In 1891, the moderator of Braintree's Town Meeting appointed a five-member committee to study the feasibility of bringing electric lighting to the town. As chairman of that group, Thomas A. Watson began compiling information on the subject. The committee reported back that Braintree was the only town along the Old Colony Railroad route from Boston to Scituate that did not have streetlights. Lack of electric lighting, the committee found, was the only negative to Braintree's continued expansion and development. It said the cost of a lighting system was a good investment, "sure to return dividends in increase of population and value of real estate."

	1890s   1900s   1950s   1970s   1990s   2000s 1950s: Potter Generating Station is born And the town was still growing. In 1957 the increasing tempo of business prompted the town to approve a $5 million bond issue to build a new generating plant. Completed in December 1959, the new plant was named after Norton P. Potter, an outstanding citizen who served as an Electric Light Commissioner from 1909 to 1955. In the late 1960s, the increasing demand for electric power made it impractical for BELD to continue generating all of the town's power needs 365 days a year. In late 1967, BELD established an intertie with Boston Edison. This allowed the town to purchase power when needed, and to sell excess power when possible. Next >

Parts of this history were excerpted from a document written by Eva T. Gaffney, former communications consultant to BELD, and Marjorie P. Maxham, librarian/archivist for the Braintree Historical Society.