I wonder what that crane is doing, I asked one weekend. A week or two later, I received my answer. The massive smoke stacks of the Ashley Street Power Plant are being replaced, and these rusty remnants are the old ones. Presumably since the plant, which now produces steam, is not being demolished for the…
Tag: Power Plants
The Old Power Plant, East St. Louis
I don’t think anyone has every really figured out what the story is about this towering power plant buried in the thick undergrowth on the south side of East St. Louis. It looks to be made out of reinforced concrete, placing its construction in my opinion between the World Wars. If you know anything, please…
St. Louis Transit Company Power Plant, Revisited
I love this power plant, once used for streetcars, built in 1903. It’s a Beaux-Arts style edifice, and I can’t imagine why this couldn’t be adapted for some use. It has such great little details in its facade.
Some More Shots of the Near North Riverfront
Update: See the area again in October of 2018.
Ashley Street Power Plant, Revisited Again
The Ashley Street Power Plant is still one of the most striking buildings in the entire region, and I returned to photograph it again.
Lacelede Power Company, Later Lewis Street Power Station, Revisited
Update: See the old power plant at night in the summer of 2019. The irony of the 1901 Laclede Power Company and its famous sign that fronts the river is that it was bought by Laclede Power and Light in 1907. It apparently had five smokestacks 120 feet tall that have long since been removed….
St. Louis Refrigeration and Cold Storage Power Plant
The St. Louis Refrigeration and Cold Storage Company has lost most of its warehouses to demolition (this one, with the same crenelations, still stands to the south), but its power plant is still left. Its once 160 foot smokestack was torn down at some point, and now the building houses light industry. It’s a beautiful…
Power Substation, Bartonville
What is this station? It seems to be a power substation that serves the factories still lining the river in Bartonville.
Anheuser Busch Power Plant
I know little about the operation of power plants, other than you burn something in them that produces heat that then turns water into steam, which turns a generator that produces electricity, but I do know that historic power plants around St. Louis are wonderful reminders of the city’s burgeoning industrial might back in the…