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Johnson's Home Address

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In the “First electric Christmas tree lights” section: “Although Johnson’s address at that time is not known, he lived in one of the first areas of New York City wired for electric service.”

In a New York Times article dated December 27, 1884, Johnson’s home address is given as “No. 139 East Thirty-sixth-street”[1]. That is very likely his address in 1882 also. Chuck Coker (talk) 03:38, 23 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I searched and could not find a reference for the Christmas tree being displayed on the specific date (December 22, 1882) and at the address (139 East 36th Street) that are currently mentioned in the article. The references that I recently added to the article for the Detroit Post and Tribune story both indicate it was located in New York City during December 1882.
I did some further research and found an additional reference that includes a clipping from a January 20, 1883 article in Electrical World, which says Johnson's parlor that winter was located at 56 West Twelfth Street.[2] That address would put it in Greenwich Village between Fifth and Sixth avenues, and the Post and Tribune article mentions that the reporter "walked over beyond Fifth Avenue." I checked the source of the Electrical World article and it doesn't include a photo but in place of the text "[New York City]" it instead reads "says a Philadelphia paper."[3] I wonder if Greenwich Village was wired for electric before Murray Hill and if the source of the reference to the Philadelphia paper can be found. Transpoman (talk) 12:13, 19 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I did some further research on this and don't think that Johnson lived at 139 East 36th Street in December 1882. An advertisement in The New York Times on January 19, 1883 lists Nos. 139 to 147 East 36th Street as new homes for sale and ready for occupation, which were built by Charles Buek & Co.[4] According to the description for the Murray Hill Historic District Boundary Expansion, four of the brownstones (Nos. 141 to 147) that were designed and built by Charles Buck (sic) in 1882 remain largely intact today, and a seven-story building was constructed at 139 East 36th Street in 1929-1930.[5] If all five houses on East 36th Street were built in 1882, then Johnson was probably living at another place at the time. Additionally, an article in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat on December 22, 1883 mentioned that Johnson planned to have another tree in his home on Twelfth Street, similar to the one he had last year.[6] Transpoman (talk) 22:14, 20 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I updated the locations of Johnson's Christmas trees based on the references I found. Johnson must have moved to the new house on 36th Street by December 1883, but he didn't have a lighted tree that year because he was still waiting to receive a gas engine needed to create an isolated lighting plant for his home, whereas the 1882 Post and Tribune article mentions that the lights on the tree were powered by an "electric current brought from the main office on a filmy wire." Transpoman (talk) 04:56, 21 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

References

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  1. ^ “A Brilliant Christmas Tree: How an Electrician Amused His Children”. New York Times. December 27, 1884. p 5. <http://ix23.com/articles/253-a-brilliant-christmas-tree-how-an-electrician-amused-his-children>
  2. ^ "Old News: A Tree Lighted By Electricity (1882)" (PDF). The Edisonian. Vol. 4. Winter 2008. p. 3.
  3. ^ "A Christmas Tree Lighted by Electricity". The Operator and Electrical World. Vol. XIV, no. 3. January 20, 1883. p. 38.
  4. ^ "Advertisement". The New York Times. January 19, 1883.
  5. ^ "Murray Hill Historic District Boundary Expansion" (PDF). p. 7.
  6. ^ "A Giant Electric Tree". St. Louis Globe-Democrat. December 22, 1883.
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