Saratoga Gas, Electric Light and Power Company Complex
Encyclopedia
The former Saratoga Gas, Electric Light and Power Company Complex is located near the northern boundary of Saratoga Springs
, New York, United States. It is a seven-acre (2.8 ha) parcel with two brick buildings on it. In the 1880s it became the thriving resort city's first power station.
They are the only remnants of a gas-fired power plant
begun in 1873 and remaining in operation for over half a century. One of the two buildings is a rare conical-roofed gas holder house from that era, one of only 13 left in the Northeast
, and archaeological
evidence shows evidence of a second one having been built nearby.
The gas production operations were taken offline in 1928, but the property continued to be used by electric utilities for most of the 20th century. In 1992 Niagara Mohawk decided it was surplus and stopped using it. In 2001 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
.
-shaped parcel between East Street on the east, Excelsior Avenue to the south and a divided
section of US 9/NY 50
along its north. The land drops slightly from that road, and trees planted along that side screen the site from passing traffic. All around it is a chain link fence.
Within the fence the entire site is surfaced in loose gravel and devoid of trees. The two buildings are located in different sections of the parcel.
The gasholder house is at the northern corner, close to the junction of East Avenue and routes 9 and 50. It is a cylindrical brick building in common bond
70 feet (21.3 m) in diameter with a conical slate roof. It has no foundation
but the 18-inch–thick (46 cm) walls continue to depth of 23 feet (7 m) below grade, where they are grounded in a clay stratus. There are also six exterior brick buttress
es.
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Its roof is supported by radial wood rafter
s with wood purlin
s and two transverse bow trusses. The floor is poured concrete. Windows, a vent and service exit were added later.
The substation
building is located 200 feet (61 m) to the south, close to that side and north of the only gate in the fence. It is a two-story rectangular brick building, 75 by, on an east-west axis with a cross-gable
d roof. Its foundation is stone laid in a random ashlar
pattern. Pilaster
s divide the walls into recessed panels (7 by 3), and a corbel
ed cornice
marks the roofline. A large oculus
is in the tympanum
of each gable.
In the middle of the south side is a taller arched entrance with service door and the remains of a hoist. It leads to an interior with an open interior, floored in poured concrete supported by steel beams. Two stone walls run along the inside, the beams resting on them. Brick buttresses shore up the steel I-beam
s that supported the hoist. V-trusses sheathed in tongue-and-groove
pocket into the interior walls, producing the eaves.
The only interior partitition separates the easternmost bay. On that side of the building, outside, are modern transformer
s and other equipment. Though no longer in use, they are of relatively recent date and are not considered a contributing resource
to the Register listing.
As a result of required studies done when the building and site were remediated, considerable archeological evidence has been found of other buildings in the site. The entire site is thus considered a contributing resource.
Company began providing that service to the city (then a village) in 1853. As the community grew after the American Civil War
, its infrastructure needs did as well. The company needed to build a new gas works, and chose the current location due in part to concerns about locating such a facility near downtown
.
The site had other advantages as well. It was close to the railroad line (now routes 9 and 50), had a nearby stream, Village Brook, which could provide sufficient water, and the deep clay layer would provide an impermeable seal below the gas holders. Because of the proximity of the brook, the site was lower than the rest of the city, and therefore it would be easier to distribute the gas as it naturally tends to rise in pipes. The new plant was started in 1873 and opened the next year.
At the original plant it had made gas by coking
coal in a horizontal retort
and then capturing and storing the gas
that was released. The new plant encased a brick retort, purifying house and two gas holders within the cylindrical buildings. The thick walls helped prevent the gas from condensing
in the cold winters, and the conical roof accommodated the gasholder, a telescoping series of cylinders that rose within guides as the volume of gas increased. Water in the bottom of the pit made the seal impermeable.
In 1886 the company, which had dropped the "Light" from its name, began using the carbureted
water gas process to manufacture gas. This increased its production efficiency and volume, and required the addition of more buildings — a boiler house, oil and coal storage and more gasholders. The following year the company merged with the American Illuminating Company to become the Saratoga Gas, Electric Light and Power Company. A dynamo
on the site provided electricity for the city's street light
s.
In 1903 the electricity-generation facilities were further expanded. The substation, a steam boiler and 125 feet (38.1 m) smokestack were added. Power generation continued for eight years, until 1911, when yet another merger created the Hudson River
Water Power Company. It built a regional power distribution system to carry the power generated by its dams all over the southern Adirondack
region. With the cheaper hydroelectric power available, and industrial customers willing to use it in large quantities, it was no longer economical to generate power in Saratoga Springs.
The original gasholder was removed from the first building in 1919. Coal gas production ceased entirely in 1928, and most of the original buildings were demolished in the years afterwards. The substation building remained in use, and the successor utilities also used the area as a storage and maintenance yard until Niagara Mohawk decided it was no longer needed even for those purposes. The utility still owns the land and buildings, and keeps them fenced off.
Saratoga Springs, New York
Saratoga Springs, also known as simply Saratoga, is a city in Saratoga County, New York, United States. The population was 26,586 at the 2010 census. The name reflects the presence of mineral springs in the area. While the word "Saratoga" is known to be a corruption of a Native American name, ...
, New York, United States. It is a seven-acre (2.8 ha) parcel with two brick buildings on it. In the 1880s it became the thriving resort city's first power station.
They are the only remnants of a gas-fired power plant
Fossil fuel power plant
A fossil-fuel power station is a power station that burns fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas or petroleum to produce electricity. Central station fossil-fuel power plants are designed on a large scale for continuous operation...
begun in 1873 and remaining in operation for over half a century. One of the two buildings is a rare conical-roofed gas holder house from that era, one of only 13 left in the Northeast
Northeastern United States
The Northeastern United States is a region of the United States as defined by the United States Census Bureau.-Composition:The region comprises nine states: the New England states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont; and the Mid-Atlantic states of New...
, and archaeological
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
evidence shows evidence of a second one having been built nearby.
The gas production operations were taken offline in 1928, but the property continued to be used by electric utilities for most of the 20th century. In 1992 Niagara Mohawk decided it was surplus and stopped using it. In 2001 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
.
Property
The power plant site is an irregular trapezoidTrapezoid
In Euclidean geometry, a convex quadrilateral with one pair of parallel sides is referred to as a trapezoid in American English and as a trapezium in English outside North America. A trapezoid with vertices ABCD is denoted...
-shaped parcel between East Street on the east, Excelsior Avenue to the south and a divided
Divided Highway
Divided Highway is a compilation album by American rock band The Doobie Brothers, released in 2003. . All tracks are taken from the albums Cycles and Brotherhood .-Track listing:...
section of US 9/NY 50
New York State Route 50
New York State Route 50 is a state highway in the Capital District of New York in the United States. The southern terminus of the route is at an intersection with NY 5 in Scotia...
along its north. The land drops slightly from that road, and trees planted along that side screen the site from passing traffic. All around it is a chain link fence.
Within the fence the entire site is surfaced in loose gravel and devoid of trees. The two buildings are located in different sections of the parcel.
The gasholder house is at the northern corner, close to the junction of East Avenue and routes 9 and 50. It is a cylindrical brick building in common bond
Brickwork
Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar to build up brick structures such as walls. Brickwork is also used to finish corners, door, and window openings, etc...
70 feet (21.3 m) in diameter with a conical slate roof. It has no foundation
Foundation (architecture)
A foundation is the lowest and supporting layer of a structure. Foundations are generally divided into two categories: shallow foundations and deep foundations.-Shallow foundations:...
but the 18-inch–thick (46 cm) walls continue to depth of 23 feet (7 m) below grade, where they are grounded in a clay stratus. There are also six exterior brick buttress
Buttress
A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall...
es.
Rafter
A rafter is one of a series of sloped structural members , that extend from the ridge or hip to the downslope perimeter or eave, designed to support the roof deck and its associated loads.-Design:...
s with wood purlin
Purlin
In architecture or structural engineering or building, a purlin is a horizontal structural member in a roof. Purlins support the loads from the roof deck or sheathing and are supported by the principal rafters and/or the building walls, steel beams etc...
s and two transverse bow trusses. The floor is poured concrete. Windows, a vent and service exit were added later.
The substation
Electrical substation
A substation is a part of an electrical generation, transmission, and distribution system. Substations transform voltage from high to low, or the reverse, or perform any of several other important functions...
building is located 200 feet (61 m) to the south, close to that side and north of the only gate in the fence. It is a two-story rectangular brick building, 75 by, on an east-west axis with a cross-gable
Gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used and aesthetic concerns. Thus the type of roof enclosing the volume dictates the shape of the gable...
d roof. Its foundation is stone laid in a random ashlar
Ashlar
Ashlar is prepared stone work of any type of stone. Masonry using such stones laid in parallel courses is known as ashlar masonry, whereas masonry using irregularly shaped stones is known as rubble masonry. Ashlar blocks are rectangular cuboid blocks that are masonry sculpted to have square edges...
pattern. Pilaster
Pilaster
A pilaster is a slightly-projecting column built into or applied to the face of a wall. Most commonly flattened or rectangular in form, pilasters can also take a half-round form or the shape of any type of column, including tortile....
s divide the walls into recessed panels (7 by 3), and a corbel
Corbel
In architecture a corbel is a piece of stone jutting out of a wall to carry any superincumbent weight. A piece of timber projecting in the same way was called a "tassel" or a "bragger". The technique of corbelling, where rows of corbels deeply keyed inside a wall support a projecting wall or...
ed cornice
Cornice
Cornice molding is generally any horizontal decorative molding that crowns any building or furniture element: the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the edge of a pedestal. A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown molding.The function of the projecting...
marks the roofline. A large oculus
Oculus
An Oculus, circular window, or rain-hole is a feature of Classical architecture since the 16th century. They are often denoted by their French name, oeil de boeuf, or "bull's-eye". Such circular or oval windows express the presence of a mezzanine on a building's façade without competing for...
is in the tympanum
Tympanum (architecture)
In architecture, a tympanum is the semi-circular or triangular decorative wall surface over an entrance, bounded by a lintel and arch. It often contains sculpture or other imagery or ornaments. Most architectural styles include this element....
of each gable.
In the middle of the south side is a taller arched entrance with service door and the remains of a hoist. It leads to an interior with an open interior, floored in poured concrete supported by steel beams. Two stone walls run along the inside, the beams resting on them. Brick buttresses shore up the steel I-beam
I-beam
-beams, also known as H-beams, W-beams , rolled steel joist , or double-T are beams with an - or H-shaped cross-section. The horizontal elements of the "" are flanges, while the vertical element is the web...
s that supported the hoist. V-trusses sheathed in tongue-and-groove
Tongue and groove
A strong joint, the tongue and groove joint is widely used for re-entrant angles. The effect of wood shrinkage is concealed when the joint is beaded or otherwise moulded...
pocket into the interior walls, producing the eaves.
The only interior partitition separates the easternmost bay. On that side of the building, outside, are modern transformer
Transformer
A transformer is a device that transfers electrical energy from one circuit to another through inductively coupled conductors—the transformer's coils. A varying current in the first or primary winding creates a varying magnetic flux in the transformer's core and thus a varying magnetic field...
s and other equipment. Though no longer in use, they are of relatively recent date and are not considered a contributing resource
Contributing property
In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing resource or contributing property is any building, structure, or object which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic district, listed locally or federally, significant...
to the Register listing.
As a result of required studies done when the building and site were remediated, considerable archeological evidence has been found of other buildings in the site. The entire site is thus considered a contributing resource.
History
The Saratoga Gas LightGas lighting
Gas lighting is production of artificial light from combustion of a gaseous fuel, including hydrogen, methane, carbon monoxide, propane, butane, acetylene, ethylene, or natural gas. Before electricity became sufficiently widespread and economical to allow for general public use, gas was the most...
Company began providing that service to the city (then a village) in 1853. As the community grew after the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, its infrastructure needs did as well. The company needed to build a new gas works, and chose the current location due in part to concerns about locating such a facility near downtown
Broadway Historic District (Saratoga Springs, New York)
The Broadway Historic District is located along that street in Saratoga Springs, New York, United States. It has a twofold character. The southern section is the commercial core of the city, with many of its important public and private buildings, most intact from the its peak days as a resort town...
.
The site had other advantages as well. It was close to the railroad line (now routes 9 and 50), had a nearby stream, Village Brook, which could provide sufficient water, and the deep clay layer would provide an impermeable seal below the gas holders. Because of the proximity of the brook, the site was lower than the rest of the city, and therefore it would be easier to distribute the gas as it naturally tends to rise in pipes. The new plant was started in 1873 and opened the next year.
At the original plant it had made gas by coking
Coke (fuel)
Coke is the solid carbonaceous material derived from destructive distillation of low-ash, low-sulfur bituminous coal. Cokes from coal are grey, hard, and porous. While coke can be formed naturally, the commonly used form is man-made.- History :...
coal in a horizontal retort
Retort
In a chemistry laboratory, a retort is a glassware device used for distillation or dry distillation of substances. It consists of a spherical vessel with a long downward-pointing neck. The liquid to be distilled is placed in the vessel and heated...
and then capturing and storing the gas
Coal gas
Coal gas is a flammable gaseous fuel made by the destructive distillation of coal containing a variety of calorific gases including hydrogen, carbon monoxide, methane and volatile hydrocarbons together with small quantities of non-calorific gases such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen...
that was released. The new plant encased a brick retort, purifying house and two gas holders within the cylindrical buildings. The thick walls helped prevent the gas from condensing
Condensation
Condensation is the change of the physical state of matter from gaseous phase into liquid phase, and is the reverse of vaporization. When the transition happens from the gaseous phase into the solid phase directly, the change is called deposition....
in the cold winters, and the conical roof accommodated the gasholder, a telescoping series of cylinders that rose within guides as the volume of gas increased. Water in the bottom of the pit made the seal impermeable.
In 1886 the company, which had dropped the "Light" from its name, began using the carbureted
Carburetor
A carburetor , carburettor, or carburetter is a device that blends air and fuel for an internal combustion engine. It is sometimes shortened to carb in North America and the United Kingdom....
water gas process to manufacture gas. This increased its production efficiency and volume, and required the addition of more buildings — a boiler house, oil and coal storage and more gasholders. The following year the company merged with the American Illuminating Company to become the Saratoga Gas, Electric Light and Power Company. A dynamo
Dynamo
- Engineering :* Dynamo, a magnetic device originally used as an electric generator* Dynamo theory, a theory relating to magnetic fields of celestial bodies* Solar dynamo, the physical process that generates the Sun's magnetic field- Software :...
on the site provided electricity for the city's street light
Street light
A street light, lamppost, street lamp, light standard, or lamp standard is a raised source of light on the edge of a road or walkway, which is turned on or lit at a certain time every night. Modern lamps may also have light-sensitive photocells to turn them on at dusk, off at dawn, or activate...
s.
In 1903 the electricity-generation facilities were further expanded. The substation, a steam boiler and 125 feet (38.1 m) smokestack were added. Power generation continued for eight years, until 1911, when yet another merger created the Hudson River
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
Water Power Company. It built a regional power distribution system to carry the power generated by its dams all over the southern Adirondack
Adirondack Mountains
The Adirondack Mountains are a mountain range located in the northeastern part of New York, that runs through Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Herkimer, Lewis, Saint Lawrence, Saratoga, Warren, and Washington counties....
region. With the cheaper hydroelectric power available, and industrial customers willing to use it in large quantities, it was no longer economical to generate power in Saratoga Springs.
The original gasholder was removed from the first building in 1919. Coal gas production ceased entirely in 1928, and most of the original buildings were demolished in the years afterwards. The substation building remained in use, and the successor utilities also used the area as a storage and maintenance yard until Niagara Mohawk decided it was no longer needed even for those purposes. The utility still owns the land and buildings, and keeps them fenced off.