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Perkasie Borough Electric Department
History
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Postcard image of Municipal Power Plant on Seventh Street in Perkasie,
PA. The smokestack was used as a landmark in Perkasie. |
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| Former electric department
substation at Ninth & Vine Streets in 1954 |
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Early electric lines and street lights at Seventh &
Market Street. Note trolley tracks on the street.
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| Electricity came to Perkasie on February
8, 1900 when the Perkasie Borough Council decided to switch from
gas and kerosene lamps to electricity. Council authorized $12,000
for construction of an electric plant. A two story building was
built on Seventh Street for $11,500 in early 1900. The building
had a tall smokestack ; a second smokestack was added to the
building in 1935. The original smokestack was knocked down in
1947 and the second smokestack was taken down one brick at a
time in 1963. |
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Electricity was generated through a 125-horsepower engine,
a 75 -kilowatt generator, and a 150-horsepower boiler. At the
time the department charged 12 cents per 1,000 kilowatt hours.
Houses could be wired for electricity for $8.00 - $30.00. When
the plant first opened it served 36 customers and doubled to 80
by the end of 1900. Today the seven-member department serves about
3,800 customers including 200 commercial accounts. The department
generated its own electricity until 1947 when it began buying
wholesale energy and reselling it to customers. The power today
is transported from PP&L into large transformers at the department's
substation just over the borough line in East Rockhill Township.,
Three main circuits supply the town along with 1200 electric utility
poles.
The first electric plant was operated only at night until 1903
when 24 hour service began.
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| Linemen in 1939 place spikes
on their feet to assist in climbing telephone poles. |
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Perkasie electric department truck in
1939 outside power plant. |
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| G. Snyder switches off power plant in 1947. |
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A meeting room in the Perkasie Electrical Department
Building on Seventh Street was used for many years as the meeting room
for Borough Council. |
