Old Tioronda Hat Factory at 555 South Avenue Destroyed by Fire

One of Beacon's oldest hat factories was all but destroyed by an early morning fire on January 31. The old building dated back to 1879, when Lewis Tompkins, the man who was most responsible for Beacon becoming the hat-manufacturing capital of the state, built the Tioronda Hat Factory as an adjunct factory to his Dutchess Hat Works on Lower Main Street in Fishkill Landing.

The old factory on South Avenue remained a hat shop until 1948 (it was then known as the "Merrimac Hat Company"), when the Atlas Fibers Company bought the property and began operations in 1949 there as a textile reprocessing concern. The property has been sitting idle for decades, but now a local developer has plans to build condominiums on the site.