Hatzel & Buehler: A Legacy of Excellence
Hatzel & Buehler - The First 100 Years
1882
Thomas Edison opens the first publicly owned and operated electric generating station on Pearl Street in New York City.
1884
John D. Hatzel and Joseph Buehler start the partnership of Hatzel & Buehler and open the Company’s first office in New York City.
1895
The Company wires several landmark estates for electricity, including The Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC and The Breakers in Newport, RI.
1901
The Company joins the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA). Hatzel & Buehler continues to be the longest continuous member of NECA.
1903
Mr. Hatzel & Mr. Buehler attend a New York Electrical Contractors Association Meeting, where Mr. Hatzel serves multiple terms as President of the Association.
1906
Hatzel & Buehler provides electrical installation services inside of A.I. duPont’s newly constructed Bell Tower.
1917
Hatzel & Buehler incorporates in New York City and opens an office in Wilmington, Delaware.
1924
Hatzel & Buehler completes electrical work at the newly constructed New York Telephone Company.
1929
Hatzel & Buehler builds electrical substations for the Lackawanna Train Line which transports people into New York City from surrounding suburbs.
1931
Hatzel & Buehler completes electrical work at the Chrysler Building in New York City.
1936
Hatzel & Buehler completes electrical work at the General Electric Building in New York City.
1938
Hatzel & Buehler’s president signs the First Pension Agreement between Local 3, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the New York Electrical Contractors Association.
1939
Michigan: Hatzel & Buehler performs the electrical installation at Ottawa Street Power Station.
1939
The New York World’s Fair opens. Hatzel & Buehler completes electrical installations at multiple exhibits within the Fair.
1939-1945
Throughout World War II, Hatzel & Buehler works directly for the US War Department and the US Naval Department, supporting their various electrical needs.
1948
Hatzel & Buehler performs electrical installations in the hospital buildings of Tripler Army Medical Center. The hospital remains the largest military hospital in the Asian and Pacific Rim region.
1951
Hatzel & Buehler completes electrical installations at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City.
1957
The first US Nuclear Power Plant (Shipping-port Atomic Power Station) is constructed. Hatzel & Buehler wires the power station.
1967
Hatzel & Buehler completes electrical work at the newly constructed Ford Motor’s Corporate Headquarters Building in Dearborn, Michigan.
1968
Hatzel & Buehler completes the second phase of electrical work on the Delaware Memorial Bridge.
1971-72
Hatzel & Buehler provides electrical construction within various terminals at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York.
1973
Hatzel & Buehler finishes the 30 story, 810,000 square foot Communications Equipment Building for the New York Telephone Company.
1977
In 1977, the Hatzel & Buehler Michigan team completed an electrical installation throughout the newly constructed, 5 million square-foot Detroit Renaissance Center.
1979
Hatzel & Buehler performs the electrical installation at Johnson & Johnson’s World Corporate Headquarters in New Jersey and continues to perform on-site work for Johnson & Johnson to the present.
1982
Completes electrical installation at Epcot Center at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.
“We should congratulate ourselves on being connected in any manner to this grand industry. A comparative infant (as industries go) of scarcely more than 25 years’ growth, it has grown to enormous proportions; and at its present rate of progress who can foretell its future? You can justly consider yourselves among the great Captains of Industry, for you move or help to move the wheels of commerce. It requires no great stretch of the imagination to predict that electricity will eventually be the sole motive power for those wheels.”
1904, John D. Hatzel Addressing the New York Electrical Association
One of the most significant phases of the late 19th Century was in the field of commercial electrification. In 1882, Thomas Edison opened the first publicly owned and operated electric generating station (the Electrical Illuminating Company) where John D. Hatzel and Joseph Buehler were employed as master electricians. Soon after the completion of this first commercial electrical generating plant, Mr. Hatzel and Mr. Buehler left to start the partnership of Hatzel & Buehler.
Hatzel & Buehler’s History Goes Back To The Dawn of the Electrical Industry, and Thomas Edison