The Toronto Power Company (TPC) generating station, is also known as the Power Plant of the Electrical Development Company of Ontario. Constructed in an Italian renaissance façade between 1903 and 1906 during a time of great hydro electrical development, it stands on the battered shore upstream from the Horseshoe Falls by a few hundred meters as a testament to the skill of the men who built it under some awe inspiring circumstances.
The ‘Cycle of life’ for TPC. First image from 1904 during construction, early 2006 before demolition, late 2006 during demolition, and late 2007 when remediation complete.
I first noticed the station back in 2000 while on a tour and our guide said that it was an old vacant power station that was up for sale for $1 with the stipulation that the new owner was responsible for remediation, and possibly moving the building to another off site location. A year later I went back and took a walk down the parkway again to take a closer look at the place. It was sealed tight, and many of the windows were covered up. I saw an array of colors but couldn’t see much until I found a window where the plastic had been broken off inside. Wow! Such wonderful colors. While to this day I have always found the Rankine Generation Station to be the grandest of the three, set back from the crest of the falls covered in brass and marble and diligently maintained since it remained active until 2006, TPC had the a level of decay and grime from the years of neglect since it had been decommissioned at the end of 1973 and had not been opened since except briefly in the 1980′s when it operated unsuccessfully as a museum.
The tailrace tunnels for which the station has become well known were relatively unique in utilizing a twin tunnel construction (one on the river side, and another on the shore size) which provided an opportunity to possibly shut down the water from one tunnel without closing the other, allowing ongoing maintenance and obviously production. The wheelpit was also not connected to the tailrace so it would be impossible to have had the water flood the equipment out on the lower levels, as a gate for each tunnel was installed to prevent back water from the lower river flooding inwards.
The tailrace drains itself since it slopes downward at a grade of .005 behind the curtain of the middle of the Horseshoe Falls about 8 feet above the high level of the lower Niagara River, and 150 feet below the brink of the falls. The tunnels in the twin wheelpit are 25ft and vary from 66 to 30ft in width, at which point they join at the junction the tunnel and become 25.6 ft high and 35ft wide to almost 27 feet high and 23.5 feet where the water is discharged at 1,935 ft. Most of the tunnels have 2 feet of thick concrete lined painstakingly with brick except the final 300 feet where concrete rings were installed in 6ft sections to facilitate erosion. If the predicted rate of 2.5 feet a year was met, over the past 103 years, the majority of this will have eroded away leaving only 40 or so feet (if any). Dsankt of sleepycity has the best write up online with his two visits in 2006 and 2007.
The station itself is split into two sections; the shore side housing 11 generators (originally 8, 00kw, later upgraded to 12,500kw) divided by a wall where the forebay is, with the intakes on the river side. During out first visit to the station May 2006 we saw the preparation for construction work beginning as the catwalks above the generators had been removed and equipment was strewn about. Access into this building was always difficult, which accounts for the fact that not that many people actually made it inside. Upon entering the first lower level I was struck by how cold the building actually was. It was a very humid and hot 40c outside, but inside it was downright chilly below to the point where you could see your breath hang in the air. Upstairs it was slightly better in the generator hall and forebay. The generator hall was a huge space, which seemed much smaller in comparison to places such as Lakeview Generating Station. The 11 generators all were painted a colorful combination of blue, yellow and red apart from the ones at the far end of the station which looked much older. Between each generator was a grate that could be removed for maintenance work to be done on the lower levels and wheelpit. The control room overlooked the generator hall on the next level up where much of the Frankenstein-ian switches for controlling the transformers and transmission lines were located. These small rooms are quite interesting and photogenic and we spent time there before moving up to the empty higher levels and the roof access. For those who haven’t visited a power station before, the scale of things is generally very large, but this space while cavernous was relatively compact. We made a second visit aided by a worker dinner break 5 months later where we found they’d made quick work on the huge cast iron formed generator housings and only half of one remained. The forebay was also fully drained and almost halfway filled in with concrete. The control room had been almost all been cut apart with welding torches and carted out as scrap. Little remained except the notable clock that was shoved into a trash bin.
We made one more visit after the remediation almost a year after our first visit and noticed that the shafts where the generators sat had not been capped, but guard rails had been installed around them and the forebay was devoid of any machinery and completely filled in, looking more like a dance hall . Little has changed since 2007 as many of the plans from before never materialized These plans have included a museum (the Sir Sanford Fleming museum operated unsuccessfully for less then a year), a garden monument with only the front façade kept as a fake ruin and also a conservatory. If the ICOMOS conference in April of 2007 was an indication, much of the building will remain closed and not utilized in anyway for some time to come. Similar ideas were brainstormed at the conference such as possibly using the building as a large wedding hall or as a dining center or museum in conjunction with the Ontario Power Station located down the gorge were proposed, however the Niagara Parks Commission showed little interest in either of the three power stations because of the high cost of maintaining power and heating and maintence to these spaces. The Niagara parks commission controls all three stations since they reverted back from Ontario Hydro and Fortis over the past 3 years. Fortis was the only corporation which showed some interest in maintaining Rankine, even going as far to commission a historical retrospective on the plant by Norman R. Ball called “The Canadian Niagara Power Company Story”. Rankine power station (the only one still fully intact) costs about $1 million to maintain a year and the parks commission does not see itself profiting from the venture of possibly operating a museum. Its really a shame that in the middle of a tourist mecca a use cannot be found for either building. Sadly most people would rather go to Ripley’s or the casino to pass their time and would not want to visit something educational and historical. I guess its a sign of the times, and why buildings like this are not even constructed anymore.
Further Detailed Reference Material:
Toronto Power Company Booklet, Part 1 & Part 2
“Niagara’s Power, past Present and Prospective” Nicholls, Friendric. Empire Club Address. January 19, 1906.
“The Power Plant of the Electrical Development Company of Ontario, Limited. F.O. Blackwell, 1906. ISBN 0-665-87396-4.
Photos by Kathy, Jan and the underground tailrace images by Jack.
