Hearthstone Historic House Museum

The Hearthstone Historic House Museum is a beautifully preserved Queen Anne mansion from 1882 that claims a genuinely significant place in technological history. When it was built, its owner Henry Rogers commissioned the first residential electric lighting system in the world, powered by the nearby Vulcan Street hydroelectric plant.

The house has been meticulously restored and the guided tour covers both the domestic life of a prosperous Wisconsin family in the 1880s and the story of how Appleton came to host this milestone in electrical history. The combination of social history and technology makes it one of the more interesting house museums in the Midwest.

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A story
On September 30, 1882, the lights came on at Hearthstone for the first time — making it the first private home in the world to be lit by a central hydroelectric power station. Thomas Edison himself had launched the idea, and the Vulcan Street Plant down on the river provided the power. The family could read after dark without candles or gas fumes.