History

Nyack’s Brightest Night

Published

4 hours ago

On Friday night, July 8, 1887, electricity crackled through the air in more ways than one. A full moon hung overhead, but its glow paled next to the dazzling spectacle unfolding below. Villagers packed the streets. Bands played. Fireworks exploded. Politicians shouted speeches from balconies. Houses radiated with new, artificial light. Across the Hudson, Westchester residents gazed enviously at Nyack’s sudden transformation into a beacon of modernity.

A photo of Main Street lit up at night for a celebration. Courtesy of the Nyack Library.

Lighting Up Broadway

Today, we flip a switch and expect instant light—until a power outage reminds us otherwise. But 135 years ago, Nyack’s first electric streetlights marked a revolutionary shift. When the switch flipped that summer night, the village entered the modern age.

A parade passing the corner of Broadway and Burd Street. Photo is from a later date than 1887. The street light is an arc light similar to the original street lights installed in 1887.

Before electricity, Nyack’s streets relied on dim kerosene lamps. In 1872, after much debate, 442 voters approved a streetlight referendum. The village purchased 50 chestnut poles at $2.32 each and 50 lanterns at $3 apiece. Workers installed them along Broadway, Main Street, and Franklin Street, stretching from Depew’s bridge over Nyack Brook to the railroad depot. Gas lighting, though available from the Nyack and Warren Gaslight Company on Gedney Street since 1859, remained too costly for street use.

Kerosene lamps, poorly maintained and often left burning all night, frustrated villagers. After 15 years of complaints, they demanded change. In 1887, a new referendum passed by a vote of 93 to 62—Nyack would go electric.

The Nyack Electric Light Company

Following the vote, community leaders formed the Nyack Electric Light Company—the first electric utility in Rockland and Orange counties. Republican State Senator Clarence Lexow became company president, with General James H. Blauvelt as vice president. Selling 2,000 shares at $10 each, the company raised $200,000 in capital. None of the officers took a salary.

Workers install light pole near Depew Avenue and Memorial Park. Courtesy of the Nyack Library.

The power plant, located next to Nyack Brook on Jackson Street, ran on an 80-horsepower steam engine and a 100-horsepower boiler, both built by the American Electric Manufacturing Company. Workers installed 50 arc lights across the village. Each 2,000-candlepower lamp blazed with a harsh, brilliant light, scheduled to burn until midnight at least 20 nights a month. Initial circuits covered South Nyack, downtown Nyack, and the village’s commercial core—about eight miles in total. Upper Nyack would get its turn later.

A crew installs a new electric pole in Nyack. Courtesy of the Nyack Library.

Formation of Rockland Light and Power

The company’s success spread quickly. Within a decade, Nyack Electric Light Company expanded across Rockland and into North Jersey. By the early 1900s, businessman S.R. Bradley acquired the company, renaming it Rockland Light and Power. The new headquarters stood prominently at Main and Broadway.

Nyack Light and Power headquarters at the corner of Broadway and Main. Courtesy of the Nyack Library.

Over the next half-century, a series of mergers shaped the company’s future. In 1951, it absorbed the local gas company and razed the Broadway Hotel near Lydecker Street to build new offices—now Nyack Village Hall. By 1958, the company evolved into Orange and Rockland Utilities, Nyack’s modern-day energy provider.

The Celebration Parade

Nyack celebrated its electric debut with a parade worthy of a Fourth of July finale. The Nyack Cornet Band led the way, followed by the Village Board, two Grand Army posts, the Sons of Veterans, and the entire Fire Department. Fireworks lit the path, punctuating the parade with bursts of light.

Drum and Fife band getting ready for a parade in front of the Empire Hook and Ladder Company fire house. A saloon is located in the building on the left that is now Upper Nyack Village Hall. Courtesy of the Nyack Library.

Marchers advanced north on Broadway to Lyeth’s store—Upper Nyack’s general store, still standing today at School Street and immortalized in Edward Hopper’s painting Seven A.M.

The northern turn of the parade occurred at the Lyeth Brothers store in Upper Nyack, the model for Hopper’s 1848 *Seven A. M.* Painting

Then the parade turned south, passing Lexow’s gothic mansion at 298 Piermont Avenue and continuing to the Tappan Zee Inn, once home to the Rockland Female Institute and Nyack’s largest meeting space. The inn’s sprawling lawns and trees glowed under the new electric lights.

The Lexow estate on Piermont Avenue south of the Tappan Zee Inn became the southern turnaround point. Courtesy of the Ferris family.

Colorized postcard showing the Tappan Zee Inn. The cars are likely added to the photograph after the fact.

Post-Parade Festivities

As the parade ended, firefighters gathered at Fraser’s, near Depew’s Place on South Broadway, for well-earned food and drink. Meanwhile, about 30 prominent Nyack men—and one woman—dined as guests of Clarence Lexow at the Tappan Zee Inn. The hotel prepared a lavish, though now-forgotten, meal.

The dining room at the Tappan Zee House. Courtesy of the Nyack Library.

Twenty speeches followed. Lexow opened the floor, followed by village leaders, the police chief, local press, the bank president, the youngest company stockholder, a representative from the American Electric Manufacturing Company, and finally, Nyack painter J.O. Davidson, who toasted what the Rockland County Journal called “Woman, lovely Woman.” The air buzzed with conversation—and with the aroma of locally made cigars.

To top it off, the hotel hosted a second banquet for guests who had watched the parade from its balconies. By night’s end, Nyack’s streetlights had passed their trial run with flying colors.

It was, in every sense, the brightest night in Nyack’s history.

Mike Hays lived in the Nyacks for 38-years. He worked for McGraw-Hill Education in New York City for many years. Hays serves as President of the Historical Society of the Nyacks, Vice-President of the Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center, and Upper Nyack Historian. Married to Bernie Richey, he enjoys cycling and winters in Florida. You can follow him on Instagram as UpperNyackMike.

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