Five-ply composite roofing was laid on the roof slab. Five-inch-thick reinforced concrete slabs on steel made up the roof.
Ornamental brown brick on the lower part of the interior walls was topped with cream-colored brick to the roof.
Hydroelectric plant concrete genie windows#
The main entrance on First Street and the windows were framed in steel. of Jackson, Mich., which began construction of the concrete foundation.Ībove the concrete base, the building’s walls were made of 17-inch-thick Bedford stone. The site was turned over to the Fargo Engineering Co. More crew members were added when weather moderated.Ĭrews completed excavation for the foundation in September. When work was fully underway, between 30 and 40 workers began the excavation of solid rock. High water in the spring of 1916 delayed the start of foundation work on the plant for at least two months. Drabelle’s designed the plant to be run remotely from the utility’s Sixth Street power station in northeast Cedar Rapids without any employees at the riverside plant. Iowa Railway engineer and inventor John M. The finished structure on First Street at A Avenue NE was the first fully automatic, water-powered electrical plant in the world. Penstocks are channels for conveying water to turbines. So, while the city built a new dam, Iowa Railway and Light built a “hydroelectric powerhouse and penstocks, including retaining walls of the head and tail race, for a length of about 25 feet up and down the stream,” The Gazette reported in June 1917.
Recognizing that the old dam in the Cedar River was deteriorating, building a new one, with an attached power plant, made sense. The company, by then known as Iowa Railway and Light Co., decided it wanted to augment its coal-fueled, steam production of electricity with water generation. By 1917, it had built and was operating the first automatic hydroelectric plant in the world on the river in Cedar Rapids. (Gazette archives) Plant operated on Cedar River from 1917 to 1970sĬedar Rapids Electric Light and Power began offering electricity in Eastern Iowa in 1882. The plant, built in 1917, was the beginning of automation in the industry and the first automatically operated hydroelectric plant in the world. hydroelectric plant on First Street NE in Cedar Rapids. This 1957 photo shows the Interior of the Iowa Electric Light and Power Co.
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