Pearl Street Station: Powering the First Distribution Network [History]

In 1917, the American Scenic and Historical Society and New York Edison installed a plaque on a building at the corner of Pearl and Fulton Streets in lower Manhattan, in New York City, NY, USA. The plaque (Figure 1), which is still there, states, “In a building on this site an electric plant supplying the first Edison underground central station system in this country and forming the origins of New York’s present electrical system began operation on September 4, 1882, according to the plans conceived and executed by Thomas Alva Edison.”