In 1909, Seattle City Light installs an ornamental street lighting system, in preparation for the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition.
World's Fairs, also called expositions or exhibitions, were often preceded by intensive infrastructural improvements. In Seattle's case, these improvements coincided with the extensive regrading of huge tracts of land in the commercial downtown and surrounding neighborhoods. New streets, and the promise of thousands of visitors, placed the city's image in the forefront of city planning and budget decisions.
Street lighting was a relatively inexpensive improvement. These decorative lighting programs replaced some of the earliest hanging arc street lights installed in 1905.
Sources:
Annual Report of the Lighting Department for the Year 1911 compiled by J. D. Ross, Superintendent (Seattle: Lowman and Handford Co., Printers, n.d.), 61-62.
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