Welcome to Beacon

Beacon takes its name from signal fires lit by Washington's troops atop the mountain during the American Revolution, and its history reaches back 400 years to when Henry Hudson's Half Moon anchored in the bay. Shaped by its river, creek, and mountain, the city was created in 1913 by the merger of the old villages of Matteawan and Fishkill Landing. The settled community dates to 1709, when Catheryna and Roger Brett made their home there within the Rombout Patent. Matteawan, site of the first factory, grew around the Brett homestead and the water power of Fishkill Creek, while Fishkill Landing became an important river port and the earliest ferry landing along the Hudson. In the 1920s, Beacon was known as the hat-manufacturing capital of New York. After the decline of its industrial base, old factories were repurposed for residential and commercial use, and cultural organizations and tourism-oriented businesses helped revive the city, including Dia:Beacon in the former Nabisco box printing factory and the Howland Cultural Center. Main Street's historic East End remains much as it was in the 1870s, and the city today is known for its galleries, shops, restaurants, parks, trails, riverfront, and setting between Mount Beacon and the Hudson.

Beacon, New York · United States