875 Willow Street (northeast corner 9th and Willow Streets), Philadelphia, PA
© Harry Kyriakodis
(2007)
Detail, south and
east facades.
Surrounded by numerous manhole covers with the word
"STEAM" stamped on them is the Willow Street Steam
Generation Plant. This great hulking structure was built
in 1927 by the Philadelphia Electric Company as part of
Center City Philadelphia's elaborate steam delivery
system, which still operates. Rail cars used to bring
fuel via tracks along Willow Street. The smokestacks are
163 feet high. It's been abandoned for over 25 years. The
large interior spaces that held the boilers preclude easy
alteration for reuse, as there are no floors inside the
building. There have been proposals to convert the
structure into a trash-to-steam plant and also to cover
it with huge wrap-around advertising. It may be decades
before anything happens with it. The asbestos-filled
building has been sealed by the fire department, because
it is so dangerous.
The roots of Philadelphia's district steam system dates
back to 1889, when the Edison Electric Light Company of
Philadelphia—which eventually became part of the
Philadelphia Electric Company—began to generate and
sell electricity from its central station at 908 Sansom
Street. Later that year, exhaust steam from the plant's
engines was used to warm a nearby house at 917 Walnut
Street, creating an additional source of revenue. The
Philadelphia Electric Company later built other steam
generating plants, including the Willow Street Plant, and
constructed a vast underground steam network to serve
various buildings and institutions. The system became the
third largest district steam heating system in the United
States. Steam pipes in Philadelphia run under sidewalks
rather than under streets, as in other places. The steam
is sent under pressure at a constant temperature of about
450 degrees, summer and winter, enabling the pipes to
last for decades with little wear.
PECO sold its steam system to Philadelphia Thermal Energy
Corporation in 1987 for $30 million. In 1993, Trigen
Energy Corporation purchased United Thermal Corporation,
the parent company of Philadelphia Thermal Energy. Today,
Trigen owns and operates the downtown steam system, which
delivers stream via 33 miles of underground pipes to
customers throughout Center City and West Philadelphia.
Nearly 400 of the city's businesses, hospitals,
universities, hotels and residential buildings use the
steam for heating, cooling, hot water and so on.
West and south
facades. Photo © Steven A. Ives
(2007).