Oldest Verifiable Manhole Cover in the City

[cassique]

Cool stuff. Was walking through Midtown [[or for old farts like me Cass Corridor) and ran across the one near a local watering hole. Not a winner but definitely wanted to share.

[cassique]

Found another one. Oldest that I have seen to date. This is getting obsessive for me.....

[LarryC39]

1906 Edison Illuminating Co. Eastern Market area. Oldest I recall seeing.

[[Cincinnati also has a lot of old [[20's and earlier) manholes.)

[EDIT FINALLY got this site to accept a picture]

[cassique]

Just ran into the 1906 cover today. I have 55 of them spanning years from 1906 to 2017. Going to have to create a cool wall poster or something to show these off.

[jh0]

Sprint also has fiber running through these same tunnels. There is a whole bunch of mini cellsites on the lightpoles throughout downtown.

[ddaydetroit]

Artist in Europe make art using old manhole covers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITOXCt-JQhc
https://www.facebook.com/raubdruckerin/?fref=mentions

[Honky Tonk]

Artist in Europe make art using old manhole covers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITOXCt-JQhc
https://www.facebook.com/raubdruckerin/?fref=mentions

Very clever and very cool.

[h2ogrrrl]

1906 Edison Illuminating Co. Eastern Market area. Oldest I recall seeing.

[[Cincinnati also has a lot of old [[20's and earlier) manholes.)

[EDIT FINALLY got this site to accept a picture]

May I know where this one is located? Thank you!

[O3H]

The manhole thing isn't exactly standardized.
You might find the steel plates in a gym, they do get "taken"

[Bigb23]

May I know where this one is located? Thank you!

Don't offer up the location - I don't think she created an account here just to print a T-shirt !

And if I'm wrong, I'll buy one.

[cassique]

So I have an excel spreadsheet linked to pictures and locations. I have 1905 - 2019 with some gaps in between. I am thinking with the lack of resources during the war years they were not making new ones.

I was riding the bicycle this morning and ran across the oldest one that I have ever found. Oldest previously was a 1906. Fun distraction from a 30 mile ride! Looking for a 1972 so anyone that can help find one for me I would much appreciate it. Happy Memorial Day!

[Richard]

Pretty cool thread

1905 was Edison illuminating company Edison General Electric company became GE 1889,they set up power to most cities.

1910 was public lighting commission

1886 was Detroit Edison

Many power companies started out private then sold to the city,I wonder if this was the case.

Keep looking,you can go all the way back to the 1886.

They had power 1905 but nothing to run it on outside of a lightbulb.

What year did Detroit install its moon lights? There may be some older covers around where those were located?

Public works might still have the old maps that are used to locate utilities,they may be able to show you where the original runs were.

[Henry Whalley]

It's more PC to call them 'Personhole Covers'

[Richard]

Them covers.

[Jimaz]

Thanks for keeping the hunt alive, cassique.

Wikipedia's article on Edison Illuminating Company says it was purchased by Consolidated Gas in 1901 {and became defunct} yet here we have evidence that its name was used as late as 1905.

[Kathleen]

I was riding the bicycle this morning and ran across the oldest one that I have ever found. Oldest previously was a 1906.

Very cool!! Congrats on spotting this gem!!

[EastsideAl]

Thanks for keeping the hunt alive, cassique.

Wikipedia's article on Edison Illuminating Company says it was purchased by Consolidated Gas in 1901 {and became defunct} yet here we have evidence that its name was used as late as 1905.

Actually Edison Illuminating was broken up into smaller local operating companies. The Wikipedia article is quite unclear, and the purchase it references was only for the NYC area company - which resulted in today's ConEd.

The Edison Illuminating Company of Detroit was a separate company that survives today as DTE. It merged with Peninsular Electric Light to officially become the Detroit Edison Co. in 1903, but continued to use the Edison Illuminating name for its power generation business for several years thereafter.

[Jimaz]

Well thanks for clearing that up, Al. You did a better job than Wikipedia.

[cassique]

Found it interesting as I was looking through my collection of photos that the Edison Illuminating Company was indeed used for many years after and in tandem with the Public Lighting Commission [[later years Department). Here is a 1916 that uses the Edison name and an earlier 1912 that uses the PLC name.

[MikeM]

Found it interesting as I was looking through my collection of photos that the Edison Illuminating Company was indeed used for many years after and in tandem with the Public Lighting Commission [[later years Department). Here is a 1916 that uses the Edison name and an earlier 1912 that uses the PLC name.

Two different entities with two different systems and purposes. Edison Illuminating becoming Detroit Edison for residential and commercial service and PLC becoming DPL for street lighting and city property power.Nice finds!

[CassTechGrad]

[KnnNike]

Leave it to a Cass Tech Grad to not really get the point of the thread...