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Electric light, then motors and transformers · Fort Wayne Electric Works / GE
On the record
Founded: 1881. Griswold (1917): James A. Jenney, "inventor of an electric arc lamp and a small dynamo, came to Fort Wayne" in 1881; "On November 1, of this year, with an authorized capital of $100,000, Ronald T. McDonald organized the Fort Wayne Jenney Electric Light Company," with H. G. Olds as president, Perry A. Randall as vice-president, Oscar A. Simons as secretary, and R. T. McDonald as treasurer and general manager. The organiser’s first name is spelled "Ronald" in Griswold and "Ranald" in later accounts — flagged, not silently settled.
Founders: James A. Jenney and his son Charles D. Jenney, organised and financed by R. T. McDonald with H. G. Olds, Perry A. Randall and Oscar A. Simons as first officers.
What it did: manufactured and sold the Jenney arc-lighting system — arc lamps and dynamos. First commercial installation in the Home Billiard Parlor; in 1884 "the company lighted the New Orleans World’s Fair". Under its successors the Broadway plant’s work shifted to electric motors, transformers, alternators, dynamos and switches.
Course: the company moved to Broadway — purchase 1885 / occupation by 1886 is the most the sources support, flagged. The 1883 night game: on 2 June 1883 Jenney lit League Park with 17 arc lamps of 4,000 candlepower each for a seven-inning game, Quincy winning 19–11. The claim that it was the first night baseball game is misidentified: an amateur night game at Hull, Massachusetts, on 2 September 1880 predates it. In 1888 Thomson-Houston secured a controlling interest and the word "Jenney" was dropped. The plant was destroyed by fire in November 1888 and operations resumed in July 1889. James J. Wood arrived in 1890. GE-date conflict, flagged as needing GE records: control via the 1892 Thomson-Houston / Edison consolidation; GE acquisition dated 1898 (City of Fort Wayne, 2023); "officially absorbed" January 1899 (News-Sentinel); Griswold’s receivership and receiver’s-sale sequence, with the Fort Wayne Works of GE name only from January 1916. No single absorption date is published here as proven.
Fate: under GE the Broadway campus peaked in the 1940s — peak figures conflict and are flagged: roughly 40% of the city’s workforce in the late 1940s vs 20,000 employees, about one-third, in 1944. Thereafter a steady decline in jobs and ultimate closure in 2015; the shutdown began in 2014 and the property was acquired in 2017 for redevelopment as Electric Works. In April 2023 the General Electric Fort Wayne Electric Works Historic District was listed on the National Register.
Find them on this page
- § 05 — business
Sources: Leininger, News-Sentinel Cityscapes (1982) — http://egen.fortwayne.com/ns/projects/history/scapes29.php ; Griswold, Vol. I (1917) — https://ldsgenealogy.com/IN/books/The-pictorial-history-of-Fort-Wayne-Indiana-a-review-of-two-centuries-of-occupation-of-the-region-about-the-head-of-the-Maumee-River-Vol-I-part-57.htm ; US 93.3 / City of Fort Wayne statement (2023) — https://www.us933fm.com/2023/04/26/electric-works-now-listed-on-national-register-of-historic-places/ ; 19th Century Baseball — https://19cbaseball.com/field-10.html ; Lindquist, Quest Club paper (2023) — https://www.fwquestclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Lindquist-Carol-Electric-Works-Quest-Paper.pdf ; Steiner, Quest Club paper — https://www.barrettlaw.com/history-trends-in-industry-allen-county ; Indiana Landmarks — https://www.indianalandmarks.org/2021/04/innovation-sparks-new-use-at-fort-wayne-factory/ . Sources as cited in the profile.