10/13/2026
1924-2026
Castle Point
-The Property
The name “Castle Point” is believed to be derived from the Native American stockade village of the Wappinger people once located on the land, which would be purchased by Gulian Verplanck in 1683 and from which tracts would be sold to settlers. According to a 1954 article by respected local historian Edwin Corwin, by the 1800s, portions of the 224 acres known today as Castle Point had been owned over time by the Meads, the Aldridges, the Harts, the Budds and the Blairs; these properties were purchased by Dr. C.K. Cole, who sold the combined plot to the Edgar Storms Corporation, which in turn sold it to the government on August 29, 1922. One large home, believed to have been built by Elijah Budd about 1820 and called Mount Washington (and, much later, Summerfields), was the only remaining structure on the property; it became what the government called “The Hostess House” at Castle Point for decades (shown above).
-The Need
The Veterans Health Administration began in 1918, when Congress tasked two Treasury agencies to operate hospitals for returning World War I veterans. In March 1919, the federal hospital construction program was approved for care of those Doughboys. In 1922, it was supplemented by a Congressional authorization for 12 VA hospitals, of which Castle Point was one – officially #98 in veterans’ institutions -- and one specifically created to treat veterans suffering with tuberculosis. TB was the deadliest disease in the nation through the 1800s and early 1900s. It was called “The White Plague” due to the pale complexion of its patients. At Castle Point, the care evolved from bed rest and sun exposure treatments (shown) to surgical operations, medications, and other modern advancements. (By 1954, more than 20,000 veterans, virtually all of them afflicted with TB, would be treated at Castle Point.)
-The Choosing of Castle Point
The government appointed a committee to review sites for the new hospitals. Dr. H.A. Pattison, medical supervisor of the National Tuberculosis Association, was a member. He later related that the committee had driven north from Beacon and finally “come down a tortuous roadway to the South Gate” – and he expected another disappointment. “Instead of that, when the turn was made into the gateway of a view, the magnificence of which dazzled the party, burst forth in front of them. They approached the homestead on Mount Washington and … the marvelous vista spread out before them. The committee was (then) unanimous in the selection of the site,” recalled a later account of his remarks.
-The New Hospital
The July 10, 1924 edition of the Newburgh News, headline read “Hospital in Chelsea is to Open To Receive Patients on Sept. 1.” The new hospital had a capacity of 444 beds and needed an estimated 375 to 400 employees, with a monthly payroll of about $100,000. An estimated $3 million had already been spent on the project (equivalent to about $53 million today). The first superintendent, who was largely credited with the hospital’s construction and success, was Col. James E. Dedman, a WWI Army doctor with a 30-year career in the military. In speaking to the Kiwanis Club at the Holland Hotel in the weeks before the hospital’s opening, he said “(T)here is nothing in life but service to your fellow man and now Beacon has an opportunity to do real service. In order for our hospital to achieve its purposes, we must put into it the heart of every commanding officer, of every man and woman in the organization, and the heart of the community.” Joseph K. Egan of Highland Mills became the first patient admitted at Castle Point, on September 15, 1924 – just hours after the dedication ceremony. He would pass away at the hospital on March 24, 1926.
-The Dedication
An estimated 2,000 people attended the formal dedication on September 15, 1924. Small American flags lined the concrete roadway from the gateway to the main building. A stage was erected in the mess hall-turned-auditorium and was decorated with “American flags, potted palms, gladiolas, asters, chrysanthemums and hydrangeas.” Usifer’s band, led by Beacon’s Mike Usifer (who worked at the hospital), played the overture and dignitaries’ speeches followed.
The most popular speaker was Congressman Hamilton Fish III, a WWI veteran himself, who had fought for the hospital to be constructed in his district (after it was initially proposed for Sullivan County). “The veterans are not asking for charity. What they want is service and justice,” he told the assembly. “Legionnaires, women and businessmen should come to this hospital and visit these sick soldiers. Make them forget that they have no armistice. Make them forget themselves. Visit them and remember that they have done for you.” A wing at the hospital was named in Fish’s honor in 1988; he would pass away at the age of 102 – at where else but alongside his fellow veterans at the Castle Point VA.
COPYRIGHT
Beacon Historical Society Newsletter September 2024
By Denise Doring VanBuren
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