SYRACUSE — There are few things that we take for granted as much as electricity. A force so powerful, yet, paradoxically, so prosaic, much like indoor plumbing and running water, it is difficult for most to imagine a world where it does not exist. One could argue that in 2021, electricity is as necessary as […]
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SYRACUSE — There are few things that we take for granted as much as electricity. A force so powerful, yet, paradoxically, so prosaic, much like indoor plumbing and running water, it is difficult for most to imagine a world where it does not exist. One could argue that in 2021, electricity is as necessary as oxygen to Central New Yorkers’ daily existence. Luckily, delivering that energy safely is something Syracuse’s Crouse-Hinds has been thinking about since the very beginning.
However, when Huntington B. Crouse and Jesse L. Hinds signed the partnership papers forming Crouse-Hinds Electric Company on Jan. 18, 1897, electricity was an upstart, disruptive, technology. Edison’s Pearl Street Power Plant, in New York City, went online in 1882. George Westinghouse formed Westinghouse Electric Company in 1886. In this era of incredible change, there was widespread anxiety about the effects of electrical current “flying” through the air (akin to the public concerns about 5G technology today). Part of this public misunderstanding was the direct result of a campaign waged by Edison, the father of direct current (DC) against his former employee, Nikola Tesla, and the alternating current (AC) technology Tesla patented in 1888, before he was hired by Westinghouse, during the so-called “War of the Currents.”

Yet, by the time Huntington B. Crouse turned 24 in 1896, the “War of the Currents” was, for all intents and purposes, over. Tesla and Westinghouse had won. In 1893, the world was awed by the spectacle of the great “White City” built for the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. This celebration of the 400th Anniversary of Columbus’ first voyage was as much a celebration of American ingenuity and emerging economic might. At the center of America’s coming-out party was the astonishing display of electric light provided by Westinghouse and Tesla’s alternating current. In 1896, Western New York became the site of another epoch-making event, when Buffalo was illuminated by a network of electric streetlamps, powered by the world’s first hydro-electric power plant, built by Tesla and Westinghouse, at Niagara Falls.
A short trip east down the Erie Canal, H.B. Crouse was enamored by the possibilities on display in “The City of Light.” Driven by the entrepreneurial spirit that would guide him to the heights of American industry, he reached out to a distant Crouse relative who had made a fortune in the wholesale grocery business, looking for some advice and an opportunity to start his own business. As a result, he was introduced to Mr. Jesse L. Hinds.
Hinds was already involved in the burgeoning electrical trade, working with a small company that manufactured switchboards, switches, and panelboards. It was a match made in heaven, as Crouse’s unbridled enthusiasm paired with Hinds’ technical know-how to form a partnership much greater than the sum of its parts. Though they did not yet have a product, the two men rented a modest space at 500 East Water St., in Syracuse. Serendipity, it seems, was also a tenant. On the second floor, they found Frank Rorabeck, an inventor trying to manufacture his patented trolley-car headlight. Electric street railways were a booming industry in this period and Crouse pounced on the opportunity. They signed an exclusive deal with Rorabeck to produce his light. This became Crouse-Hinds’ very first product, the Syracuse Changeable Headlight.

From these humble beginnings, Crouse-Hinds Electrical Co. grew rather quickly, under the visionary leadership of Huntington B. Crouse. By 1901, they had outgrown the Water Street office. Hinds suggested they move into the four-story building at 310 E. Jefferson St. where he had worked previously. For the next eleven years, the company operated out of this space, expanding its product line, all the while battling the current of another sort, Onondaga Creek, whose annual flooding wrought havoc on the company’s underground storage.
The same intrepid spirit that led Crouse into the emerging electrical industry served the company well, as he was always eager to remain on the leading-edge of the business. In 1906, Crouse took a chance on a risky idea that changed the fate of the company forever, when he decided to go “all-in” on the manufacture of rigid conduit for exposed electrical wiring installations. The Crouse-Hinds “Condulet” became the industry standard and positioned the company to dominate the market right up to today. Nearly all the electrical infrastructure built around the world between 1910 and today utilizes the company’s products. Spurred by the expansive growth of the Condulet, Crouse-Hinds Company moved into a massive new plant on Wolf Street in 1912, which is still operational over a century later.

From its headquarters in Syracuse, the company continued to build its reputation for innovation, pioneering the manufacture of floodlights, traffic signals, and aviation lighting solutions; many of the latter were tested at Syracuse Municipal Airport in Amboy (Camillus). As the company grew more successful in these new markets, which would prove critical to the company’s enormous growth over the ensuing decades, Jesse Hinds passed away in 1928 at the age of 83. Crouse-Hinds pushed forward. In 1929, the company continued its visionary leadership in lighting solutions, when it installed a complete lighting system in Syracuse University’s Archbold Stadium. Amidst the Great Depression, Crouse-Hinds continued to thrive. In 1932, the company issued its first complete catalog on “Explosionproof Condulet” fittings. This is still a core Crouse-Hinds product line some 90 years later.
During World War II, the company overcame manpower and material shortages to be among the government’s largest suppliers of airplane and ship signaling lighting, as well as myriad floodlights and similar products. Crouse-Hinds received the Army-Navy “E” award for production an impressive four times. In 1943, the company lost its other founder, when Huntington B. Crouse passed away at age 71. William Hinds, Jesse’s nephew, who had been with the company since 1903, became president.

After the war, Crouse-Hinds continued to grow at an incredible rate, diversifying its product lines and increasing its market share. The tragic death of Huntington B. Crouse, Jr. in 1951, rocked the company and the community to its core. The 40-year-old Crouse, Jr. had only ascended to the presidency in 1948 and many expected that he would have led the company for decades to come. Rebounding from the tragedy, the business moved forward under the leadership of Larry Hills, who served as president until 1958. Major capital expenditures in the early 1950s included expansions of the Wolf Street facility, bringing the entire complex to nearly 800,000 square feet by 1955. That same year, the company dedicated Hinds Hall of Engineering at Syracuse University, another in a long line of philanthropic endeavors in the community.
Under the leadership of Hills’ successors, J.R. Tuttle (1955-1958) and Robert B. Sloan (1958-1964), Crouse-Hinds became an international leader in the manufacture of electrical construction materials, lighting systems, and traffic-control systems. Always on the leading edge of innovation, the company developed its “Magic Brain Control System,” in 1962, which made it possible for traffic signals to allow left-hand turns.
A testament to the company’s continued growth and success, in July 1966, Crouse-Hinds’ president, Chris. J. Whiting, opened the New York Stock Exchange to celebrate the company being listed on the “Big Board;” Crouse-Hinds, a company that started on Water Street in Syracuse in the early days of electricity, was a publicly traded company with nearly 3,000 employees (over 2,300 in Syracuse), producing over 12,000 products in three different countries (the U.S., Canada, and Venezuela). In 1968, Crouse-Hinds opened a new manufacturing facility in Syracuse, the Albert Hills Lighting Center, to keep up with demand. In 1968, the company reported $70 million (worth $552 million in 2021 money) in revenues.
Over the ensuing decades, Crouse-Hinds, now a publicly traded company, skillfully adapted to changing economic realities and thrived in a business environment that wreaked havoc among so many other local, and national, manufacturing companies. Innovation and diversification led to continued record profits and growth throughout most of the 1970s. By 1979, the Syracuse-based company had 13 plants across the globe, manufacturing over 50,000 different products in 14different sectors, with a significant area of growth being in the refining/petrochemical industry. Another major milestone in the company’s life happened in 1981, when after a year of negotiations, Crouse-Hinds merged with Texas based, Cooper Industries.
In 1997, Crouse-Hinds celebrated its 100th anniversary. From humble beginnings and flooding basements, the company had grown to nearly 3,500 employees with plants in Texas, Connecticut, North Carolina, Maine, Mexico, Canada, Germany, Spain, and India, producing over 100,000 different products for some of the biggest companies in the world including Exxon, Arco, Citgo, DuPont, Getty, Merck, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. In 2021, Eaton Corporation PLC, an Ireland–based multinational power management company, acquired Cooper (and Crouse-Hinds) for $13 billion.
Today, as the company nears its 125th year in existence, Crouse-Hind’s products are all over the globe. They are found in offshore oil rigs in the Gulf, mines in Peru, and illuminating some of our country’s most iconic national treasures including the Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore, the Washington Monument, and the Lincoln Memorial. It is an astonishing success story.
Cooper Crouse-Hinds continues to operate at the Wolf Street facility, as a subsidiary of Eaton. The company has 1,300 employees, 400 of which are still employed at Wolf Street (a far cry from the peak in the 1960s.). The company reported revenue of $296.97 million in 2019.
Since that fateful meeting in Syracuse between Mr. Crouse and Mr. Hinds 124 years ago, Crouse-Hinds has played an integral role in helping to deliver energy to the world, safely and dependably. In fact, it has done its job so well, most people haven’t even thought about it.
Robert J. Searing is curator of history at the Onondaga Historical Association (OHA) (www.cnyhistory.org), located at 321 Montgomery St. in Syracuse.