The Dead Mayors Streets

The origin of Beacon's street names sometimes leads the researcher down dusty, long forgotten paths of local history. Take, for example, Beacon's Dead Mayors Streets ...

In March of 1941, the Beacon city council met to remedy the problem of several streets in Beacon with confusing or duplicating names. These street names dated back before 1913--a time when our yet-to-be-born city was comprised of the villages of Matteawan and Fishkill Landing. In 1941, there still were streets with left over names from that bygone era that now needed changing: streets with doubled over names like Washington Avenue and Washington Street; Tompkins Place and Tompkins Avenue, Center Street and West Center Street; and Park Avenue and Park Street

The city council came up with an idea ... now in that span of years since Beacon had become a city (1913 to 1941), there had been seven mayors, three of whom had died recently and had not been properly memorialized. In a Eureka moment the council decided to name those conflicted streets after dead mayors!

So, Tompkins Place was changed to "Beskin Place" after Beacon's second mayor, Samuel Beskin. Washington Street became "Russell Avenue" after Alfred Russell, Beacon mayor from 1930--1933. But Center Street, which was to be renamed "Frost Street" after James Frost, Beacon's first mayor, ran into a roadblock. Too many residents on that street resented a name change and the politicians took heed--the late Mayor Frost was stiffed of the honor due him. By the way, after running out of dead mayors' names, the city council renamed Park Street (then located near upper Liberty Street) to "Wilson Street" after the first soldier from Beacon to die in World War I.