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At dedication, from left to right, Ninth District Vice President Mike Mowrey, International Secretary-Treasurer Jon Walters, Local 6 Business Manager John O’Rourke, International President Ed Hill and Local 1245 Business Manager Perry Zimmerman.

San Francisco Plaque Celebrates
Electricity’s Pioneers

September 2005 IBEW Journal

Delegates to June’s Ninth District Progress Meeting took a break to give official recognition to the California workers who pioneered the development of electrical power systems worldwide.

San Francisco Local 6 and Vacaville Local 1245 joined with the Fund for Labor Culture and History to dedicate a bronze plaque in front of the city’s Pacific Place Building at 22 Fourth Street, the site of the first commercial central electric power station in the world.

International President Edwin D. Hill, International Secretary-Treasurer Jon F. Walters, Ninth District Vice President Michael Mowrey, Local 6 Business Manager/Financial Secretary John O’Rourke and Local 1245 Business Manager/Financial Secretary Perry Zimmerman participated in the tribute.

Beginning in September 1879, The California Electric Light Company operated a power station at the site, supplying electricity to 21 arc lamp streetlights. The station combined a coal-fired boiler, a steam engine and two Charles Brush dynamos (generators). The company eventually became the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, whose employees are represented by Local 1245.

The Fourth Street site was also the location of the Society of California Pioneers’ Pioneer Hall, where the California Labor Federation held its 1901 charter convention.

The plaque says: “Although the power plant and Pioneer Hall are long gone, the unknown electricians who brought light to their fellow citizens more than a century ago live in spirit wherever generators turn, current flows, and IBEW members serve their communities.”