Electric Lights

[AllanY2525]

I think it's interesting that the lamps only burned until 2 a.m.

Probably had something to do with the costs involved in providing
power on a 24 hour schedule...

[Towntalk]

When were the first lights turned on in Youngstown?


Ans. Electric lights were first used in Youngstown in 1888 when G. M. McKelvey installed a private power plant in his store and used to illuminate a tower on his store.

Source: History of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley – Vol. 1; pg. 675 – J. G. Butler, Jr.

Cf. Revised  Ordinances of the City of Youngstown – 1896 pgs. 274 – 283

City franchised electric companies – 1896

Notes:

Electric World – Vol. 31, March 12, 1898 – pg. 345
YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO.—The Board of City Commissioners has decided that telegraph and telephone wires and cable shall be placed underground between Westlake's Crossing and the East Federal Street bridge.

Municipal Lighting – 1888 – pg. 35
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio, has 169 Thomson-Houston lights, within .three and three-quarters square miles. The lights are on poles and mast-arms with overhead wires, burn until 2 o'clock A. M., according to the Philadelphia schedule. Price $64 per lamp per year; contract annual. '
1886
The Mahoning Electric Light Co., Youngstown, O. Capital stock, $40,000. Thomas H. Wells and others, incorporators.

Annual Report of the Supervising Architect to the Secretary of the Treasury - 1891
YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO, POST-OFFICE.
Act of Congress approved January 21, 1891, authorized the acquisition of a site and the erection thereon of " a suitable building, including fireproof vaults, heating and ventilating apparatus, elevators, and approaches for the use and accommodation of the United States post office and other Government offices" in Youngstown, Ohio, at a cost not exceeding $75,000, but did not make any appropriation for carrying out its provisions.

[Towntalk]

Nope, it wasn't P. Ross Berry. The Court House Picture simply illistrated the fact that by 1889 there were electric street lights in Youngstown as well as electric poles.

I will say this, telephone lines were layed underground at least in the downtown area as early as 1898, so the wires on the illistrated poles were all electric.

[AllanY2525]

My house on Woodbine was built in 1900, and when we gutted out the house we found gas piping in the center of the ceilings, and in some walls right next to the windows...

The curious part about the house on Woodbine is that we found an old electrical inspection sticker
under the plaster (stuck to the lath board next to a switch box) that said "Inspected and passed
November 11, 1911.  This means that the house was wired for electricity eleven years AfTER it
was built...

The house on Elm street was built around 1905, and it still has a gas lighting fixture in the attic (see the photos
on the web site for No. 1233 Elm Street).

The house on Illinois Avenue was built circa 1920 and when we renovated the second floor apartment this past
spring, we replaced two walls and the living room ceiling, and found gas piping there as well.

Plimpton Ross Berry built the original courthouse/jail, so I am making an un-educated guess that maybe it was
him(?) that installed the first electric light? 

Electricity was VERY unreliable in its early days, which is why many of the houses built between 1900 and
1920 or so had "double" light fixtures, ie: the chandaliers hanging from the ceilings had both gas lights and
electric lamps in the same fixtures.  See the attached photo from an antique fixtures web site..

[Towntalk]

Clue

[Towntalk]

Both of you are quite correct so far as the widespread use of electric lights are concerned, but, and there has to be a but in these quizs, electric lights here can be traced back earlier than 1900.

So far as recorded history is concerned, one man well known to all Youngstown installed the first electric light in Youngstown.

[northside lurker]

My house in Lowellville was built in 1900. No signs that there was ever gas lighting.

Are there other houses in your neighborhood that had gas lighting; was it available when your house was built?

[sfc_oliver]

My house in Lowellville was built in 1900. No signs that there was ever gas lighting.

[northside lurker]

The house I'm trying to buy on Elm St. was bulit in 1902, and I've seen no evidence of gas lighting.  However, Allan also has a house on Elm (I believe it was built in 1900) that does have remnants of a gas lighting system.  So, my guess will be between 1900 and 1902.

[Towntalk]

When were the first lights turned on in Youngstown?