Beacon: Hiptown Hometown

by Claudia Ansorge and photographs by Rob Penner, April 28, 2011

Beacon on the Hudson is its own work of art…a colorful, creative, multidimensional community with a vibrant cultural life, a warm and welcoming classic American Main Street dining and shopping experience, and a sacred relationship to the river and surrounding landscape that animates everything.

Named to commemorate the fires set on nearby Fishkill Mountain during the Revolutionary War to alert the Continental Army about British troop movements, today Beacon lights up with more and more good reasons to visit and, for many, great reasons to settle and stay. With a packed events calendar and a steady stream of new happenings and openings that keeps flowing into town, the city is in the midst of an ongoing renaissance that started in the late 1990s and was punctuated with a big explanation point in 2003 with the opening of Dia:Beacon­—one of the world’s largest contemporary art museums.

Creatively charged and infused with an infectious community spirit, the sense of spontaneity and cross-pollination here feels like spring is always in the air, inviting you to pick your own bouquet from all that’s blooming.

RIVER RUN
The Beacon Sloop Club was founded in 1969 when the newly built Clearwater sloop first visited Beacon Harbor and the Hudson River was suffering from garbage dumping, raw sewage leaks, and other atrocities.  Local volunteer members joined Pete Seeger— who makes his home in nearby Fishkill—to help spread Clearwater’s environmental message and make change happen that would not only bring back the life of the river, but also promote it and protect it. Today, Riverfront Park and Denning’s Point Park on the Hudson in Beacon are among the city’s attractions, where people can come to enjoy and appreciate this glorious river once again.
Located at the intersection of Cross and Main Streets, the River Beacons/Mother Hudson mural by Rick Price is framed with the body of an Esopus Indian River goddess who, much like the Beacon Sloop Club, devotes itself to nurturing the river. The mural was created in celebration of the Beacon Sloop Club and the 30th anniversary of the launching of its river sloop, the Woody Guthrie.