BUFFALO, NY - January 12, 1897, a celebration for the ages.
It was on the 10th floor of the newly-opened Ellicott Square Building, the largest office building in the world at the time.
The rich and powerful of American society gathered to celebrate the first long-range transmission of alternating current electricity. It was accomplished the year before by Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse. The current originated in Niagara Falls, and was received on Niagara Street in Buffalo. That first transmission, November 15, 1896, was marked by a 21-gun salute over the Niagara River and powered the city trolley system.
And now, a century later, efforts to recognize those feats continue. This past fall a Tesla Fest was held in Buffalo, and now the organizers of that event are working on another project.
A Statue will be produced by world famous artist Larry Griffis, III. Martin McGee, a co-organizer of the Tesla Fest, took 2 On Your Side's Pete Gallivan to the spot where he would like to see that statue stand, on the un-named park land downtown at the corner of Main and Church, next to 1 M&T Plaza.
McGee says the placement is significant. "The statue would be facing the Niagara River" the source of the power.
It would also stand between the Ellicott Square Building where the power banquet was held and across Main Street from the original site of Adam, Meldrum & Anderson's Department Store, which was another mile-marker in A/C history. In 1886 the store became the first commercial business in the US to use alternating current generated electric lights, serving as a beacon, shedding light on the Unknown Stories of WNY.