Setting up power lines, ca. 1925, Empire Gas & Electric, Co. [of Auburn, New York]

Guy Clinch
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Setting up power lines, ca. 1925, Empire Gas & Electric, Co. [of Auburn, New York]
Setting up power lines, ca. 1925, Empire Gas & Electric, Co. [of Auburn, New York]

This is from a large album of photographs* that was put together by an employee (or multiple employees) of Empire Gas & Electric in the Finger Lakes region of New York; whether this archive of photos was officially sanctioned or undertaken unofficially, I don’t know.

Most photos are from roughly 1916 to 1925 or so, with a handful from the 1930s, and document the men and women (mostly men, entirely white) who worked for the company as it built the infrastructure that would light and heat the homes and businesses of Auburn, Geneva, Palmyra, Seneca Falls, and many other communities** in that part of the state.

I am so grateful to my friend Rikki in New York for this album and for the kindness and generosity she has shown in both sustaining and feeding my interest in old photos and ephemera.

* Pictures of the entire assembled album are flic.kr/p/2p4H87P and flic.kr/p/2p4KGYg.

** From the Wayne County Journal of Palmyra, New York, September 13, 1923:
The Empire Gas and Electric Company was formed in 1911, merged into itself the Central New York Gas and Electric Company in 1916, and on November 1, 1920, the Company purchased the by-product plant of the Empire Coke Company.

The Empire Gas and Electric Company does the entire electric light, power and gas business of Auburn, New York. It also supplies without competition electricity to Geneva, Cayuga, Seneca Falls, Newark, Waterloo, Phelps, Palmyra, Clifton Springs, Lyons, Clyde, Weedsport and other places; and supplies without competition gas to Geneva, Cayuga, Seneca Falls, Newark, Waterloo, Phelps, Palmyra and Lyons.

With the exception of the season of the steam heating business, the Company's electrical requirements is supplied entirely by electricity generated hydro-electrically.

The estimated population served is 130,000.

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Taken on: December 26, 2024
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