The Renovated Edison Illuminating Co. Station - 30-32 Horatio Street

photograph by Anthony Bellov

 

In 1881, the streets of New York City, like those of metropolises throughout the world, were illuminated by gas lamps, each one manually lit by a lamplighter.  Mass transportation was accomplished by horse-drawn streetcars, stages, and smoke-belching elevated trains.  But that was all about to change.  

Thomas Alva Edison received a patent for a practical incandescent light bulb on January 27, 1880.  New York City wasted no time in embracing the innovation and hired Edison to electrify Manhattan.  On December 17 that year, he established the Edison Illuminating Company, which would tackle the task of creating generating stations throughout the city.

The New York Edison Company recalled in its 1903 Thirty Years of New York, "One of Edison's most far-reaching ideas, in planning for the incandescent illumination of New York City, was his scheme of a distribution system which should be located entirely underground, free from all atmospheric disturbances and from other interferences to which overhead wires might be subjected."  Edison divided the city into sections, each about a square mile.  Each would receive an electrical generation station, the first of which was the Pearl Street Station that opened on September 4, 1882. 

The project progressed rapidly.  On January 15, 1898, the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide reported that the "4-story double tenement" at 30-32 Horatio Street (between West Fourth and Hudson Street) had been sold for $16,000.  The following year, on July 23, the New York Journal and Advertiser reported, "The Edison Electric Illuminating Company is to erect four fire-proof branch stations."  One of them would be at 32 Horatio Street, costing $23,500.  (The construction cost would translate to about $945,000 in 2026.)

The station opened in 1900.  The Edison Electric Illuminating Company's in-house architect had produced an attractive, utilitarian structure.  Although technically only three stories tall, the soaring ceilings inside made it nearly the equivalent of a five-story structure.  Above two short stoops were large entrances within a rusticated stone base.  They were similar to the carriage bays of livery stables and were flanked with windows.  The architect gave them splayed lintels, inspired by the current Colonial Revival trend.  The unadorned, brick-faced upper section was capped with a dentiled, pressed metal cornice.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Thirty Years of New York described:

It is equipped with three 500 and two 1000 kilowatt rotaries, 2150 kilowatt synchronous motor-generator sets, and two batteries.  Here, also are the offices of the company's battery department.  Horatio Street station serves a varied class of business.  On the west, it takes care of the shipping and wholesale work of the river front and on its east, it feeds into the southern end of the department store region.

The Edison Illuminating Company was acquired by Consolidated Gas in 1901.  Five years later, the Horatio Street building was renovated, but the changes were, apparently, mostly to the infrastructure and equipment.  Working here at the time was Frank de Benedetto, a "foreman on excavation jobs," according to The Sun.  Among his workers was Enrico Ciucci, who, along with "a score or more of Italians," appeared at the Tombs Police Court in March that year to press charges against Benedetto.

The Sun explained that Ciucci, "alleged that he paid $5 to Benedetto to hold his job...He said the payment was made in the present of Attillio Capuli...and others."  (The extorted money would equal about $185 today.)  Ciucci and the other immigrant laborers quickly discovered that their boss had powerful and dangerous ties.

On June 17, 1906, Justice McKean dismissed the case.  The Sun reported that the complaining workers "have practically all disappeared."  The article said, "When Capuli was needed to testify in Special Sessions, he could not be found," adding, "None of the original score or more of complainants could be reached by subpoenas."

A 1914 advertisement depicted the locations of the many Edison sub-stations.  The New York Sun, May 12, 1914 (copyright expired)

In 1936, the firm's name was changed to Consolidated Edison.  In November that year, the owner of the tenement building next door at 26-28 Horatio Street sued for $40,000 in damages saying that the "sub-station at 30-32 Horatio Street is a public nuisance," as reported by The New York Times.  The owner complained that the dynamos "create a continuous noise and that the vibration from machinery has shattered the brickwork of the tenement house."  

A Consolidated Edison representative was cavalier in his response, saying that the station had operated on the site for years and "is used only for the transfer of current from the main plant."  He dismissed the damage to his neighbor's property saying, "Any injuries suffered by the plaintiff is small compared to what would result to the public if the operation of the sub-station were stopped."

On December 11, 1966, The New York Times reported, "Two Consolidated Edison power stations that provided electricity to Greenwich Village residents for more than a half century will soon have dwellers of their own."  The article explained that the stations would be converted to apartments saying, "Every effort is being made to retain the quaint look of old Greenwich Village."

A Colonial-style entrance and faux gas lanterns were intended to recreate Greenwich Village charm.  photograph by Anthony Bellov

The Times said that 30 Horatio Street "will contain 16 one-bedroom and living room-bedroom combination flats."  The renovation, completed in 1967, eliminated the stoops and original entrances.  An off-set doorway with a neo-Colonial frame with an arched pediment was installed, new openings cut, and the upper floors painted.  In keeping with the colonial motif, the single-paned double-hung windows were given multi-paned sashes.

many thanks to historian Anthony Bellov for suggesting this post