Electricity
From VCencylopedia
In January of 1911 the Vassar College Trustees held a special meeting in the home of A.S. Bickmore in New York. The topic of the meeting was the electrification of the Vassar campus. Electrifying Vassar was a long anticipated plan as both New England Building, built ten years earlier, and Sander's Chemistry, built in 1909, were constructed with both gas and electric capabilities.
At the January meeting Trustee Samuel D. Coykendall, who had spent the past year researching and commissioning plans for the campus's electrification, presented plans and a proposed budget from the firm Lord & Co. The plan was approved and over 1911 Lord & Co. performed the necessary improvements and installations across campus. By early 1912 students could enjoy electric light and heating in Main building, the residence halls, the library, and many academic buildings around campus.
All of the energy for the new installations was produced in Vassar's own campus power house. The power house continued to function as the college's primary energy source until 1955, when the campus switched over to buying outside electricity from Hudson Heat and Electric. In 1973, the power house was the first of several neighboring utility buildings to be adaptively re-used, when it opened as the Hallie Flanagan Davis Powerhouse Theater.
Related Articles
Sources
Vassar College Special Collections
MPB, 2006
