diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/config/DatabaseDescriptor.java b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/config/DatabaseDescriptor.java
index f4a6328d0a..ec5a1cbbfa 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/config/DatabaseDescriptor.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/config/DatabaseDescriptor.java
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@ import java.net.InetAddress;
 public class DatabaseDescriptor
 {
     private static Logger logger_ = Logger.getLogger(DatabaseDescriptor.class);
+    public static final String STREAMING_SUBDIR = "stream";
 
     // don't capitalize these; we need them to match what's in the config file for CLS.valueOf to parse
     public static enum CommitLogSync {
@@ -599,7 +600,11 @@ public class DatabaseDescriptor
             FileUtils.createDirectory(dataFile + File.separator + Table.SYSTEM_TABLE);
             for (String table : tables_)
             {
-                FileUtils.createDirectory(dataFile + File.separator + table);
+                String oneDir = dataFile + File.separator + table;
+                FileUtils.createDirectory(oneDir);
+                File streamingDir = new File(oneDir, STREAMING_SUBDIR);
+                if (streamingDir.exists())
+                    FileUtils.deleteDir(streamingDir);
             }
         }
     }
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/ColumnFamilyStore.java b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/ColumnFamilyStore.java
index 83390893d9..36eb4bdec7 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/ColumnFamilyStore.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/ColumnFamilyStore.java
@@ -822,7 +822,7 @@ public final class ColumnFamilyStore implements ColumnFamilyStoreMBean
                     {
                         if (target != null)
                         {
-                            compactionFileLocation = compactionFileLocation + File.separator + "stream";
+                            compactionFileLocation = compactionFileLocation + File.separator + DatabaseDescriptor.STREAMING_SUBDIR;
                         }
                         FileUtils.createDirectory(compactionFileLocation);
                         String newFilename = new File(compactionFileLocation, getTempSSTableFileName()).getAbsolutePath();
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/io/Streaming.java b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/io/Streaming.java
index cb22649102..ffd6899e35 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/io/Streaming.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/io/Streaming.java
@@ -94,9 +94,12 @@ public class Streaming
             if (logger.isDebugEnabled())
               logger.debug("Waiting for transfer to " + target + " to complete");
             StreamManager.instance(target).waitForStreamCompletion();
-            // reference sstables one more time to make sure it doesn't get GC'd early (causing delete of its files)
+            for (SSTableReader sstable : sstables)
+            {
+                sstable.markCompacted();
+            }
             if (logger.isDebugEnabled())
-                logger.debug("Done with transfer to " + target + " of " + StringUtils.join(sstables, ", "));
+                logger.debug("Done with transfer to " + target);
         }
     }