Grand Hall - Edison and Electricity

Grand Hall - Edison and Electricity

The electrolier in the Grand Hall is exceptionally rare and even it is designed to show off that the Rogers had money.  The short shades are original.  At the time, they were not called shades but rather “colored glass flowers.”  The flowers were short because there was no need to "shade" the light as each lamp gave off so little illumination.  The short flowers also helped show off the electric lamps.  Electricity was so expensive and unique that if you had electric lighting, you wanted everyone to know about it.

Electricity was also exceptionally expensive.  Each electric lamp cost one dollar and sixty cents when Hearthstone was built.  Even a well-paid worker like Van Stratum could never afford an electric bulb, let alone the fixtures or the cost of electricity.

Originally there was no way to meter electrical usage so customers were charged by the number of electric lamps they had in their house.  A flat fee of one dollar and twenty nine cents per electric bulb each month was charged for lighting from dusk til dawn.  If a customer wanted lighting only to 10 pm the cost was still high - eighty four cents per lamp per month.