George Washington's Head
The 1st President Watches Over A Busy Intersection
Beacon, NY is the kind of place that grabbed one very specific part of its history and ran with it. Mainly, beacon. And George Washington.
Right there, at the odd intersection of Walcott and Teller avenues, stuck on a clumsy median island and half hidden by street signage, the reason for Beacon being Beacon looks out at motorists with a piercing, solemn gaze.
The giant head of George Washington sits atop a pedestal designed to look like a signal fire beacon. George’s head is turned slightly toward the highlands, a small series of mountains that overlook the Hudson River. Back during the Revolution, Washington had stationed Continental Army troops up on that ridge with the intent of burning signal fires as a warning to local militia should British ships be observed heading north up the Hudson. The fires were called beacons.
In 1899, the local chapter of the Daughters of the Revolution erected the Washington Bust to commemorate the bicentennial of his death. Side note: George also visited the nearby Madam Brett Homestead, a 17th century home of an early homesteader family. Honestly, is there anyplace Washington didn’t visit?
A year later, the DAR chapter erected another beacon monument atop the nearby hillside. The celebration was so successful that the festivities cascaded into a series of town history-changing events. First in 1913, today’s city came into existence when the towns of Matteawan and Fishkill Landing merged. Beacon was born!
Then a casino was built up at the original beacon site. Then an incline railway. Then D.W. Griffith came to town and filmed a scene up there from his famous movie “The Fugitive.”
And for a quarter century, Beacon became THE tourist spot, all because of a few fires our first president lit atop a hill.
I have to park about a block down the street when I visit George’s head, and it’s a little tricky to make my way across traffic to the little beacon island. I imagine back in 1899 visitors to see George didn’t have much traffic to worry about. There’s no artist mentioned on the bust and I couldn’t find one later.
But to me, George looks, I don’t know, forlorn? Tired? Beacon has done a great job capitalizing on its relationship with the Father of our Country.
But George? Well, seems like maybe he’s taken in too much truck exhaust.
Beacon, NY is also where Pete Seeger and his wife Toshi lived and raised their children. Pete was not only a fabulous musician and songwriter in the folk scene in the second half of the 20th century, he’s also instrumental in waking people up to the fact that the Hudson River was not dead and lifeless. He dreamed up the idea of the Hudson River sloop Clearwater, and Toshi did the planning and orchestrated the fundraising to make it happen. The boat took school kids out on the river, where the crew taught them about the river, the life in the river, and what all the pollution in the river was doing to that life.
Alas, George was simply "A Head of his time"
I'll see myself out!