Cincinnati Street Gas Lamps
The Cincinnati Street Gas Lamps are a historic district in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. Composed of more than 1,100 street lamps scattered throughout the city, the district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
Cincinnati's system of streetlights has been seen as historic because it is representative of the application of early- to mid-nineteenth-century technology to daily life. Prompted by a newly founded firm known as the "Cincinnati Gas Light and Coke Company," the city of Cincinnati began to implement streetlights in 1837. An 1875 inventory counted 5290 public gas lamps connected by of mains and supply pipes. Today, perhaps 1,172 gas lights are in place in thirteen of the city's neighborhoods, as well as in certain portions of Columbia Township and Sycamore Township. Included in the historic district are 1,109 of these lights, the oldest of which date back to 1843.
