I recently acquired a copy of "The New York Subway," a reprint of a book that was issued as a souvenir item when the original subway line opened in 1904. Among the illustrations are text are the comments and drawings of a power plant at 58th Street and 11th Avenue, a huge structure that covered a whole city block.

Links to a site with some illustrations from the book:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_cxRN31abC1M/R ... age022.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_cxRN31abC1M/R ... age007.jpg

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_cxRN31abC1M/R ... age068.jpg

Well, the monster is still around, and is the subject of a preservation effort:

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/ ... owerhouse/

http://www.hudsonriverpowerhouse.com/

http://www.hudsonriverpowerhouse.com/see.html

Sadly, for those of us of the preservation persuasion, it looks like an uphill battle for this, and the reason is the usual one--money.

More than anything, what stands out about this for me is that most people today, and corporate entities today, seem so soulless. Can you imagine anybody, any major corporation, commissioning very noted architects to design a power plant (or any industrial facility) to be pleasing to look at, and building it? Can you imagine the stockholders, or at least some of them, considering such an act to be a waste of capital?

It's as if trying to be a good neighbor and a positive influence in the neighborhood has been redefined as being sinful.

Again, I have no answer, other than to note that this is part of the human condition, and is incurable, unless we can step up, as we attempt to do, in this field.

That is part of what makes preservation important to me.

Same architects as the Farley Post Office and Penn Station. The McKim, Mead, and White firm had quite a reputation for fabulous design and the inside story of the senior partners is fascinating. A large part is covered in some detail in Conquering Gotham, the magnificent book on the vision of Alexander Cassatt and his quest to get the PRR into the heart of Gotham. I HIGHLY recommend the book to any with an interest in railroad history, the Guilded Age, or following the realization of dreams that were those of visionaries, those who dared build great monuments to industry, who dared dream of grand, awe-inspiring things.

Mike
Visionary, Indiana

"Most men who have really lived have had, in some shape, their great adventure; this railway is mine." - The Empire Builder

Did a little looking on McKim, Meade, & White:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McKim,_Mead_%26_White

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Follen_McKim

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Rutherford_Mead

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_White

It figures, Hollywood does a movie on one of the members, and who is it? Stanford White, because he got himself shot in a scandal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_i ... lvet_Swing

Yes, Stanford White was quite the lover of debauchery, especially of gambling, drinking, and sex, which led to a great accumulation of debt. McKim led a small cadre of insiders from the firm to sanitze a great deal of evidence of White's perverse behavior and took care to help White's former wife and his son and shield them from as much of it as he could. White apparently had quite the photo collection long before Hugh Hefner and Larry Flynnt gained fame. Again, Conquering Gotham covers this in some detail. It's a rather interesting back story to the construction of Pennsylvania Station.

Mike
Perverse, Indiana

Thank you for touching on a subject that is near and dear to me; did some extensive research on this and other turn-of-the-century light plants last year (but have neglected to share it to date.)

The "Manhattan" stationary generating engines in the pictures were the largest stationary steam engines ever built. They were rendered obsolete overnight by the steam turbine; but apparently these particular engines remained in place as late as 1959. It was taken over by Consolidated Edison in 1959, and the stationary steam engines scrapped; they are extinct now. A 625 MW steam turbine was installed as unit 13 in 1952, a 22 MW steam turbine was installed by Con Ed as Unit 14 in 1959, and two 17.85 MW gas turbines were installed in 1969.

But, the station is mostly used to supply steam for heating to landmarks such as the New York Public Library, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Grand Central Station. So, amazingly, this industrial facility is still basically doing what it was built to do over a hundred years ago; not many facilities can say that today.

The station's exterior can be viewed in Bing Map's "Birds Eye View here:

59th Street Powerhouse

The exterior is surprisingly intact. Con Ed cleaned the exterior bricks twenty years ago, but removed the plant's ornate projecting cornice. The last of six original smokestacks existed until twenty years ago:

http://westsidespirit.com/2009/03/19/mo ... owerhouse/

There have been repeated attempts to have the building declared a historical landmark, but Con Ed has fought off every single one; citing the need to make changes to the walls in an emergency.

And that is the quandary about this particular facility. It is not a boarded up building; it is still a working steam plant. One can somewhat understand ConEd's desire to be able make modifications when needed. But, on the other hand, ConEd has a poor reputation for industrial preservation; having already demolished the derelict Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Powerhouse, which dated back to 1905. Later named the Kent Avenue plant, it was thought at one time that the equipment from Edison's Pearl Street Station was stored here. The plant survived until 2008; when, against the will of local residents who wanted it adaptively reused, Con Ed had it demolished.





Do need to gather up my notes on this plants and share them here; a surprising number of this early light and streetcar plants still exist; although many of them are derelict and face an uncertain future.

Here in Southern California, we have the building that once housed the Edison Electric Los Angeles No. 3 Steam Plant. Built in 1904, it was one of the earliest generating stations to use steam turbines. The building was sold off for non-electric purposes many years ago, but still stands next to the former Southern Pacific line to Yuma.

Not too far from the ConEd plant is the Hudson & Manhattan power house in Jersey City which can be viewed from the Hudson Bergen Light Rail Line. The effort to preserve it and use it have been going on for a long time:

http://www.njcu.edu/programs/jchistory/pages/P_Pages/Powerhouse.htm

http://www.jclandmarks.org/campaign-powerhouse.shtml

At least some money has been spent to stabilize this structure.

Thanks, Bob; that's a new one to me.

1911 Electrical Review

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