Toronto Power Company: Niagara Falls, Canada
The ground floor hall housed all 13 generators in a single line. The Generators constructed by GE were painted a bright blue with yellow and red trim. The inside prior to the commencement of demolition, remediation and removal was a colourful place. This series of shots focuses on the generators, intact, during demolition and subsequent to their removal from the hall.
The Toronto Power Company was once the power plant of the Electrical Development Company of Ontario . Built between 1903 and 1906, it stands upstream from the Horseshoe Falls by a few hundred metres a testament to the engineering and construction knowledge of the day.
It is located on the river side of the Niagara Parkway in Niagara Falls , Ontario. It is just up stream of the Rankine Generation Plant on the opposite side of the Parkway. Tourists who have passed by it, are not fully aware that it was once a hydro generating station. It's Italian renaissance façade, belies it's true purpose, making it look more like a bank or government building of about 500 feet in length. The first time people see it they wonder what this building is. It’s not large when compared to power stations today.
TPC was brought into service in 1906 during the great height of hydro electric development in Niagara Falls, built by the Electrical Development Company, later known as the Toronto Power Company. It was Wm. Mackenzie (a Canadian railway contractor and entrepreneur), H. M. Pellatt (another well known Canadian financier, also known for grand home in Toronto called “Casa Loma”) and Frederic Nicholls (who owned the Toronto Incandescent Light Co, which first brought lighting to Toronto), who are credited with the development of the site, which was a private venture in 1903. This was a highly competitive time, three other private companies were also in the process of building plants on the Canadian side of the falls. In 1905, the EDC successfully acquired further water rights, and after 1906, a Hydro Electric Power Commission of Ontario (HEPCO) was formed, which put an end to private power development on the Canadian Side of the falls.
It's history is a colourful one and is readily searched on the internet. The plant was the cutting edge of technology in 1906. The main hall housed eleven General Electric generators, each with a capacity of 12,500 horse power for a combined total of 125,000hp. They produced three-phase alternating current at 25 cycles, which became ‘outdated'. Geology is the reason the power station was decommissioned in 1973. Because of its location, and the gravitational shift in the sedimentary stone the building was built upon the turbine shafts physically moved. This sedimentary stone slowly shifts and causes a misaligning of the turbine shafts similar to the events further downstream that have caused Rankine Generation Station (Canada Niagara power Company) to shutdown in late 2006. Both these stations and the now vacant Ontario Power Company in the gorge have been handed over to the Niagara Parks Commission. In the past TPC was occupied by the Sir Sandford Fleming Foundation in 1982-1983 as a failed attempt at operating a hydro electric museum. For a while in the late 1990's It was for sale for the cost of $1, with the caveat that the purchaser was responsible for the site's remediation. Ideas have included a garden monument, and more recently as a stop over for tourists who could tour the still intact Rankine Generating Station. Even a wedding facility has been considered. If the ICOMOS symposium in 2007 was an indication, these historically significant structures will be sitting vacant for a few years.
I have selected some images to try and impart a partial sense of the building, it's layout and set up. Much is missing due to the remediation and demolition that took place.