Tonawanda & Wheatfield Electric Co., Tonawanda Power Co., National Grid

National Grid transformer station in 2023. Photo by Dennis Reed Jr.First located on Tonawanda Island

Around 1889, the Tonawanda & Wheatfield Electric Light Company supplies electricity to a small number of North Tonawanda subscribers from a small steam unit on Tonawanda Island. The unit is fed by wood shavings from the Doebler Planing Mill. Their office is at the northeast corner of Main and Goundry in an old frame building. Arc lights on a few streets are run. A few "daring" homes and businesses subscribe to its power.

1891 Buffalo Express Pictorial: "The Tonawanda and Wheatfield Electric Co. are now building a $40,000 plant near the north end, to furnish power for an electric street railroad. These facilities, with a telephone service and telegraph office, leave but little to be desired. The docked frontage on the property is now nearly two miles in length. The Tonawanda City Water Works, located on the west side of the island, are fully described elsewhere."

Electrifying Buffalo-Niagara

In late 1895, acting on the insights of electrical genius Nikolai Tesla, the Niagara Falls Power Company builds an unprecedented long-distance power line from Niagara Falls to Buffalo (mostly along the boundary of the old Mile Reserve). "This transmission line will run over a private right of way from the Niagara Falls Power Company's station at Niagara Falls to Tonawanda, and thence down one bank of the Erie Canal to Buffalo. The entire line will be fenced in" (Electrical Review, August 5, 1896). It is operational by November 1896. (Amazing images of line construction from Hagley Archives).

The long distance line uses Nikolai Tesla's breakthrough alternating current (AC) transmitted at high voltages, which could travel long distances with minimal loss. A ‘transformer house’ like the one established on Robinson street would step down (transform) some of the high voltage lines to more manageable and safer levels for local distribution. Other lines passing through this North Tonawanda substation continued at high voltage to Buffalo and Lockport, to be stepped down at other transformer houses before being used locally. 

Landmarks of Niagara County: "The Tonawanda Lighting and Power Company was incorporated February 23, 1897, with a capital of $150,000, and is the successor of the Tonawanda and Wheatfield Electric Light Company, which was organized in 1890 The company supplies both Tonawanda and North Tonawanda, and operates in all about 290 arc and 2,400 incandescent lamps. Frank M. Gordon is local manager." They will step down power for local distribution.

1900, Cassirer's Magazine: At Tonawanda, 10 miles from Buffalo and 14 miles from Niagara Falls, the transmission line from the falls to Buffalo is tapped and power from it is transformed, converted and regenerated into the various kinds and voltages of current desired tor traction, arc and incandescent lighting and distribution to motors. There is no electrical generating plant driven by steam power in Tonawanda or North Tonawanda either for street railway or central station loads. The work at Tonawanda is carried on by the Tonawanda Power Company, which is closely allied financially with the other Niagara power interests, such as the Niagara Palls Power Company and the Cataract Power and Conduit Company. The Tonawanda Power Company consists of the consolidation of the Tonawanda Light and Power Company, which formerly operated a steam-driven central station of the usual type in Tonawanda, and the Tonawanda Cataract Power Company, which previous to the consolidation was formed for advancing the Niagara power interests in Tonawanda. The consolidated company has erected a transforming station immediatey beside the right of way of the transmission line at a convenient point in North Tonawanda about a mile east of the business center and just a short distance south of the branch of the Erie running to Lockport, which branch is operated by electric power from this transforming station."

Former switching tower

Where the new pocket park is now, on the Twin City Highway side, was once a two-story “switching tower” which was wired to the transformer house. Added around 1902, this adjunct tower was actually owned by the Niagara Falls Power company. It helped engineers manage and troubleshoot defects in the multiplying lines. Most of the high voltage lines carrying electricity from the massive turbines at Niagara Falls ran into this tower.

In 1920, a horrific explosion kills 13 men early Halloween morning (read our blog post, The Tonawanda Power Company Disaster). An NT fire chief alleges the work was rushed in Safety News and Comment. The January 1921 Safety Bulletin provides more context and details (a storm and wind outside) and a photo of the ruined second floor of the switching tower. Rose Derby's suit. Superintendent Frank S. Wahl's (and others!) testimony in Yates's survivor's suit provides more tower details, tower role, and what he saw on the scene (where the dead were found). 

In 1925 they become "associated with" Buffalo General Electric, Niagara Falls Power Co. and others.

In 1929, they open a new headquarters on Sweeney and Webster, today Buffalo Suzuki Strings.

The Robinson street transformer house and environs is now owned and operated by National Grid.

This collection of electric literature has many fine details and photos of the 1896 construction of the line.

Photo archive at the Smithsonian.