The Steam Plant

The Plant Site on Lake Union, 1914

In 1908, the site for the Steam Plant was chosen. It was located on a wedge shaped property at the intersection of Fairview Avenue East and Eastlake Avenue East on the southeast shore of Lake Union. Lake Union was a historical industrial area in Seattle, with one of the first functions of the lake being transportation, initially with logs and later with the barging of coal. Some of the industries around the lake were the Ford Motor Assembly Plant (the present Craftsman Press Building), the Lake Union Dry-dock and the Coolidge Propeller Company. Lake Union's most famous early industrial use was the original seaplane hangar of William Boeing.

City Light Superintendent J.D. Ross' philosophy on building the Steam Plant was: "We feel that one of the principal uses of the Steam Plant is to furnish an abundance of power at the lowest rates in order that we may bring new industries, both large and small, to Seattle." Ross' belief sent the private power companies lobbying to Washington, where they were encouraging Washington, and the nation, to refer to us as the Washington Soviet Socialist Republic. By 1931, the private power folks came as close to reclaiming their position in the industry as they were going to get when they enticed Seattle Mayor Edwards to fire J. D. Ross. This backfired and, in a recall campaign, the Mayor was fired instead. Although the memory dims, the effects of this power struggle continue to provide us some of the lowest electricity rates in the nation.

Use of electricity for power at the time was considered a technological miracle of modern life. The men who designed the electric power plants felt the excitement of this new power, and constructed buildings that reflected the magic and force of this new technology. Mr. Huntington was one of those men, with his previous creation of the Hydro House and other city buildings reflecting this style.

The building was designed to serve as a civic symbol for City Light; its appearance reflected power and the future. Imagine the visual impact the building must have had - especially in the evening with the enormous City Light sign on the roof gleaming across the lake, the spot lights dancing on the water, and the windows illuminating the glow of the machinery inside.
	City Light's Steam Plant, 1928

Construction

Phase I was constructed in 1914, a parallelogram in plan, approximately 90 feet deep, 100 feet long and 47 feet high (from street-level) containing four boilers, pumps, tanks, and generation equipment. Above the boilers stood two steel stacks, rising 95 feet above the roof. Brick was used on the north wall as fill-in material in anticipation of future expansion. (This would be broken out to connect the phases together after each construction).

	The Phase II was designed and constructed in 1918, expanding the generating capacity by adding four more boilers, an additional turbo generator, and two more stacks.
Phase II artist rendering, 1918.

Phase III was designed in 1920 and constructed in 1921. In this addition the exterior of the plant assumed a more formal civic appearance, increasing the height by adding a second story. The penthouse was where the control panels that distributed the power across the city were kept. Six more boilers, another generator and three more stacks were added, bringing the total production capacity of the plant to 30,000 kilowatts.

View From the Inside

The following is an excerpt from a report that was written in 1974 for a college paper by James T. Blomquist, an Environmental Lobbyist. Mr. Blomquist had the opportunity to see the Steam Plant while it was in operation.

A masonry wall separates the turbines from their boilers. Upon entering the boiler area it becomes evident that one is entering the mechanical-industrial side of the plant. It gives the effect of walking backstage of a play. The activities behind the stage provide the necessary support for the actors on the stage but none of this activity is visible to the audience.

The boilers behind the masonry curtain provide the steam for the turbines - mystical, whirling players in the electricity production. But none of their activity or support is evident as all vital connections lay under the floor or behind the walls. The turbines sit, seemingly isolated from mechanical realities. They seem expressive of the machine on a much higher level than the merely functional.

Walking back between the boilers toward the west windows allows one a view of the vast power of the generating system. The boilers, which stand 26 feet high, tower above the interior space. The space near the windows is compressed by heaters, pumps and other equipment allowing only narrow passageways for walking. Second level catwalks and passages allow workmen to directly confront the mammoth machinery.

The variety of the pipes and valves seems endless. As opposed to the front room, which has a white ceiling, the back room has a black one, perhaps blackened by use if not design. One of the interesting features in the boiler room is a clock-like dial that hangs from the ceiling. Its scale reads from 0 to 40 and with this the operators can tell the output of the plant in thousand kilowatts.

Walking among the mute machines, only imagination can provide the sensations of the plant in operation.

Technical Evaluation

Stuart Grover, a Development Consultant who evaluated the equipment for historical purposes for City Light, gives a more technical outlook on the process.

The Steam Plant housed 14 boilers that relied on water tubes for containing the water and raising the temperature of the resulting steam through Foster superheaters. The burners used by the boilers enable atomized, heated fuel (bunker oil #2) to be mixed with steam to facilitate burning, producing 200 pounds of pressure. The steam that ran the turbines is condensed by three jet condensers, in the basement of the building. These condensers are capable of condensing 97,500 pounds of steam per hour, and utilize a 28.5 inch vacuum.

The steam could be regulated and released at different pressures spinning the turbines producing electricity. Flowing at a high voltage of 420 Volts it would run through transformers that were housed in the penthouse and released, as needed, to the city.

Decommissioned

In September of 1987, the Steam Plant was finally decommissioned. After years of no use, except for occasional firing of the boilers, the time had come. Resolution 27686 reads: "Seattle City Light's Lake Union Steam Plant (LUSP) should be decommissioned as soon as possible and a process set in motion to surplus the property. In order to reduce the magnitude of City Light's next rate increase, the executive should attempt to structure the terms of any sale such that City Light will realize revenues during the 1989 calendar year.

By July, 1987, the Eastlake community, the City of Seattle, surrounding communities and various interested individuals were already at work gathering support for the nomination of the Steam Plant and Hydro House as an historical landmark. On March 2, 1988, the Landmarks Preservation Board officially designated them as Historical Landmarks.

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