UNIVERSITY U BRARIES w UNIVERSITY of WASHI NGTON Spe ial Colle tions Puget Sound Power and Light Company records Inventory Accession No: 2250-001 Special Collections Division University of Washington Libraries Box 352900 Seattle, Washington, 98195-2900 USA (206) 543-1929 This document forms part of the Guide to the Puget Sound Power and Light Company Records. To find out more about the history, context, arrangement, availability and restrictions on this collection, click on the following link: http://digital.lib.washington.edu/findingaids/permalink/PugetSoundPowerLight2068_2250_5689/ Special Collections home page: http://www.lib.washington.edu/specialcollections/ Search Collection Guides: http://digital.lib.washington.edu/findingaids/search PUGET SOUND POWER & LIGHT COMPANY #2250 Guide Organizational History On October 19, 1885 the Seattle Electric Company, the earliest pred- ecessor of the present Puget Sound Power & Light Company, was organized. It began generating electricity on March 22, 1886. During the next ten years as many as 30 small electric companies operated within Seattle, but most were lost to financial insolvency and merger by 1899. During this same period the Stone & Webster Service Corporation was formed and began to provide management for small utilities nationwide. In 1899 Stone & Webster was engaged to study the competitive situation in Seattle. The result was a consolidation in 1900 which placed most of the power, light and railway -services in Seattle under the management of the newly organized Seattle Electric Company and thus established the city's first unified electric system. The increasing electrical demands of the following decade necessi- tated further mergers among the more than 50 separate utilities in the Puget Sound region, from which emerged five major operating companies. On July 8, 1912 Puget Sound Traction, Light & Power came into existence and was incorporated in the State of Massachusetts, under the management of Stone & Webster. The properties purchased and consolidated to form Puget Sound Traction, Light & Power included those of the five major power compa-, nies in the region: The Seattle Electric Company, Seattle-Tacoma Power Company, Pacific Coast Power Company, Puget Sound Power Company, and Whatcom County Railroad & Light Company. The connection of these separate facilities and territories was the beginning of the first r_egional power service in Western Washington. Jacob Furth, Seattle banker, railway organizer and president of Seattle Electric Company served as president of the company until his death in 1914. 2 He was succeeded by A. W. Leonard, who directed the company until 1931, when it became a subsidiary of Engineers Public Service Company. From 1931 until 1959 PSP&L was led by Frank McLaughlin. The company's name was changed to Puget Sound Power & Light in 1920 following the sale of the Seattle street railway system to the City. During the decade of the 1920's the company acquired additional power companies and expanded to serve 19 counties. Two major companies acquired in 1924 were the North Coast Power Company in southwest Washington and Washington Coast Utilities in central and western Washington. In the 18 years following its incorporation, PSP&L absorbed 128 separate companies. Puget also expanded its rail service during the early 1920's. A stage line was developed, which by 1924 furnished most of the interurban railway service in the Puget Sound region. The company also operated the street railway sys.terns in Bellingham, Everett, Tacoma, Olympia, Chehalis, Centralia and Vancouver, Washington. With the demise of electric transportation, however, Puget decided to concentrate on the sale of electricity and in 1947 sold its subsidiary, North. Coast Transportation Company, to the Greyhound Corporation. The 1930's marked the turning point in the company's expansion. In 1930 the State Legislature passed a Public Utility District law which granted PUD's the power to condemn privately owned electric property. For the next 20 years PSP&L was continually involved in litigation with PUD's and was forced to sell much of its distribution system. The first effective condem- nation suit was that of Clallam County in 1944. In 1948 the company sold properties in Cowlitz, Mason, Chelan, Grant, Douglas, Lewis, Pacific and Grays Harbor Counties. Its large territory in Snohomish County was sold in 1949, and in 1951 its Seattle properties were sold to City Light. In the early 1950 1 s Puget considered a plan to sell its remaining properties to the 3 combined PUD's and in 1953 resisted a merger with Washington Water Power Company. The 1940's produced additional legal setbacks for PSP&L. In 1940 Federal Power Connnission hearings investigated the political expenditures of five power companies, including PSP&L. The hearings determined that the utilities, during the period 1935-40, had spent large sums of money to further their political interests and influence public opinion while charging some of these expenses to operating costs. The 1935 Public Utility Holding Act forced the breakup of large utility holding companies such as Engineers Public Service Company. PSP&L was forced to reorganize and recapitalize and in 1943 severed its connection with Engineers Public Service Company. In 1960 Puget reincorporated in Washington State. Chronology of Generating Plants. (.completion dates) 1898 Snoqualmie Falls hydroelectric plant, first large hydro plant in the state, originally operated by Snoqualmie Falls Power Company, (not a Stone & Webster Co,) later Seattle-Tacoma Power Co. ca.1903 Electron plant, cons.tructed by Stone & Webster on the Puyallup River 190,5 Geo.rgetown Steam Plant, supplied Seattle Electric Company, the Puget Sound Electric Railway between Seattle and Tacoma and the street 1 railway system of Tacoma 1911 White River hydro plant, built by the Pacific Coast Power Company 1926 Lower Baker River hydro plant 1930 Shuffleton Steam Plant 1q:33 Rock Island Dam, first to span the Columbia River 1959 Upper Baker River dam and hydro plant 4 Notes on Source of Records Records in Accession #2250 were stored in a Bellingham building owned by PSP&L when the University acquired them in 1974. At that time University archivists with the assistance of C.B. Schoeggl, former Secretary of the Company, screened out numerous financial records before the remaining records were moved to Seattle. At about the same time Western Washington University, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, acquired from PSP&L records of predecessor companies involved primarily in interurban and street railways. A few of these firms also handled light and power operations. An inventory to these PSP&L records at WWU is available in the UW Manuscripts Section. Notes on Arrangement The main body of the accession are the records of Puget Sound Power & Light from 1920-1953. Records of Puget Sound Traction, Light & Power, 1912- 1920, have been separated and treated as a subgroup and Seattle Electric Company has been sub grouped as a predeces:sor company. Because the records of these three companies were originally interfiled, they are organized similarly. For instance, in each of the three there is a series, GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE, re plant (or operations), which includes correspondence with suppliers, associations, unions·, insurers and others,. about operations~ INTEROFFICE CORRESPONDENCE for PSP&L AND PSTLP included correspondence with , Dn e. s erie.s)' II•/ T& R. DF Fie le t.o~f{ es ptJ ;///) £lVC G" tu; ft1 Sir) Fi -e --/ /,t}-(_b s1e.,~ C 0,-1 tt':-n,1 t.5 7}!Y'o::,r,\ branch offices.A Before 1924 the branches were known by the citie~ in which +?1-e S 0,v1-1f It t)e dri' C. Cov0.prn'j Ci >'1 o{ Pc~) e ·r .f:ot,H, t{ 'Y-Cl {, h (Ii'/ i!q~ t- 0 •1 c,/ hLt'. ,n,··su 1Jr()uj-Je{ ,::u,,/ they we~e headquartered: Seattle, B.ellingham, Everett' 'We\\._a,t~h~~' racoma // ' I the. l'llcun hoot_r; o_f +'h<::. .. rec·cwd.s. rA/s _s--er/r's /11c/t,(des )au5,1;,1ef5 r"e.por1J L>N pohTica/ and Che~alis. In 1924 the. compan~ c,h.3:ni,edq to. e;eographical districts: ,, t,Cc'.)l'\0111\1 C c11J, lcd,or... v'e.lc-tfe.J evuirs 01 .A'cd+·lc . Central, Northern, Northeastern, Eastern, Southern and Southwestern, respectively, although the offices remained in the same cities, These s.ame divisions are represented in REPORTS. 5 Most original foldering and folder headings have been retained. Likewise, subject series used by PSP&L have been retained; most include correspondence, In addition, one large SUBJECT SERIES, Condemnation Cases (boxes 51-83), has been expanded to include not only individual condemnation cases brought against Puget by th.e PUD's but related series as well. The FPC hearings of 1940 investigated not only PSP&L's political expenditures but also its expenses in contesting the Whatcom County PUD condemnation suit, These hearings, therefore, were included in the SUBJECT SERIES Condemnation Cases, Also included are records relating to the proceedings of the Securities & Exchange Connnission in 1941-43 in regard to Puget's recapitalization plans. Although thes.e proceedings were not strictly related to the local condemnation cases, they were grouped together because both dealt with divestitute of PSP&L operating companies and assets. Another large SUBJECT SERIES, Sale of Seattle Metropolitan Area, (boxes 91-100) concerns the negotiations between Puget and City Light which culminated in the sale of Puget's Seattle properties to City Light in 1951. The Subgroups - PREDECESSOR COMPANIES include records of four of the five companies which merged July 8, 1912 to form PSTLP: Seattle Electric, Seattle-Tacoma Power, Pacific Coast Power, and Puget Sound Power. Included also is a Stone & Webster subgroup, Columbia Improvement Company. The engineering section of Stone & Webster worked through Columbia Improvement Company on hydro construction in the Puyallup and Tacoma area.