Photograph of Mount Beacon Incline Railway — Photograph by The original uploader was Daniel Case at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Mount Beacon Incline Railway and Power House

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. 17 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1892.

From the record

“The Mount Beacon Incline Railway was a narrow gauge incline railway up Beacon Mountain near Beacon, New York. A popular local tourist attraction, it operated for much of the 20th century, providing sweeping views of the Hudson River Valley.”
Wikipedia article Mount Beacon Incline Railway, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 266 National Register listings published here for Dutchess County · listed in 1982 · category: Structure.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

Address. Howland Ave. and Wolcott St., Beacon/Fishkill, 12508
When was it listed? November 1982
Category. structure
Also known as. Hudson Highlands MRA
Town. Fishkill town
National Register reference number. 82001151 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

573 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 573 fires within 5 miles of Mount Beacon Incline Railway and Power House between 1992 and 2020, burning about 1,075 acres in total. 50 started naturally. 63 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	330
Arson/incendiarism	63
Natural	50
Smoking	45
Recreation and ceremony	24
Debris and open burning	23
Equipment and vehicle use	21
Power generation/transmission/distribution	8
Misuse of fire by a minor	5
Railroad operations and maintenance	2
Other causes	2

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
7 September 2009	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
6 September 2016	Smoking	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
6 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
5 September 2018	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
5 September 2016	Smoking	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
5 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
5 September 2008	Misuse of fire by a minor	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
5 September 2007	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named

Every fire recorded in Dutchess County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 45 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 45 workings within 5 miles of Mount Beacon Incline Railway and Power House: 36 past producers, 8 producers, 1 occurrence. 8 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Clay, Stone, Iron. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Hustis Quarry	Titanium	Occurrence
Probably Serpentine Marble Rock Quarry No. Hk-022	Stone, Dimension	Past Producer	Marble
Graphite Mine No. Hk-019	Graphite	Past Producer	Graphite
Graphite Mine No. Hk-019	Graphite	Past Producer
Limestone Rock Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Limestone Rock Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Serpentine Marble Quarry	Marble, Dimension	Past Producer
Serpentine Marble Quarry	Marble, Dimension	Past Producer
Serpentine Marble Quarry	Marble, Dimension	Past Producer
Chateaugay Mine	Iron	Past Producer	1871

Every working recorded in Dutchess County

Maps showing this location

17 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the middle of the area the National Park Service maps for this listing, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1892 USGS West Point quadrangle1:62500
1894 USGS West Point quadrangle1:62500 - 3 printings
1899 USGS West Point quadrangle1:62500
1901 USGS West Point quadrangle1:62500 - 12 printings
1936 USGS West Point quadrangle1:62500
1936 USGS West Point quadrangle1:48000
1941 USGS West Point quadrangle1:24000
1941 USGS West Point quadrangle1:62500 - 3 printings
1947 USGS Hartford quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1947 USGS West Point quadrangle1:62500
1947 USGS West Point quadrangle1:24000
1948 USGS Hartford quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1957 USGS West Point quadrangle1:24000 - 4 printings
1961 USGS Hartford quadrangle1:250000
1962 USGS Hartford quadrangle1:250000 - 3 printings
1965 USGS Hartford quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1986 USGS Bridgeport quadrangle1:100000 - 3 printings

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Tioronda Estate-Craig House Historic District	0.7 miles	2023
St. Luke's Episcopal Church Complex	0.7 miles	2008
Mt. Beacon Fire Observation Tower	0.8 miles	2009
Beacon Engine Company No. 1 Firehouse	0.9 miles	2004
Howland Library	0.9 miles	1973
Tioronda Bridge	0.9 miles	1976

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 82001151 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Dutchess County	All 266 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.