1925 - 1985
This power station once housed the world’s largest Westinghouse turbo-generator, and its
Neoclassical architecture was meant to symbolize that the city had entered an age of electricity.
t was denied historical designation by the Philadelphia Historical Commission, against the
recommendation of its own staff and the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia.
As designed, the station was to contain three
distinct
generating components; each component
was to consist of a boiler house
to produce steam, a turbine hall, and a switch gear building to
control power
distribution. Generating steam pressure was designed to be 400 psi
instead of
the
customary 100 to 125 psi. Each of the three turbine halls was designed
to
contain four tandem
compound turbo-generators that would ultimately each
produce 50 MW of power at 13.2 kV, for
a total capacity of 600 MW. Each boiler
house was designed to contain 24 Babcock & Wilcox
stoker-fired boilers.
Only one of the three generating components was
constructed.
Turbine Hall was one of the largest
open rooms ever designed, modelled after
the ancient Roman baths. Two of its four turbo-
generator units were installed
and twelve of its 24 planned boilers were put into place.
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