Chestnut poles (usually square or nearly so) were becoming more commonplace after 1900 among electric utilities and some transit companies where "stockier" heavy duty poles were required to adequately support the cables upon them. For some reason they were more popular with municipal utilities here in Massachusetts opposed to types used by investor-owned companies. I believe the latter used a lot of cedar poles in those days and butt-treated pine ones for lighter service installations.

Hingham, MA was following the trend towards replacing decaying hard pine poles with chestnut ones as we read about in one of my recent postings. The photo above shows one near the town center carrying an ample amount of heavy conductors. During 1903 the Light Plant replaced 145 older poles along three well-travelled thorofares (having trolley service lines upon them) with 35-foot square chestnut ones. "Their added strength supported the street railway's very heavy direct current cables with no problem with the Light Plant's equipment above them"...the general manager reported. These were joint-owned poles and the railway company paid half of the cost.

Of general interest...By the end of 1903 there were 291 customers on the town's system (approximately 8,000 lightbulbs connected, compared to 1,500 bulbs when the town bought the system in 1894).

During the following year (1904) there were 73 miles of wire serving customers with 55 miles strung for the street lighting circuits upon the 1,400 poles in town. There definitely were some very interesting insulators scattered about the system since glass ones were exclusively used in this community up until the early 1910s.