March 15, 1903: Boyertown Installs Gas Lamps on Main Streets

By Margaret Leidy Harner from her book One Day at a Time: A Social History of Boyertown, PA.

March 15, 1903: Nighttime has been transformed from darkness into light by the installation of gas lamps along the streets of Boyertown for a soft, mellow but extremely brilliant effect. These lights have replaced the “tallow dips” that had formerly been placed at uncertain intervals on our streets.

Six years later, the gas was replaced by electricity, supplied by the Boyertown Electric Company. The electric lights, which were turned on without a hitch, were located at each square on Reading Avenue from Sixth Street to the intersection of Walnut and College Streets, on Philadelphia Avenue from College to Jefferson Streets, at Third and Chestnut Streets and at Third and Washington Streets.

Boyertown is catching up in the Age of Technology. Perhaps they will soon begin to install “water closets” inside their buildings.

More News from Boyertown

• Prothonotary Warbler--May's Bird of the Month Prothonotary warblers delight our area with their sunshine color and active voice.
• May 16, 1937: Angry Laborers Cause Damage in Home of Hosiery Mill Foreman Angry laborers left their foreman a message of their displeasure over the company's wage scale by throwing oil through a window of his home, ruining walls and furniture.