Book ID: CBB495813062

Palazzos of power: Central stations of the Philadelphia Electric Company, 1900-1930 (2016)

unapi

Wunsch, Aaron V. (Author)
Elliott, Joseph E. B. (Author)
Nye, David E. (Author)


Princeton Architectural Press


Publication Date: 2016
Physical Details: 157
Language: English

"Majestic," "endangered", and "understudied"--Terms typically applied to endangered species - apply equally, if paradoxically, to one of the greatest sources of pollution in twentieth-century America: coal-fired metropolitan power plants. Nowhere is the building type more spectacularly present or more pressingly at risk than in Philadelphia, home to the mothballed central stations of the Philadelphia Electric Company. Monuments to the city's industrial might and suburban spread, they housed rows of ponderous boilers, turbines, and switchgear, as well as elaborate coal- and ash-handling systems. But it was these machines' neoclassical enclosures that commanded public attention. Designed to convey "solidity and immensity" in an age of deep public skepticism, they now stand vacant and decaying - a "blight" in the eyes of city planners and a beacon to urban explorers. Combining scholarly research, period illustrations, and contemporary photographs, Palazzos of Power sets Philadelphia's central stations in historical context, explains the mechanisms they housed, and records their spaces and surroundings. The book will appeal to scholarly and lay audiences.

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Reviewed By

Review Betsy Fahlman (2015) Review of "Palazzos of power: Central stations of the Philadelphia Electric Company, 1900-1930". IA. The Journal of the Society for Industrial Archeology (pp. 163-164). unapi

Review Wilkenfield, George (July 2017) Review of "Palazzos of power: Central stations of the Philadelphia Electric Company, 1900-1930". Technology and Culture (pp. 872-874). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB495813062/

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Authors & Contributors
Charles A. Parrott
Susan K. Appel
J. Homer Thiel
Christine Fonda
Mary E. Pyne
Robert C. Stewart
Concepts
Industrial archaeology
Buildings, Industrial
Coal
Historic preservation
Architecture
Textile Mills
Time Periods
20th century
19th century
Places
United States
Canada
New Bedford, Mass
Tooele, Utah
Central Aguirre (P.R.)
Lachine Canal
Institutions
U.S. Dept. of the Interior, National Park Service, Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record
New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company
Delaware and Hudson Railroad Corporation
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