Happy Friday once again. Today photo is dated August 7, 1935, and the caption on the back reads:
- “The power house, inside which a $2,000,000 modernization program is now getting under way. The foundry appears in the right background
Designed by Albert Kahn and built in 1922, the building is a great example of his industrial works. The powerhouse, a staple of almost every large factory, is a bit of a rarity. Often the powerhouses were among the first buildings to go.
Have a good weekend everyone. See you back here Monday.
it’s interesting to see the absence of all the houses both north and south of the railroad i remember when i worked for CN we worked on the spare board and were headquatered out of a small shanty just east of the CN/ETR interchange shown in the photo any ideas about that tall chimney next to the ETR tracks??
The building between the power house and the fuel tank was the Ford Trade school, at that time Ford trained there own tradesmen and supervisors. I friend of my trained there in the 1906’s, then was offered a job at the Ford plant in Australia and then stayed there. On the bottom left corner is the RiverView Hospital building, which is a apartment building today.
Is that a gasometer at the back of the power plant?
Currently the building between the Powerhouse and the fuel tank is used to produce and supply the compressed air used on the Ford Windsor site.
I’d like to know what the “powerhouse” is used for now? If it’s powered, what is it powered by?
The powerhouse supplies steam to the plant.
It was mainly used to supply the foundry, so not
Much anymore. Back in the day it was powered by coal
But I’d assume gas now.
I am interested in Garys’ comment regarding the absence of housing both north and south of the
railway lines. If you look at the top of the photo nothing is shown except fields. Having
lived in the east end of Windsor in the early fifties in Veteran housing I would be very interested if anyone has any photos of the Pillette/Tecumseh/Norman/Olive roads area before
the Veteran housing was built. Thanks to anyone, in anticipation.
Paul, search for “electric house” on here. That will at least give you
One house on Pillette with nothing behind it.
The power house is used still to send steam to the new East Windsor co-gen building recently built next to it.. When the market is right they send the steam through turbines to produce more energy. It is still used for compressed air to the Windsor Engine plant as Bob C had mentioned.
What are the two large screw augers used for on the north side of the power plant across Riverside drive. One of them always appears to be running daily.
My father was one of the chief engineers at that plant from the 40’s through his retirement in the early 80s. The augers pull water from the Detroit river, where is goes through several stages of purification prior to going in for steam generation.
Bernard Drouillard, the white building to east of the power plant is gone. That site is the parking lot for the apartment buildings.
I spent some time at the facility recently, and couple corrections are to be made here. The boilers in the old power house are all decommissioned however there is still one steam turbine that functions along with various pumps and compressors in the basement. The steam turbine gets its steam from the new co-gen site, and generates electricity only for the engine plant at certain times of the day. As for the two screw pumps they actually pump used service and drainage water to the lagoon which more or less just a settling pond for the water to cool down before in drains back to the river.