA.html |title = Westchester County Virtual Archives}} The school song was titled "The Big House on the Hill".{{cite web |url=http://www.westchesterarchives.com/ht/muni/peekskill/PMA_Full.html?song.x=69&song.y=120 |title = Westchester County Virtual Archives}} The school motto was "Stand Firm As An Oak. Quit You Like Men."{{cite web |url=http://www.peekskillmuseum.org/military.html |title=Peekskill Museum |website=www.peekskillmuseum.org |access-date=12 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120501061943/http://www.peekskillmuseum.org/military.html |archive-date=1 May 2012 |url-status=dead}} The academy closed in June 1968. The reason identified was a decline in enrollment and lack of endowment. Most buildings from Peekskill Military Academy were razed to make room for a new Peekskill High School building. The Ford Administration Building is the last significant structure remaining from the academy and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.{{NRISref|version=2009a}}
During the 1960s, the New York Jets football team used the Academy and its playing field as a summer training camp. Joe Namath was a Jets team member at the time.
A yellow brick road made of Dutch pavers, which used to lead from the steamboat dock to the academy and of which only one section remains as part of a parking lot, is thought by city historian John Curran, among others, to be the inspiration for the Yellow Brick Road in alumnus L. Frank Baum's Oz books including the Wizard of Oz.{{cite news|last1=Banjo|first1=Shelly|title=Historian Believes if You Follow the Yellow Brick Road, You End Up in Peekskill|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304066504576343420557189888|accessdate=9 February 2016|publisher=Wall Street Journal|date=May 31, 2011}}
Luminaries
Notable alumni include actor Lee Marvin, actor Guy Williams, banker Sandy Weill, writers L. Frank Baum and Paul West, politician Chauncey Depew, civil liberties advocate Narciso J. Alegre, and Olympic swimmers Carl Robie and Stephen Rerych.{{citation needed|date=November 2019}}
A former Peekskill commandant, Colonel Charles Jefferson (C.J.) Wright, founded New York Military Academy in 1889, and a former faculty member, Roland R. Robinson, founded Eastern Military Academy (1944–1979).{{citation needed|date=November 2019}}
References
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Category:Defunct United States military academies
Category:Educational institutions established in 1833
Category:Educational institutions disestablished in 1968
Category:Buildings and structures in Peekskill, New York
Category:Defunct schools in New York (state)