The Lights Turn On in Fairhaven
After months of construction, the Fairhaven Electric Light Company successfully powers the city's streets and businesses for the first time.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
After months of fighting against the elements, the electric company finished their work Saturday night. A test of the plant was made, and not until Sunday night was the current turned on the entire circuit. The lighted streets and stores were prima facie evidence of success. Not a single disagreeable accident happened, and even the skeptical were satisfied. The company, organized last January with a capital stock of $100,000, pushed the project to completion on Cowgill street, between 13th and 14th streets. The plant features a boiler with a capacity of 100 horsepower and an engine of 75 horsepower. Currently, it has capacity for 500 incandescent lamps and 55 arc lamps. A meeting of the directors was held, and it was voted to enlarge the plant three-fold to meet the growing demand, with plans to replace the engine with a 150 horsepower unit within sixty days.
“The lighted streets and stores were prima facie evidence of success.”
In 1890, the arrival of electricity was the ultimate symbol of a city's 'solid prosperity.' Today, Fairhaven's challenge has shifted from bringing power to the streets to managing the rapid redevelopment of those very same historic corridors.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.