Fort Wayne, IN: Old Gas House (Gasometer)

(3D Satellite)

I thought I already wrote a posting on the old gas house. But I can't find it, and I want to save this photo. So I write this posting.

Yelp from Posting

The gasometer was evidently around the north side of the current parking lot in the "point" between the river and road. The building in the right background is what exists today. You can see the little "box" on top of the roof in both the photo and a 3D satellite image.

Tommy Lee Fitzwater posted

Year?

Ft. Wayne Gas Plant

Craig Leonard

This was the North end of a pipeline whose South end was in Montpelier, Blackford County, where the Fort Wayne Natural Gas Co. had 100 gas wells. But by 1905, pressure in the field had diminished to the point that the field ceased to operate.

Craig Leonard

The Company got the contract to supply the city and lay mains in 1889. Gas had been discovered in Indiana in 1885 at Eaton, in Northern Delaware County. An historical marker stands at that site.

Craig Leonard

This is likely the second set of buildings on this site, whose original construction was an acetylene plant built in the 1850's by Alfred Hattersley.

Tommy Lee Fitzwater posted two photos with the comment:

The manufactured gas plant, or MGP, operated from 1851 until 1948, producing “town gas” by heating coal, coke, and/or oil in a closed vessel. The gas was captured and cleaned of impurities before being stored in large round structures known as gas holders. Town gas was distributed first for lighting streets, homes and businesses, and then for heating and cooking.

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Tommy Lee Fitzwater posted
Tommy Lee Fitzwater posted