1881: An Innovative Means of Street Lighting is Formally Introduced in Downtown San Jose

December 13, 1881

A 207-foot (63-meter)-tall electric light tower built at the intersection of Santa Clara and Market Streets in downtown San Jose, California, was officially dedicated. The major force who proposed the installation of this tower in the first place was James Jerome Owen (1827-1895), publisher of the San Jose Mercury (precursor of the present-day Mercury News). His source of inspiration for the structure was the electric lighting system already in place at the time in San Francisco, which is about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northeast of San Jose. Owen envisioned an electric light tower in San Jose as an effective means of lighting the city’s central section in its entirety and at less expense that gas street lights.

Owen’s proposed design for the tower was approved by the city government in June 1881. The groundbreaking ceremony for the San Jose electric light tower (also known as Owen’s Electric Tower) occurred two months later.

Bernard D. Murphy (1841-1911), mayor of San Jose, officiated at the dedication of the tower on the evening of December 13 that same year. Unsurprisingly, the San Jose Mercury described this inaugural lighting in rather effusive terms. This newspaper reported, “Today San Jose may be more proud of her tower than Egypt of its Sphinx and obelesques, than Pisa of her Leaning Tower, England of her monuments of war, New York of her Cleopatra’s Needle. These are monuments of pride and raised by a proud and haughty aristocracy. This is a monument to progress and the diffusion of light in our midst.”

The San Jose electric light tower was built on a brick foundation and crowned with a platform holding a total of six arc lamps. This lighting was visible from as far away as San Francisco. The  tower was widely regarded as the tallest free-standing iron structure in existence at the time.

The San Jose electric light tower remained intact until 1915. On February 8 of that year, it was badly damaged by a wind storm. Before rehabilitative work on the tower could begin, strong winds of up to 56 miles (90 kilometers) per hour on December 3 destroyed the structure altogether. Since 1977, a half-size replica of the tower has stood in History Park at Kelley Park in San Jose.

Image Credit: Public Domain

For more information on the San Jose electric light tower, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Jose_electric_light_tower and https://www.sjpl.org/blogs/post/looking-back-san-joses-electric-light-tower/