National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior

Resource History and Description of Existing Conditions
spectacle, one that most people could only get a glimpse of in public but one that the wealthy
could afford to display at home. Carolyn Marvin tells of grand balls held at the houses of both
Ogden Mills and Cornelius Vanderbilt in 1888 at which electric storage batteries were charged
at the factory of the New York Isolated Accumulator Company, installed in the cellars of the
Fifth Avenue houses, and furnished light for revelers until 3:30 in the morning. 1118
In 1885, Edison boasted that twenty-one American towns and cities had central stations.
Outside of these metropolitan areas, factories, other manufacturing establishments, and
residences relied on isolated plants. In 1888, there were 5,000 central stations and isolated
plants. By 1895, that number had doubled. 1119 It is not known how many of those were
residential isolated plants. But by 1910, only one in ten homes had electricity. 1120 Early electric
generators were not reliable and so other forms of illumination such as paraffin lamps, candles,
or gaslight were retained as well. Nor did electricity replace the labor of servants. For most,
electric lighting was another form of conspicuous display. Nye states, "The sale of generating
plants to private individuals made lighting into a prestigious emblem." 1121
Nye also notes that electric lighting had distinct advantages over gas: it was safer,
cleaner, and it did not consume oxygen, which led to a general stuffiness in gas-lit rooms. 1122
Gas lights left a residue of black soot on fixtures, wallpaper, and fabric. Molly Harrison
attributed the annual ritual of spring cleaning, which originated in the nineteenth century, to the
Victorian woman's need to shake the soot out of draperies, carpets, and upholstery. Only after
re-whitening the ceilings and taking down the heavy drapes could the white summer curtains
and furniture coverings be used with confidence. 1123
In 1896, the American Electrician expressed some surprise that more owners of country
residences were not installing electric generating plants. Attributing this breach of progress to
the seemingly formidable nature of the undertaking, the article went on to say that:
At the present day an isolated electric light plant for a country residence can be so installed
as to occupy little space, and be efficiently operated by almost any of the men kept about a
place of any size, in some cases without interfering with their usual duties. A gardener or
coachman is generally a man of sufficient intelligence to take direct charge of the plant. 1124
The article describes a typical installation for a country house requiring fifty lights with
capacity for doubling that on special occasions. This particular system depended on a gas,
gasoline, or naptha engine, which the author claimed would provide less costly lighting than by
any other means, save water power. A storage battery was also required. The author concluded
by stating "it must be evident that the electric lighting of country houses is practicable whether
looked at from the point of view of first cost, operating expenses, ease of manipulation or
adaptability of plant to the needs of the owners." 1125
1118
Marvin, 178.
1119
Marvin, 163-4.
1120
Nye, 239.
1121
Nye, 243.
1122
These points are made in "Treatment of Rooms in Electric Lighting," Architecture and Building 30
(February 18, 1899).
1123
Molly Harrison, The Kitchen in History (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1972), 115; cited in Nye,
243.
1124
E. G. Bernard, "Lighting of a Country Residence," American Electrician 8 (November 1896): 228.
1125 Bernard, 231.
199