The Adams Power Plant Transformer House is the only remaining structure of the Niagara Hydro-Electric Power Plant, the world’s first large alternate current (AC) power plant. The plant started operating in 1895. The facility was built by industrialist George Westinghouse, whose company won the construction contract, and Nikola Tesla, whose inventions and patents served as the plant's scientific foundation.
Building a hydroelectric plant on Niagara Falls was a dream come true for Tesla; he had learned about the Falls as a schoolboy and was fascinated by its power and beauty. In his book, My Inventions, Tesla wrote:
“I was fascinated by a description of Niagara Falls I had perused, and pictured in my imagination a big wheel run by the Falls. I told my uncle that I would go to America and carry out this scheme. Thirty years later I saw my ideas carried out at Niagara and marveled at the unfathomable mystery of the mind.”
When it began operation in 1895, the power plant produced 15,000 horsepower - but as additional power generators were added, that number climbed to 50,000 horsepower.
For Tesla, the contract to build the hydroelectric power plant was a victory over Edison in their ongoing "War of the Currents." Niagara Falls Power Company and Cataract Construction Corporation, which initiated the hydroelectric plant project, wanted to send electricity over long distances - which just happened to be the main disadvantage of Edison's direct current (DC). So Westinghouse and Tesla won the contract thanks to Tesla's patented polyphase alternating current system (AC). At midnight on December 15, 1896, power generated in Niagara Falls traveled all the way to Buffalo for the very first time.
By building the world's first AC hydroelectric power plant in Niagara Falls, Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse began electrifying the United States and the world.
In 1927, the plant was renamed for Edward Dean Adams, president of the Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and Manufacturing Company. Today, Adams Power Plant Transformer House is listed in the National Registry as a National Historic Landmark.
Plaque with patents applied to the hydroelectric power plant at Niagara Falls. The first nine patents belong to Tesla (out of a total of twelve)