One of the many topics that I have fallen in love with as I have been researching my own family history is the history of my home town of Alpena, Michigan.
Although Alpena was and still is a small town, there is so much history to share. In this blog post I want to dig further into the history of Alpena and how electricity, specifically street lamps, came to this small town.
Anamicke (Native American name for Thunder) was settled around 1840 and in 1843 the small town was given the name Alpena, which is a native American word for partridge or bird. Alpena was officially incorporated in 1871.
Ten years later, in 1881, Alpena Power Company was formed. The first entry in their construction accounts is dated November 30, 1881.
By November 29th, 1882, a special committee on Electric light had been formed and after inquiries into the cost per street lamp in both Bay City and Saginaw, the committee members recommended that the city of Alpena pay $95 per light. This payment was for not less than fourteen lights to be lit throughout the night.
The next article that I found in the "Alpena Argus" newspaper talks about 14 - 16 street lamps to be erected throughout the city of Alpena.
The article below does not only speak to the number and locations of the new street lamps but the author goes into quite of detail about the cost involved in setting up and maintaining the lamps.
In summary, the new street lamps will cost the City of Alpena between $80 and $90 a year. The actual amount is dependent on the number of carbons used by each street lamp
An arc lamp or arc light is a lamp that produces light by an electric arc (also called a voltaic arc).
The carbon arc light, which consists of an arc between carbon electrodes in air, invented by Humphry Davy in the first decade of the 1800s, was the first practical electric light.[1] It was widely used starting in the 1870s for street and large building lighting until it was superseded by the incandescent light in the early 20th century.[1] It continued in use in more specialized applications where a high intensity point light source was needed, such as searchlights and movie projectors until after World War II. The carbon arc lamp is now obsolete for most of these purposes, but it is still used as a source of high intensity ultraviolet light.
In popular use, the term arc lamp means carbon arc lamp only. In a carbon arc lamp, the electrodes are carbon rods in free air. To ignite the lamp, the rods are touched together, thus allowing a relatively low voltage to strike the arc.[1] The rods are then slowly drawn apart, and electric current heats and maintains an arc across the gap. The tips of the carbon rods are heated and the carbon vaporizes. The carbon vapor in the arc is highly luminous, which is what produces the bright light.[1] The rods are slowly burnt away in use, and the distance between them needs to be regularly adjusted in order to maintain the arc.[1]
The location of the new street lamps are as follows:
- One at the corner of Dock (Dock street is now 2nd Ave) and Miller Streets, in the vicinity of the M.E. Church (St. Mary's)
- One at the corner of Dock and Fletcher Streets, in the vicinity of Bolton & McRae's
- One at the corner of Commercial and Oldfield Streets
- One at the corner of Fletcher and Pine Streets, just above the Sherman house
- One at the corner of Water and First Streets, near the brick block of Fletcher Pack & Co,, and will serve to ight up the campus martius, the approach the Fletcher house, the entrance to the steamboat landing and other needed places
- One at the corner of Water and Second Streets, in the vicinity of the bridge
- One at the corner of River and Third Streets, in the vicinity of Engine house No.1
- One at the corner of Chisholm and Second Streets, in the vicinity of the Alpine Block
- One at the corner of Washington Avenue and Second Street, near the Congregational Church
- One at the corner of First and Hitchcock Streets
- One at the corner of Dunbar and State Streets, for the sole purpose of the genius of the organ, to light his weary steps home, after he has had a novel and difficult struggle with an idea - an undertaking not frequent with him
- One at the corner of Dunbar and Second Streets, which will try to abolish darkness in the vicinity of the Central school house
- One at the corner of Washington Avenue and Forth Street, adjacent to the residence of W.H. Potter, and for which our reporter intends to return his thanks if it should do what is expected of it
- One at the corner of Fourth and Lockwood Streets
- One at the corner of Fifth and Chisholm Streets.
- It is also thought that a lamp will be erected for the purpose of demolishing the darkness in the vicinity of the house formally occupied by Mr. Hitchcock.
The map below highlights each of the proposed locations for the new streetlamps in Alpena.
This was an interesting exercise for me. Because I used to live on Hitchcock street between 1st and 2nd street. So one of these new street lamps that the article is referring to was less than one block from my home.
By 1886, the number of street lamps in Alpena grew from under 20 to 67.
I haven't been able to find how many street lamps are located in Alpena today, at least not through my online research. However, we can be sure that it is more than 67.
Thanks for joining me on the journey through the beginning of street lamps in my hometown. I have found several very interesting things during my research for this blog post. I expect you will be hearing more about the history of Alpena, Michigan in the near future.
Excellent article!