One Hundred and Five Years of Electrical Service

Pembroke takes pride in being the first town in Canada in which electric power was generated for commercial purposes and electric street lighting. On Wednesday, Oct. 8, 1884, the first electric lights were turned on in Pembroke.

In Toronto, electric lighting was then in an experimental stage, a street light having been placed at a downtown corner of Yonge St. during the latter part of 1884. Ottawa and Hull adopted the Incandescent light in 1887, and Toronto, two years later in 1889.

Electric power was given to Pembroke through the enterprise of the late W.B. McAllister, who at that time, occupied an important place in the business and industrial life of the town. The station where the power was generated by water from the Muskrat River, was a small building that stood on Pembroke Street, just east of the Muskrat River, opposite to what is now City Hall. Original records are scarce. Notwithstanding its significance, The Pembroke Observer in its issue of Oct. 19, 1884, announced the advent of electric light in Pembroke, marking the beginning of a new era, with the following brief paragraph:

"Electric lamps have been put into nine or ten of the stores in town, and Wednesday evening, they were illuminated by the electric light. The improvement is very marked. A few of the brilliant lights also illuminate our streets now, and there is considerable discussion going on as to where the street lamps should be located. Compared with buildings illuminated with electric light, those illuminated with coal oil are dark indeed. This new light is truly wonderful."

Further information is given in the following brief of the same newspaper, dated Oct. 17, 1884:

"On Saturday last, the Town Council entered into an agreement with Mr. W.B. McAllister for the lighting of our streets with the electric light. There are to be five electric lamps on the streets two on the east side of the bridge and three on the west. These lamps are to be kept burning from dusk until one o'clock a.m. every night of the year. The new town hall, when completed, is also to be illuminated by the electric light. The Council have agreed to pay Mr. McAllister for all six hundred dollars per annum. The east end lamps have been placed in position, and nightly shed forth their brilliant rays. One lamp also burns nightly in the west end, but the exact location of the lamps in this end has not been decided on, and the others have therefore, not yet been put up.

"What must heaven be, when this is so bright?" was the suppressed exclamation of a pious old lady on Sunday evening in one of the churches illuminated by the electric light.

"Mr. S.E. Mitchell's establishment may be added to the list of stores, etc., which have adopted the electric light. The new lamps were put in yesterday, Mr. Mitchell choosing four small ones rather than one large one."

"The office wherein the machinery is situated just east of the bridge, has been visited by many interested spectators."

"A young lady wants to know if the street lamps have been put up for the purpose of having a crowd of young men stand in their neighborhood and gaze at the passersby. She says it is perfectly lovely to take a walk  with her beau in the brilliant light, but the lamp post starers mar the pleasure considerably. She will probably soon become accustomed to this state of affairs. "

"No charge has been made for the light supplied to the stores and the town so far, the lamps being on trial, as it were. Everything works brilliantly and satisfactorily and in the natural order of things, the charges will likely soon begin."

"The lamp in the waiting room of the Copeland House does much towards illuminating the street in the neighborhood."

"The light has rapidly gained in favour here. The system is that of the United States Electric Light Company, represented by Ahearn & Soper of Ottawa, and comprises both arc and incandescent lighting. Mr. McAllister will no doubt find the investment a profitable one, and his enterprise deserves this. Pembroke is the first town in Canada to adopt the electric light throughout."

"The fact that the stores of Pembroke are illuminated by the electric light has done much to spread its name abroad, and has elicited much admiration of the enterprise of the town. And no wonder. There are few towns as enterprising as Pembroke, and few possessing the electric light."

In the same issue, it is recorded that two of the local churches had installed electric lights. The article reads in part as follows:

"On Sunday evening last, the English and Methodist churches in town were illuminated for the first time by the electric light, at the seven o'clock services. The Presbyterian church was closed for the evening, and the Rev. W.D. Ballantyne went over and preached in the Methodist church. Both churches were crowded to the doors, and certainly, both looked very fine under the indescribably brilliant rays of the new light. In the Methodist church, there are two lamps  the basement also being illuminated by the electric light. These lamps lit up the church beautifully and brought out the fine interior in a brilliant manner. Those of a thoughtful turn of mind could not help falling into a soliloquy on the wonderful progress of the town and age. Here was this magnificent church, eloquent in all its appointments with a fine pipe organ and choir, filled with a fashionable and richly dressed audience, and fairly ablaze with the electric light, situated in a "metropolitan" town, the site of which was a wilderness comparatively a few years ago."

The first use of the new illumination in the Church of England was apparently not so successful as in the Methodist church, for it is recorded that as the rector was drawing to the close of a scholarly and earnest sermon, suddenly the light was extinguished, leaving the church in darkness. It seems that the two carbons used in the lamp had suddenly fallen together, thus extinguishing it.

All was not plain sailing at the first, and one of the machines was found to be unsatisfactory, with the result that it was exchanged. The Observer of Oct. 24, 1884, tells about it in the following paragraph:

"The arc electric light continues to give entire satisfaction on the streets and in the stores. The incandescent light (small lamps) however, is found to be too weak, and Mr. W.B. McAllister has decided to send the machine back and procure another arc machine in its stead. An improved incandescent machine will probably be put in later on."

The town had not long been served by the new mode of lighting before there came demand for more street lights. It had been the intention of the Town Council to place two lights in east and centre wards, and one in the west ward. Before the location of the latter light had been decided, Mr. McAllister placed it on Pembroke St. The authorities subsequently had it moved to the intersection of Renfrew and Berlin (now Isabella) Streets, and residents of Pembroke Street, having had the light for a short time, were loath to relinquish it. The difficulty was solved by making a new contract with Mr. McAllister, and giving the west ward two lights, the new one being placed at the corner in front of the residence of Thomas Mackie, where the Laurentian Public School now stands.

A short time later, the discovery was made that the new lamps did not penetrate a fog as readily or successfully as did the old coal oil lamps, but the Observer philosophically points out that this will not make much difference, since Pembroke is not London, England.

In a short time, the use of electricity for lighting purposes was fairly general in the town, and on November 28, 1884, The Observer stated that:

The contractors, Ahearn & Soper, of Ottawa, have just completed their contract with Mr. W.B. McAllister for the supply of electric light apparatus, and Saturday night, our town was the only one on the whole line of the C.P.R. from the Atlantic to the Pacific that is wholly lighted with electricity. Mr. McAllister's enterprise met with a prompt response from the merchants and the corporation, the latter one adopting lights for the town hall and the streets. All the principal stores, the skating rink   and the Copeland House are lighted, and on Sundays, the churches. The light is very brilliant, but withal soft and steady. Commercial travellers pronounced Pembroke the best lighted town in Canada".

Click here to learn more about our history.