The 1882 House Where Edison's Hydroelectric Light First Came Home
A docent walks you through the Queen Anne rooms where the first Edison hydroelectric station switched on the lights.
Hearthstone stands beside the Fox River in Appleton, Wisconsin, a pale-brick Queen Anne with tall chimneys and a veranda wrapped across the front. Henry J. Rogers finished it in 1882. On September 30 of that year it became the first residence lit from a central hydroelectric station running on the Edison system.
The generating plant sat downriver inside a paper mill on Vulcan Street. It burned in 1891. The house kept its fixtures.
Admission is by guided tour, and the clock is fixed. Trained docents run them Thursday through Sunday, and the lower-level exhibits stay open for you to work through on your own before or after. A ticket bought ahead is not tied to a date and can be used on any regular tour, any day the museum is open.
Hearthstone Historic House Museum Admission TicketGuided tour of the 1882 Rogers house, with the lower-level Edison exhibits included. Thursday to Sunday, fixed departure times.www.viator.comThe Night of September 30, 1882
Rogers made his money in paper. He and his partners, alongside Kimberly and Clark, built the industry on the Fox River, and Rogers held a stake in the canal company that controlled the water power. He put that water to a second use.
The plant on Vulcan Street was the first Edison hydroelectric central station. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers calls it the first hydroelectric central station in North America to serve a system of private and commercial customers. It carries landmark status from the mechanical and civil engineering societies and an IEEE milestone.
What makes the house rare is what stayed. Original electroliers still hang and still light. The original switches sit in the walls, along with the original wiring and its porcelain cleats.
The Rooms a Docent Walks You Through
The route covers the grand hall, the library and the parlor, the dining room, butler's pantry and kitchen, the servants' hall, and the second floor. Each room carries its own thread, and docents train on them one at a time rather than on a single script.
A square grand piano stands under a fringed shawl with cut-glass candelabra behind it. A crank telephone is still mounted in its oak case on the wall. The finishes and furnishings are why the house reads as an elite example of Queen Anne interior work in Wisconsin, and not only as an engineering site.
William Waters drew the plans. He worked across the Fox Valley and in Oshkosh, and a long list of his buildings now sits on the National Register. Hearthstone joined that register in December 1974.
The Lower Level Is Part of the Ticket
Below the main floors are the exhibits, and they are included whether you take them before or after the guided tour. The subject is Edison: original bulbs, generating equipment, and hands-on displays that run through hydroelectricity, generators and circuits.
A permanent exhibit belongs to Lewis Latimer, who worked alongside Alexander Graham Bell, Hiram Maxim and Edison himself. Other exhibits rotate through the year. From October 1 to November 1 the house is dressed for Victorian death and mourning, with draped windows and mirrors, stopped clocks, and memento mori on loan from the Loomis Family Collection.
Access and the Fixed Clock
Tours leave Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 10:30 AM, 12:00 PM, 1:30 PM and 3:00 PM. Sunday runs 1:30 PM and 3:00 PM only, with the house opening at 1:00 PM. Arrive up to thirty minutes ahead. The last entry is 3:30 PM, and the house closes at 5:00 PM to let the final tour finish.
An electric lift reaches the first floor and the lower level. The second floor is stairs only, which the museum puts down to the historic fabric of the building. The route suits all fitness levels, infants ride on an adult's lap, and public transport runs nearby.
Food and drink sit outside the ticket, as do gratuities. Monday through Wednesday the house is closed to the general public and given over to booked group and virtual tours, which run about an hour.
Tickets bought in advance carry over to any regular tour on any open day. A change of plan costs nothing.
📍 625 W. Prospect Avenue, Appleton, Wisconsin, on the bank beside the Prospect Avenue bridge. The lamps overhead are the ones Henry Rogers switched on.