Kutztown Municipal Electric Plant

(From “A Most Agreeable Town, Volume 2”) by Brendan Strasser

In 1917, as larger facilities were required due to the rapid growth of East Kutztown, $23,000 in municipal bonds was issued to finance the construction of the new electric light and power plant along Railroad Street, from which the current first flowed on 25 March 1918. For the next six years, the borough was mostly self-sufficient, generating its own electricity and purchasing overage from Topton Electric Light & Power Co., which, supplying a community with a slower rate of growth, had power to spare. In 1924, mounting demand led the borough to buy out the Fleetwood & Kutztown Electric Light, Heat & Power Co. facilities, operated as a municipal franchise through March 1929, when the borough sold its generating plant, until 1931, when it began to purchase electricity from Metropolitan Edison to resell to residents through its utility at a profit, enabling such borough expenditures as street maintenance and an expanded police department.  The 1918 electric sub-station was most recently used for recycling and maintenance equipment storage.  It was recently demolished by the Borough of Kutztown.