The southeastern portion of Massachusetts was well known for its mills and shoe factories. This is a photo of a then-prominent shoe manufacturer that was served by the Abington & Rockland Electric Light and Power Company, photographed around 1895-1900. One of their taller utility poles stands in the foreground at a railroad crossing and served this site and adjacent customers. The utility's generation facility started about 1894 and was located a half-mile from where this photo was taken. Street lighting applications initially commenced and commercial customers soon came about. The forementioned utility retained its generation plant until about 1917 when it was decided by its owners (Stone & Webster, Inc.) that added capacity needed to be served by building a 13 kv line from nearby Brockton. The generation plant was thus retired circa 1917. The Abington & Rockland Electric Light & Power Company was purchased by the Brockton Edison Company in the late 1940's. Note: B.E. Co. built the 13kv line to the North Abington facility as mentioned above (c.1917). Some sections of the original wire and their insulators still exist despite widespread pole replacements. Brockton Edison kept the A&R site as a satellite facility/garage until 1984. Now it is owned by National Grid USA and has a 110kv substation on the premises.