Beacon Historical Society

08/30/2026

Interesting!!!!

100 years ago this month, Tiger Flowers, 31, who six months earlier at Madison Square Garden had become the first Black middleweight boxing champion, visited Beacon with a real estate agent in search of a location for a training camp. [Flowers died a year later of complications from surgery to remove scar tissue from around his eyes.] https://buff.ly/Gj2IX4h

08/30/2026

Imagine the memories they made here on warm summer nights? Tell us what you remember about the Incline and its magical trip to the top of Mount Beacon!

08/30/2026

Beacon's Historic Homes:
The "Bee Hive" House at
56 Russell Avenue

The Society's files are filled with old photographs of mystery--photos of individuals or groups with no names or dates written on the backs; photos with no cited location and usually no known photographer. But not so with the photo at the upper left. It is a photograph of the "Bee Hive" house, the home of the Sargent Industrial School for Girls, showing the one hundred or so girls standing out front who made up the sewing and cooking classes at the school. The picture was taken in the last week of June of 1894, by well-known local landscape photographer C. Palmer. The Bee Hive was the home of Sargent School from 1891 to 1898, rented out for that period by Aimee Sargent, founder of this unique school for young homemakers. Fortunately, we know the details behind this picture not by writing on the back but by an article describing the photo and the school in the June 30, 1894 issue of the Fishkill Standard newspaper. Therein we learn: there were six classes in cookery (12 girls in each class), three classes in dressmaking (with six girls each), two classes in sewing (eight each), and 60 girls in beginning sewing. Classes for the younger students were in the afternoons from 3:30 to 6 o'clock. The older girls went to class from 7:30 to 10 o'clock. The school had no fees and there was a waiting list to get in. In 1898, Mrs. Sargent moved her school to a permanent home on Schenck Avenue, where it continued until her death in 1918.

COPYRIGHT
Beacon Historical Society Newsletter August 2015
By Robert J. Murphy

Love Beacon and its history? Follow our page and become a member by visiting our website: beaconhistorical.org.

08/29/2026

From the Society's Photo Collections-Old Main Street Storefront Scene

This gag photo appeared in the August 29, 1929 issue of Beacon's weekly newspaper The Fishkill Standard under the headline "The Dog That Never Bites." Actually, the dog is "Victor," trademark icon of the RCA music corporation. Victor sat in front of Nick Carrie's Music Shop at 109 Main Street, drawing lots of attention from passersby in the 1920s. Even staid businessmen like Ferdinand Loughran, president of the Fishkill National Bank, and Robert Yates of Yates Jewelers, behaved waggishly for the camera with Victor. The Standard reported: "Bob Yates appears to be holding the big Victor dog back, but the canine does not possess a fighting face nor fighting spirit. Despite the contented look in the Victor dog's face he is attacked daily by stray Beacon dogs. It is interesting to watch the manner in which real live dogs growl at this artificial model of their species. The Victor dog carries the following sign: 'For 30 years I've stood for the best in music. Now I have two jobs. The best in music and the finest in radio.'"

COPYRIGHT
Beacon Historical Society Newsletter August 2004
By Robert J. Murphy

Love Beacon and its history? Follow our page and become a member by visiting our website: beaconhistorical.org.

08/28/2026

The latest on the reuse of Dutchess Manor.

The Empire-style brick mansion is located on Route 9D just south of Beacon. It was built in 1867 as a country home for grain merchant James Wade and his wife, Louisa Van Amburgh Wade, whose Dutch-American family previously farmed the land. It was designed by George Edward Harney featuring a distinctive mansard roof, decorative cornices, and corner quoining.

Francis Timoney, a wealthy Irish immigrant who operated three local brickyards at Dennings Point, acquired in 1889 and moved into the property. Bricks produced at Timoney's local yards—transported easily via the nearby Hudson River and railroad—contributed to the estate's prominence.

George Coris bought the estate at a tax sale in 1948. Opened officially as a hotel, restaurant, and popular local catering hall/wedding venue, serving generations of Hudson Valley residents under the Coris family.

1982: Listed on the National Register of Historic Places and 2020 Purchased for $3.4 million by the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail (HHFT) nonprofit organization.

Plans are underway to renovate the historic core as a public visitor center and central trail hub for the 7.5-mile linear park.

Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail is eliminating a 47-space overflow parking lot from its plans for turning Dutchess Manor into a visitor center and headquarters for the 7.5-mile trail between Cold Spring and Beacon. https://buff.ly/irMsG60

08/28/2026

Pop Quiz on Local History: When and why did Beacon once have four different mayors serve within a time span of about three months? The "When" was from December 27, 1943, to March 20, 1944. Mayors Cunningham, Corney, Tompkins and Delaire all served the city in its highest office in that time frame (although to be accurate, Commissioner Henry Corney was only an "acting" mayor). The "Why" answer to the quiz involves a death and a non-politician's sense of duty. The death was that of Mayor Thomas J. Cunningham (shown first row, center, in 1942) by heart attack shortly after Christmas 1943. Commissioner of Public Safety Henry Corney served as acting mayor until February 7, 1944, when the city council appointed J. Gordon Tompkins as mayor until the next election. Tompkins, who was new to public service, was the grandson of local hat manufacturing mogul Lewis Tompkins. The new young mayor (at age 35) was himself the manager of his grandfather's old hat factory. Tompkins' first official act was to cut the mayor's salary from $2,500 a year to $1,000-a move that quickly endeared him to the voters. But, alas, within six short weeks he was gone. Tompkins decided he had to answer to a higher calling (the armed services), so he resigned as mayor on March 20 and joined the navy. Thomas DeLaire was appointed as the next mayor by a somewhat bewildered city council. Normalcy would return to our city government after that November's election.

COPYRIGHT
Beacon Historical Society Newsletter February 2004
By Robert J. Murphy

Join our mission to save and celebrate Beacon’s rich history. Click on the “Support” tab of our website at BeaconHistorical.org

08/28/2026

Beacon Engine Fire Company once had an outstanding marching unit that brought home many trophies for best appearing company at firemen parades across the state. In this photo Beacon Engine marches past New York City Hall at the Firemen's Association of the State of New York parade in August of 1956. Beacon Engine was the only company to make the center page section of the Daily News that day. Beacon has a great legacy of dedicated volunteer firefighters.

08/27/2026

On this date in history -- we pause to remember the sacrifice of the LaChance Brothers of Beacon, who died on August 27 and August 28, 1944, on the battlefields of France.

08/27/2026

Trouble in Sin City:
Fishkill Landing Has Problems With Drunks, Tramps and B***y Houses in 1894

Police chief John H. Mara had his hands full dealing with the social problems besetting the village of Fishkill Landing (today the western half of the city of Beacon). In one night alone in 1894, more than 60 tramps were in custody at the lock-up on Beekman Street. The basement jailhouse there was divided into two rooms of four cells, resulting in standing-room only for the tramps-a condition which led to a reported "vile stench" rising the next day to the courtroom above!

Chief Mara had more than the homeless to worry over, however. A spate of houses of ill-repute suddenly arose in town. The "notorious Madame Grahl" neighborhood on Elm Street near Main had the worst reputation for that sort of goings-on until a raid by police shut the house down. One Joe White that year opened ostensibly a beer saloon on the comer of Denning and Hudson Avenues which in reality turned out to be a "house of assignation." According to the local newspaper, "the sturdy people of the vicinity rose up in arms against the place and it was abandoned." But the prize for "most brazen in keeping a foul house" (Fishkill Standards' words) went to Thomas Chapman's house on the corner of Cedar and Main. Chapman was convicted by a jury for that social crime and was sentenced to the Albany Penitentiary to four months in jail and a $50 fine.

Photo Caption: Police Chief John Mara (sitting far right) kept reign over crime in Fishkill Landing in 1894, including 123 arrests for Drunk and Disorderly.

COPYRIGHT
Beacon Historical Society Newsletter April 2004
By Robert J. Murphy

Join our mission to save and celebrate Beacon’s rich history. Click on the “Support” tab of our website at BeaconHistorical.org

08/26/2026

One of the most amazing treasures on display at last night’s “Show and Tell” event was this child’s shoe, one of two found built into concealed spaces above the doors of a home on DeWindt Street believed to have been built in the late 1800s. We thank BHS member Elani Walden for sharing it!

The tradition of putting baby shoes and other worn footwear inside walls, chimneys, or floors dates back centuries in Europe and North America. People hid these scuffed shoes as protective folk magic to ward off evil spirits, trap witches, and bring good luck or fertility to the household.

Old shoes were believed to trap the scent and spirit of the wearer. Witches or ghosts would be lured to the shoe, enter it, and become magically trapped instead of harming the family.

Shoes were usually tucked into vulnerable entry points near doors, windows, fireplaces, and chimneys.

Because a high percentage of concealed finds are children's or baby shoes, historians believe they also served as fertility charms or blessings to protect the children of the home.

The oldest recorded instance dates to 1308 in England's Wi******er Cathedral, though the practice peaked during the 18th and 19th centuries before fading out by the 1930s. They were common across the United Kingdom and brought over by settlers to New England and parts of the American Midwest.