Shown is a stretch of Main Street in Hingham in the mid-20s. It is lined with period homes and was described by Eleanor Roosevelt "as one of the most beautiful streets in America." Except for some road straightening and widening with replacement of the utility poles, almost everything you see looks nearly the same today.

The pole lines along the left were owned by the Hingham Light Plant and street railway company with lines on separate poles along this stretch. It is possible the trolley service poles were added at a later date so that they would no longer burden the electric utility ones. By 1926 the Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway Company abandoned much of its system in town. The Hingham Light Board reported: "it became necessary for this Department for the protection of its lines, to assume the expense of replacing many defective poles, and in the future there will be many more poles replaced."

The town's utility pole on the left was among those in forementioned report that was slated for replacement. The next photo (click "Next") shows a close view of a rather large crack extending down from the top of it. This may or may not have been caused by the weight of the trolley cables, if they were once strung upon it. At any rate, it was among many in town that soon were upgraded.

A new transmission line connecting to the Weymouth, MA generating facility (about two miles in length and believed at 4 or 7kv) was constructed along Fort Hill Street and was completed in 1926. This supplemented a tap on Main Street from the transmission line constructed by the Weymouth Light and Power Company in 1915 serving Hull Municipal Light and the Hingham Water Company. Hingham owned a small substation connected to the forementioned double-circuit, 7kv line to serve customers in the southern end of town.. The light board commissioners reported that this "increased system efficiency along with a lower cost of purchased power from the Weymouth generating company. This improvement contributed to doubling the customer discount from 10 to 20 percent" (if your bill was paid in full within 15 days).

Hingham, MA has always been quite famous for its trees. Tall elms and other noble species of majestic trees once lined many of the town's streets with the townspeople very proud of them. Electric utility lines had to pass through and around a lot of them. Tree trimming was constantly required to assure safety and fewer tree-related service interruptions. Thus, pruning has been a rather sensitive issue. With full understanding of this matter, the Hingham Light Board commented in their 1925 report that "it has been necessary for the Department to employ the services of the Tree Department in a great many cases in trimming trees and to avoid damage from burning....the (Light) Department has moved poles and wires in many cases to avoid damage to trees. The (Light) department feels...as all voters feel...that our trees are a priceless heritage which must be preserved in every way possible."