The property at Beacon (bought in February 1931) was once the site of a woolen mill, where blue serge cloth was made for uniforms during the Civil War.
The mill buildings (numbered 1-6) down by Fishkill creek were remodeled, and several Truscan (steel) buildings were erected around the quadrangle. Building 1 became the main laboratory building, housing many of the departments.
- August 15, 1931 – The first distillation was run under the direction of the Analytical and Testing Department and “Beacon Research Laboratory” was formally declared open for business.
In addition to a General Office and a Library, the original departments in 1931 included Treating, Dewaxing and Filtration; Organic (which later split into Fuels and Lubricants); Analytical and Testing; Mechanical; Engineering and Drafting; Distillation; Gas; Asphalt; and Physical Research. The Standardization Department opened in 1933.
The original campus included several houses which were eventually razed. The head of the laboratory, then called the superintendent, lived in House No. 1, once the mill owner’s home. A.V. Ritchie was the first superintendent.
The Lab opened with 125 employees, only two of whom were women-the telephone operator and the librarian. By May 1935 the staff had grown to 205. The third woman to be hired was a full-time nurse, in 1937.
- 1932 – BRL was officially designated a “U.S. Government Cooperative Weather Station”-a designation that was in effect until 2003 when operations ceased.
- 1935 – A new name-“Beacon Research laboratory” became “Beacon Laboratories” with the closing of the laboratories at the Bayonne, N.J. sales terminal.
- 1939-1940 – A program of expansion was begun with the construction of a new boiler house and a new group of engineering buildings.
- 1940 – A vast increase in the number of telephones led to the installation of a new telephone switchboard with space for 200 extensions-this doubled the capacity of the old board.