Did you know that Newburgh, NY was one of the first cities in the world to be electrified? In 1882, Thomas Edison lit up a portion of lower Manhattan with the world’s first central power station — the Pearl Street Station. But that was only a prototype. The real question was whether the system could be replicated beyond New York City. A group of Hudson Valley investors raised $45,000 and persuaded Edison’s team to bring the experiment north. The result was the Edison Electric Illuminating Compan