Cohoes, NY: Harmony (Cotton) Mills and 1915 42mw School Street Hydroelectric Plant

Mills: (Satellite and Satellite)

Powerplant: (Satellite)

Adam Dubec posted via Dennis DeBruler

Lock no. 17 Birds Eye View of Cohoes NY in 1859 showing Cohoes Falls Erie Canal & Harmony Mills

This postcard view of the Harmony Mills in 1859 shows the enlarged Erie Canal, with several canal boats traveling along it, in the foreground. Lock No. 15 of the canal is near the center of the image, and Lock No. 16 is on the left. Harmony Mill No. 1 is on the far left, directly behind Lock No. 16, with Mill No. 2 to the right. The bridge crossing the canal between Mills Nos. 1 and 2 is where Vliet Street is today. 

This image also shows one of the power canals for the mills, located between the Erie Canal and the Mohawk River. Note that Harmony Mill No. 3 had not yet been constructed at this time. The Cohoes Falls are in the upper left of the image. The bridge between Cohoes and Waterford can be seen downriver from the falls. The span at that time was a covered toll bridge.

TimesUnion, Cindy Schultz / Times Union
Because the millrace taps the river upstream and it discharges below the falls, the head is 92' (28m).

The first unit went online in 1915, and the plant reached its designed capacity of 42mw in 1925. The 16' (5m) high, 1,280' (390m) long diversion dam is 4000' (1.2km) upstream. The dam was built in 1831 because the "power canal" was originally used for hydropower by mills along the river. [hydroreform]

The waterfall itself has a 75' (23m) drop. [ErieCanalway]

TimesUnion, Cindy Schultz / Times Union
The fifth unit is out-of-frame towards the right foreground.

The mill building is now lofts.

GN B, Oct 2024

"Harmony Mill No. 3 was designed by D.H. Van Auken, the Cohoes architect and engineer who was also the engineer for the Cohoes Company, which supplied waterpower to various Cohoes mills including the Harmony Mill. The mill became popularly known as the "Mastodon Mill" after the skeleton of a mastodon mammoth was discovered during the excavation for the foundations of the north section of the building." [albany]

brownstoner

PhinneyDesign

lots of floorplans

Now I understand why the town has the nickname of "Spindle City." It was because of the cotton mill.

passageport, p1

passageport, p2

As the postcard at the top of these notes shows, before the powerhouse was built, the mill race used to go a lot further downstream to provide hydro power to the mills built along the river.

1893/93 Cohoes Quad @ 62,500 via Dennis DeBruler

hydro
Cohoe Falls is the second highest waterfall in the northeast. Second only to Niagara Falls.

EdisonTechCenter
"Water falls 60-90 feet depending on the season and width of water coverage as it is squeezed between two cliffs....The 1831 dam also powered Harmony Mills which became the largest cotton mill in the US at the time."

Santa Barbara, CA: Roundhouse and Depot

Roundhouse: (Satellite, torn down to make room for the hotel.)

Depot: (Satellite)

Tim Starr posted
As far as I know, the 10-stall roundhouse at Santa Barbara was the only one in the US to mimic a Spanish bull fighting arena. After the original brick roundhouse was heavily damaged by an earthquake in 1925, the city asked Southern Pacific to rebuild it with a little more curb appeal. By the time this picture was taken in 1969, it was being used as a lumber warehouse, then torn down in 1982 by actor Fess Parker to build a hotel. Photo by Charles Lange.

Brian Aunger: I hung some temporary lights in that building the summer before it was torn down. The structure had some massive 12” x 12” posts and beams.

The background on the unique architecture is that just prior to that 1925 earth quake that leavened many framed structures in Santa Barbara Pearl Buck, the well known author and Santa Barbara resident lead a multi year effort to preserve the Spanish pueblo architectural history and feel of the town that was being rapidly replaced with wooden framed buildings and red brick rather than the traditional white washed adobe.

Her efforts culminated in a City ordinance that required new buildings to be built in a style that reflected the red tiled roofed buildings that were being replaced. The earthquake leveled a significant part of downtown and was the beginning of the dominant style that persists today.

Another significant impact the railroad had was that the original engine facility, rail yard, and icing facilities were all built on infilled land that was tidal marshes before the coast route reached Santa Barbara. This cut a significant portion of the previously uninhabited area east of the downtown off from tidal flooding well inland and added to the availability of buildable area of the city although some of that area not ever occupied by the railroad improvements are still at or below sea level but protected by the significant amount of fill that SP brought in.

David Lange: Brian Aunger One correction, it was Pearl Chase who suggested the Spanish architecture.

Jeff Stein commented on Tim's post
Here’s a RPPC (“Real Picture Post Card”) of the SB roundhouse…date unk?

Depot

Street View, Mar 2012

Barak Yaakobovitz, Sep 2021

Amtrak still uses it. Not only is the waiting room preserved, but so is the ticket counter.

Felix Y, Dec 2022

かわかみたいち, Oct 2019

I found the preserved passenger car.

Street View, Mar 2012

This map taught me where to look for the depot as well as the roundhouse.

1952/53 Santa Barbara Quad @ 24,000

Montpelier, VT: Turntable Park and Amtrak/Central Vermont Depot

Turntable: (Satellite)

Depot: (Satellite)

Street View, Sep 2022

Larry Smith posted three images with the comment:

Montpelier VT. 

turntable park

Christopher Laflam: Busy place in the day. I remember when that parking lot was an active yard with an enginehouse. I regret never stopping by to check it out before it was taken out.....but it was just always there - never expected it to be just gone one day!

Michael Fox: Flooded a year or so ago.. [written Nov 2025]

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The railroad that is on the west side of town was the Central Vermont. The Montpelier & Barre terminated in this town. That would explain why there was a turntable without a roundhouse.

1944/44 Montpelier Quad @ 62,500

Depot

Street View, Jul 2023

Dave Trono, Dec 2023

Hamilton, ON: Grain (& Fertilizer) Elevators and Winter Layup of 4 Lakers

G3: (Satellite)

Agrico: (Satellite)

Richardson: (Satellite)

The US ships grain from western farms to eastern markets using trains. Canada tends to do it with Lakers.

Janey Anderson posted
G3 grain terminal
[This is from the bridge of the Algoma Compass during its 2023 layup.]

Some more photos posted by Janey Anderson of her tour of the Algoma Compass.

a
[Past the bow on the left we see some of the five domes of Agrico that store fertilizer. The company on this side of Agrico is Hooper Engineered Vessels International. The blue leg we see peaking over the fertilizer domes is the Richardson Port Terminal.]

b
Good shot of the Atlantic Huron and Algoma Strongfield in this shot - they are all close here in layup.

c
Algoma Mariner in layup astern.

d
Peeking out the Windlass room! Atlantic Huron in view.
[This gives us a better glimpse of the two rows of bins of the Richardson Elevator.]

e
Algoma Mariner astern.
[And a good view of the ship loader. Although the boom is rotated away from us.]

 

Longview, IL: Wood Grain Elevator Torn Down

(Satellite)

Don Webber posted
times up...Champaign County. Il.

Brad LaPayne: If it's that strong to hold up while being tipped over, there must be a lot of damn good lumber in it! Probably enough to build a house!

Danny Frye: The reason it stays together like that is the way the wooden bins are constructed. The planks laid horizontal, not vertical, in layers (like bricks) to form the bin box. The structure is then covered in metal to protect is from the weather.

Jerry Walch: What year did the demolition happen?

Don Webber: 2011

Don Webber commented on Danny's comment

Don Webber commented on his post
and it made it to the ground intact...then

That old elevator is not the only thing that got torn down. A current satellite image shows that all of the bins are also gone.

Google Earth, Oct 2010

The railroad was the Chicago & Eastern Illinois.

1956/72 Villa Grove @ 62,500

Fort Wayne, IN: 1964 Ward Aluminum Corp.

Building #1: (Satellite, 642 Growth Ave. Just the three story building along Growth, but Google Maps won't let me drop a pin on that building.)

Building #2: (Satellite, 641 Growth Ave.)

Building #3: (Satellite, off-site for heat treating)

Building #4: (Satellite, 630 Growth Ave.)

<add link to knitting mills>

This company grew by buying more and more buildings left over from the Wayne Knitting Mills. [WardCorp_history]

"Ward Corporation is an aluminum foundry with engineering, casting, heat treating and machining divisions. Located in Fort Wayne, Indiana since 1964."  [Facebook Group Intro]

WardCorp_history

Photo, Sep 2025

I wonder who owns the office building in the right foreground. Building #1 is behind it, building #2 is the building on the left, and building #4 is the building in the right background.

Street View, Jun 2019

Apr 2016:

Ward Aluminum Company posted
Our new Furnace is here for setup

Ward Aluminum Company posted four photos with the comment: "New Furnace installation is underway!"

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1 of 16 photos added by Ward Aluminum Company to the album "New Equipment 2011" about installing this new piece of equipment. [The link to the album to which the photos were added is broke.]

[According to some photos that I saw on their web site, this is a tilt-pour permanent mold machine. I'd like to see a video of it in action.]

1 of 36 photos added by Ward Aluminum Company to the album "Foundry Makeover 2012."

A newspaper article about the founders and owners, Mr. & Mrs. Ward. Unfortunately, I hit a paywall of too many accesses in a 30-day period. But I don't remember accessing the Journal Gazette. Maybe you will have better luck.

This is the post that motivated researching this company. The fact that it has reused several of the Wayne Knitting Mills building was also a motivation.

Victor Tonsor posted two photos with the comment: "Ready to cast on this chilly Indiana morning. Ingot and Carousel lines."

Gary Heimbach: Looks like a nice setup but an empty line does not make any money. What are you melting? what are you melting with? I spent 16 years in an aluminum recycling plant.

Victor Tonsor: Gary Heimbach this is run off two remelt furnaces. Alloy 3004, 356, 5xxx, 6xxx, We have a shredder for rims that goes to remelt. Then for the electric furnaces we run chips fed through the top of the furnace by a network of 16" blow tubes

There are five furnaces where I work. Three EAF and two gas fed furnaces. The gas furnaces feed these lines. Location is Fr. Wayne, Indiana [Does Fort Wayne have any other companies that can melt aluminum? Ward's webpage lists the furnaces, but it doesn't have any photos of the melt department.]

Furnace just got a reline. Took this photo right before start up.

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Pittsburgh, PA: 1889-1979 Midvale/Hepenstall Steel

(Satellite, the land has been repurposed by National Robotics Engineering Center)

Lawrenceville Historical Society posted
For years, the Heppenstall company sign was a dominant feature of Lawrenceville. The company specialized in making industrial knives for cutting steel slabs and other specialty items, including dies and razor blades. The company folded in 1979, but the site remained vacant until RIDC prepared the site for Carnegie Robotics to move into the main building in 2014. This photo was probably taken by Bill Levendusky on July 8, 1969.

Erik Williams: In 2000 Tippins steel owed the property I refitted that building with a 2000a 480 volt service and 50 1000 watt MH highbay lights for them. The company that leased the building built the prototype presses for Fords hydroformed truck frames.

Lawrenceville Historical Society: Erik Williams Tippins bought the property in 2000 from the Allegheny County Industrial Authority for $1. Tippins sells it to RIDC in 2002 for $1,230,000.

Reshard Boyér: This is a rather unique photo, because Penn Central was created April 1st 1969, previous to this date this (NYC) locomotive would not have been allowed on these rails.

Nick Markowitz Jr. shared via Dennis DeBruler
Hepenstall.steel in background

“Examine the axle on your locomotive, the shafts that drive the propeller of your ship, and the propellers of your airplane,” the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette trumpeted in 1936, “and you will find that they are either manufactured by the Heppenstall Company or from its dies.” Even for those who didn’t own their own ships or lacked the will and SCUBA gear to examine their propellers life in the 1930s would apparently have been meaningless without Heppenstall. “Your food is delivered in cans sheared by [Heppenstall] knives and coated by Heppenstall tinning rolls,” the P-G continued. “Your frying pans, bath fixtures and even the steel sash in your windows are formed in [Heppenstall] dies.”

Founded in 1889 as Samuel Treathway and Co., the firm started out serving the steel industry by making steel rolls (to flatten out ingots into slabs) and shear knives, to cut the slabs to the desired size. But under the guidance of the Heppenstall family, the company diversified most notably into razors. According to a 1932 account, a vice president decided that Heppenstall should get into the business “after scraping his face with a dull safety razor blade.” This was a public service indeed: Previously, 80 percent of razor blades had come from Sweden, making us vulnerable to the wily Swedes and their unpredictable demands.

[pghcitypaper]

These old photos are a small sampling of what is available on hagley.

They used to have two blast furnaces. I wonder when they had them.

General view of works. Midvale Steel Company plant album (Accession 1974.362). 1905 (year approximate). AVD_1974362_001. Box 1, Folder 1, Audiovisual Collections, Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, DE 19807. Accessed 2025-11-18; https://digital.hagley.org/AVD_1974362_001.

9,000 ton hydraulic forging press. Midvale Steel Company plant album (Accession 1974.362). 1905 (year approximate). AVD_1974362_003. Box 1, Folder 1, Audiovisual Collections, Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, DE 19807. Accessed 2025-11-18; https://digital.hagley.org/AVD_1974362_003.

Group of steam hammers. Midvale Steel Company plant album (Accession 1974.362). 1905 (year approximate). AVD_1974362_012. Box 1, Folder 1, Audiovisual Collections, Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, DE 19807. Accessed 2025-11-18; https://digital.hagley.org/AVD_1974362_012.

Gun tempering plant No.3. Midvale Steel Company plant album (Accession 1974.362). 1905 (year approximate). AVD_1974362_022. Box 1, Folder 2, Audiovisual Collections, Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, DE 19807. Accessed 2025-11-18; https://digital.hagley.org/AVD_1974362_022.

Steel rifles on naval mounts. Midvale Steel Company plant album (Accession 1974.362). 1905 (year approximate). AVD_1974362_064. Box 1, Folder 4, Audiovisual Collections, Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, DE 19807. Accessed 2025-11-18; https://digital.hagley.org/AVD_1974362_064.

Power-house. Midvale Steel Company plant album (Accession 1974.362). 1905 (year approximate). AVD_1974362_025. Box 1, Folder 2, Audiovisual Collections, Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, DE 19807. Accessed 2025-11-18; https://digital.hagley.org/AVD_1974362_025.

This looks much more modern than the above equipment.

Power-house. Midvale Steel Company plant album (Accession 1974.362). 1905 (year approximate). AVD_1974362_024. Box 1, Folder 2, Audiovisual Collections, Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, DE 19807. Accessed 2025-11-18; https://digital.hagley.org/AVD_1974362_024.

The buildings now house the National Robotics Engineering Center.

Photo, Feb 2025