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Pearl Street Station was Thomas Edison's first commercial power station in the United States. It was located at 255–257 Pearl Street in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City, just south of Fulton Street on a site measuring . The station was built by the Edison Illuminating Company, under the direction of Francis Upton, hired by Thomas Edison.
The station was originally powered by custom-made Porter-Allen high-speed steam engines designed to provide 175 horsepower at 700rpm, but these proved to be unreliable with their sensitive governors. They were removed and replaced with new engines from Armington & Sims that proved to be much more suitable for Edison's dynamos.
Pearl Street Station served what was known as the "First District" (bounded clockwise from north by Spruce Street, the East River, Wall Street, and Nassau Street). This was the world's first underground urban network.Joseph Cunningham (2025). 9781484826515, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN 9781484826515 The district, so named because of its importance in the history of electric power, contained several other power stations such as the Excelsior Power Company Building. The station burned down in 1890, destroying all but one dynamo that is now kept in the Greenfield Village Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. It was rebuilt, and ran till , when it was decommissioned, since larger and more efficient plants had been built nearby.
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