Edison, who was more of a marketeer than a scientist saw DC as a system that would involve lots of generators spread across the city, all sold by him. Tesla and Westinghouse envisioned the grid and a few very large generation facilities providing power to a wide area of customers, using transformers they sold. Tesla even dabbled with the idea of transmitting power over the air.
They were both advancing their plans at roughly the same time though. (1880s)
I don't think there were any large scale DC distribution networks but Edison did sell a lot of generators for individual mansions, offices and factories.
By the time large scale distribution systems came online, AC had won the fight.
