The section that faces Front Street went into operation in the late 1910s.

Nice plant , i'm assuming it was a Coal or Oil plant?  And when did it close?

The units that face the Maumee River went online  between 1947 and the late 1950s.

Forgive my ignorance, but what city is this power plant located?  And is it still in operation?

Forgive my ignorance, but what city is this power plant located? And is it still in operation?

 

Toledo, Ohio. The entire plant was retired in 1993.

More.

Thanks for the pictures.  I actually drove all around the building recently.  At first I thought it was completely abandoned.

Is this plant that is supposed to be a part of the Marina District development?

 

Did the steam plant downtown ever get developed?

Thanks for posting. It is completely abandoned. There is usually a cop in the area now too since people have tried getting inside (and perhaps homeless people live in there). There is some interior demo going on.

 

When I was driving around it I coulda sworn I saw people in there, maybe that's the demo that's happening.

Totally off topic, but the Marina District always seemed more than the city could handle even in heady days of the late 90s. It was practically a new downtown and it was on the wrong side of town. It is sort of like the Banks in Cincinnati and we've seen how that has gone . . . and how many pages on UO have been spent debating it.

Forgive my ignorance, but what city is this power plant located?  And is it still in operation?

 

Toledo, Ohio. The entire plant was retired in 1993.

 

Ohio_heat: Appreciate the info - along with the photos.  Very impressive structure.

 

C-Dawg: Thanks for the Marina District background info.  No doubt about the bad times in Toledo right now.  Hopefully better times are ahead because that power plant would be a sweet renovation.

... When the Mud Hens said they were moving to the Warehouse District, a lot of people were saying: "But there's no parking! They're not tearing down those scary old warehouses for parking lots. No one will go to Mud Hens games because nobody wants to walk a couple blocks in scary Downtown Toledo!" The year the stadium opened, it broke all attendance projections, and has only gone up from there. Those naysayers were dead wrong, and it's now considered one of the best urban ballparks in America, with some reviewers even calling it "The Fenway of the minors."

 

Exactly the same complaints were heard about building Parkview Field in Fort Wayne and moving the Tin Caps downtown, plus, "There's nothing else to do downtown" (like there were scads of exciting attractions next to Memorial Stadium and the Coliseum), and "traffic getting to and from the games will be horrendous."

 

The first-season attendance was record-breaking, the adjacent parking garage never is anywhere near capacity even with a full ballpark, and there has been no problem with traffic congestion. Besides, people are discovering the downtown eating spots that used to be open just weekdays at lunchtime, and those places are doing great business on game days and extending their hours.

 

The economy went sour just in time to stall the hotel and residential/commercial segments, but the hotel is now moving along and there's hope that financing may be on the horizon for the rest of the development.

 

Unfortunately, I don't see Toledo really coming back until SE Michigan does. Toledo always benefited as the slightly lower cost version of Michigan. If you are looking for positives longer term - Western NY seems to have found a new bottom and has looked decent during this current unpleasantness and SE Michigan and NW Ohio seems to have following that track.

I think Toledo benefits from being in Ohio - whatever else its issues, is basically set up to deal with industrial towns on the downward slope, while New York state with each twist of the economy has to rely and really shape the entire state to the needs of New York City. Toledo benefits from any moves that might flow to Cleveland (Third Frontier for solar as an example). Toledo has better weather than western NY if that is at all possible to imagine.

A few more of the river front parts.

Nice plant , i'm assuming it was a Coal or Oil plant?  And when did it close?

 

The boilers in the tall structure and the boiler house facing the Maumee River burned pulverized coal. The boilers in the oldest burned stoker-fed coal, but I don't know whether or not they were converted to oil.

I took these in April. The river front boiler house was half-demolished here.

good to hear work is happening to save this iconic old structure. ohio heat who owns this plant? i ask because a similiar one in lorain is owned by first energy and they are tearing it down to open up the lakefront for something else. the old lorain plant is in a much more urban setting than this one and although i wish something of it could have been saved and restored i can also see the reasons for getting rid of it as most of it was just rebuilt with junky looking additions. apples and oranges really, but i was just wondering if there is some kind of trend here or reason for action being taken on these buildings all of a sudden? maybe its just coincidence? thx if you know.

 

Wow, a Toledo version of the Peters Cartridge Factory.

good to hear work is happening to save this iconic old structure. ohio heat who owns this plant? i ask because a similiar one in lorain is owned by first energy and they are tearing it down to open up the lakefront for something else. the old lorain plant is in a much more urban setting than this one and although i wish something of it could have been saved and restored i can also see the reasons for getting rid of it as most of it was just rebuilt with junky looking additions. apples and oranges really, but i was just wondering if there is some kind of trend here or reason for action being taken on these buildings all of a sudden? maybe its just coincidence? thx if you know.

 

FirstEnergy owns it. It was built and originally owned/operated by Toledo Edison.

I took these back in August. The west wing boiler house was leveled by then.

Several more.

More.

good to hear work is happening to save this iconic old structure. ohio heat who owns this plant? i ask because a similiar one in lorain is owned by first energy and they are tearing it down to open up the lakefront for something else. the old lorain plant is in a much more urban setting than this one and although i wish something of it could have been saved and restored i can also see the reasons for getting rid of it as most of it was just rebuilt with junky looking additions. apples and oranges really, but i was just wondering if there is some kind of trend here or reason for action being taken on these buildings all of a sudden? maybe its just coincidence? thx if you know.

 

Here's the OE/FirstEnergy Edgewater plant (Lorain) in April 2001.

I went by that place the last time I was in Toledo, looks like it's in good shape, but something to redevelop it would be nice.

The center boiler house is being gutted and demolished as of now. I'll post pics tomorrow.

Old power plants were really something to see when they were operating. The generator rooms were vast spaces with high ceilings and acres of glass to let in lots of light, and the whole area usually was kept spotless by a large crew of people whose job was to keep things clean. Even the boiler rooms often were kept cleaner than you might expect, because coal dust creates a horrific explosion hazard.

Here are pics I took yesterday.

And more.

Even more.

Even more...

On the 13th of this month, the middle boiler house was imploded. I took these from the old I-280 bridge.