Erie Railroad Cleveland Powerhouse, 1246 River Road, Cleveland

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER OH-135. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

The building is located in a section of Cleveland known as the Flats. This is the section of Cleveland where the Cuyahoga River meets Lake Erie. It is an industrial area crisscrossed with railroad tracks, industrial roads and sections of the river. The building sits on a long, thin industrial lot that is feet long and 364 feet deep. The lot lies slightly off the north south axis, rotated a few degrees clockwise. The land is sandwiched between River Road to the southeast and the Cuyahoga River to the northwest; the river bends in the northeast corner of the property and meets River Road at a vertical lift bridge. Another industrial property also owned by Ontario Stone closes the lot to the southwest. The building is located in

Erie Railroad Cleveland Powerhouse

Page 2 HAER OH-135 the northwest corner of the lot along the Cuyahoga River bank and is situated among rock storage piles, each of differing sized rock. The building is a rectangular brick and concrete industrial building with a gabled roof and a raised monitor. At 85 feet by 114 feet, it sits five bays wide and six bays long. Each bay is separated by projecting brick piers and contains two nine-over-nine double hung segmented arch windows. The existing windows are not original to the structure. Some of the bays contain a single segmented arch opening with overhang coiling doors used for delivery. Some of the large single openings have been infilled to form two smaller window openings. Brick corbelling above each bay connects the piers, forming a simple entablature.

The ends of the building portray the same corbelling; however, here the corbelling steps up at regular intervals following the gabled roof line. The building has a concrete foundation and two foot by four foot cast concrete panels on light metal framing, which make up the roof system. A non-original built-up roof has been installed on top of the existing concrete panels. Crowning the structure is the monitor, running the length of the building. It s composed of six-over-six original windows placed consecutively over the length of the building, with non-original plywood and vinyl siding now covering the windows. The south fa ade has a retaining wall that elevates the ground in front of the building.

The retaining wall contains a set of train rails, with openings between the rails which allowed coal cars to gravity feed coal into holding bays located underground next to the building. The interior of the building is very simple with a large brick wall bisecting the building and stopping at the base of the monitor. It supports the light metal framing which in turn, supports the roof and the monitor. The large wall creates two equal sized rooms on the east and west sides. The floor of the eastern room is 38 inches lower than the rest of the building; this allows for openings in the wall into the previously mentioned coal storage bays.

(The coal was used to power the boilers that at one time occupied the room.) The west room has non-original concrete block partition walls along the east and west walls. The southernmost bay is separated from the two large rooms and holds a storage room to the east and the office to the west. A mezzanine space above the office contains a locker room, showers, and a break room for the employees. The interior space is finished with exposed brick walls and concrete floors, with the exception of the painted drywall and carpeting in the office space.

ERIE RAILROAD CLEVELAND POWERHOUSE Page 3 HAER OH-135 HISTORY: [Excerpts taken from the National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form Erie Railroad Cleveland Powerhouse as prepared by Steve McQuillin, January The development of newly discovered iron ore reserves in the Lake Superior region in the years following the Civil War made Cleveland a major port in the United States for the transfer of ore from lake vessels to railroad cars. The ore was delivered by rail to steel mills in Cleveland, making the city a leading producer of steel, and also to inland cities such as Youngstown and Pittsburgh. In the early years of this transshipment process ore was shoveled by hand from the ships to the railroad cars. In Alexander E.

Brown of Cleveland developed and installed the first mechanical ore unloading system anywhere, on this site for what would become the Erie Railroad. This system transferred the ore directly from ships to railroad cars or storage piles by means of an overhead truss crane. By the turn of the century improvements in technology led to the development of much more efficient electrically-powered ore unloaders. Accordingly the Erie Railroad purchased and installed four Hoover-Mason unloaders. This necessitated the construction of a powerhouse, and this building was the result. Coal cars delivered coal directly into the underground bunkers where it was fed into Sterling boilers in the [east] half of the building.

These boilers supplied steam to power turbines on the [west] half of the building which then supplied electrical power to the ore unloaders. During the s this and other railroads signed an agreement with a central utility for supplying power to the area and thus the boilers, generators, engines and smokestack were removed. A machine shop then occupied the building. The railroad and this building were later acquired by the New York Central Railroad. In May the property was conveyed from the bankrupt Penn Central Railroad to the present owner... [In the early s] ore unloading at this site ceased when the three Hulett ore unloaders here were dismantled The building was vacant at the time of documentation. The building has since been demolished.

ERIE RAILROAD CLEVELAND POWERHOUSE Page 4 HAER OH-135

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER OH-135. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps National Register Nomination, Erie Railroad Cleveland Powerhouse, prepared by Steve McQuillin, HISTORIAN(S): Chambers, Murphy & Burge Restoration Architects, Elizabeth Corbin Murphy, FAIA Emily Steiner Little, AIA Michael Sanbury, Assoc. AIA Maria Jorge, Assoc. AIA Cullen Gillespie PROJECT INFORMATION: Project Documentation was performed by Elizabeth Corbin Murphy, FAIA, Emily Steiner Little, AIA, Michael Sanbury, Assoc. AIA, Maria Jorge, Assoc. AIA for Chambers, Murphy & Burge Restoration Architects, on behalf of Ontario Stone Corporation