A black and white postcard of the Bisbee Improvement Company power plant in Lowell. Note the rail track and cars in front of the building. The front caption reads: “B.I.CO, Plant at Lowell, Ariz.” The postcard is unused, and the publisher is unknown.

The Bisbee improvement Company was responsible for transforming Bisbee and especially Brewery Gulch into a livable city. It was incorporated 1901 and the following served on the Board of Directors: Walter Douglas as President, W.H. Brophy as Vice President, S.W French as Secretary Treasurer and a handful of other directors: Ben Williams, JB Angius, and LC Shattuck. The Company was capitalized with $50,000. There first improvements were to install the first telephone in Bisbee linking it with Douglas. It’s switchboard was located in the Copper Queen Hotel. On January 1st, They established their headquarters in the Copper Queen Hotel. They also brought Ice services to Bisbee which was the main method of food preservation at the time. A small tank at the Copper Queen warehouse produced the first man made ice in Bisbee. They built another ice production plant in Lowell. In Lowell they also built a power plant to provide electricity replacing candles and oil-based lamps. The Bisbee Improvement company took over gas distribution from the International Gas and Light Company in 1911 and bought a gas plant in the Johnson Addition and updated it’s equipment. In 1901 the Company dug the first well and built Bisbee’s first water pipes. This source of clean water eliminated the threat of typhoid epidemics. The telephone business was sold to the American Bell Telephone Company in 1910. The Bisbee Improvement Company was transferred to he WB Foshay Company in 1925 it was then switched hands to the People Light and Power Company or The Arizona Edison Company.

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