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Westchester Claims Fame To Presidents Past, Present

 With the Hudson Valley and the nation celebrating Presidents Day on Monday, this area continues to be a place near and dear to the hearts of Presidents of the United States from Washington to Trump.

President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Poughkeepsie last year.

President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Poughkeepsie last year.

Photo Credit: Tom Auchterlonie
Hillary and Bill Clinton

Hillary and Bill Clinton

Photo Credit: Tom Auchterlonie
A statue of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Depot Museum in Peekskill.

A statue of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Depot Museum in Peekskill.

Photo Credit: File Photo

Our very first president, George Washington, spent the summer of 1781 in central Westchester, fighting in the American Revolution. Washington teamed with the French and fought in Dobbs Ferry, Ardsley and White Plains in a risky strategy that helped win the war for the revolutionaries, according to Richard Borkow, who wrote "George Washington's Westchester Gamble."

President Abraham Lincoln's visit to Peekskill on Feb. 19, 1861 is widely celebrated. Lincoln was en route to Washington, D.C.. for the inauguration. His visit is celebrated with an annual parade.

The city opened the Lincoln Depot Museum, which celebrates the 16th President and the Hudson Valley's contribution to the Civil War.

The Peekskill Lincoln Society was founded in 1904 and is the single oldest continually active Lincoln Society in the U.S. Peekskill, in fact, is one of the only communities where Lincoln, Washington and Alexander Hamilton all had a significant presence.

Other parts of the area have had their own brush with Presidential fame.

President John F. Kennedy lived in Bronxville when he was younger. 

In 1927, the Kennedy family moved from Brookline, MA, to the Bronx, where they spent two years before settling into a five-and-a-half acre compound on Pondfield Road in Bronxville when the future president was 12 years old.

Kennedy was a member of the local Boy Scout Troop 2 and attended dance classes at the Gramatan Ballroom.

First Lady Barbara Bush was raised in Rye and attended Milton School and Rye Country Day School. She married George Bush at First Presbyterian Church in Rye in 1945.

President Bill Clinton and his wife, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton moved to Chappaqua in 1999, in preparation for Hillary's Senate run.

The Clintons can often be spotted at restaurants around town, while Hillary Clinton has recently been spotted hiking in the woods of Chappaqua.

President Barack Obama has made several visits to Westchester. In May 2014, Obama spoke in front of the Tappan Zee Bridge in Tarrytown and called for more federal infrastructure funding.

Later that summer, Obama came back to Westchester where he attended fundraisers in New Rochelle and Purchase before attending his former chef's wedding at Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills.

Donald J. Trump, the 45th president of the United States who has now officially been on the job for a month, has plenty of ties to the Hudson Valley.

Trump, who owns the $19.5 million Seven Springs estate in Bedford, also owns Trump National Golf Club Hudson Valley in Stormville and Trump National Westchester in Briarcliff Manor. 

The Trump name also adorns Trump Tower At City Center in White Plains, Trump Plaza in New Rochelle, Trump Park Residences in Yorktown and the Donald J. Trump State Park on the Westchester/Putnam border.

Know of a place we missed? A place where George Washington slept perhaps? Let us know. And happy President's Day.

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