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Did I say it was inviting? How's this for inviting?

Some explanation is in order: The Shephard's Island Power Plant was built in the 1920's, but due to a concurrent breakthrough in coal power technology, it was obsolete before it was even finished. It never even came fully online, and operated full-time for less than twenty years, operated seasonally for a few years after that, and was then decommissioned and used for storage. In the 80's, parts of it were converted into studio apartments.

Then in 1998, an effort got underway to convert it into riverfront condos. It was purchased by a luxury developer and ambitious plans were drawn up to not only renovate the main plant and outbuildings, but construct several other large housing structures adjacent, convert the Screen House into a boathouse, and expand the waste-water outlet into a marina. The preceding information is gleaned in part from the website of the development company, which is still online at islandstation.com. I assume it is from this latest era of renovation that the 'LIVE HERE' sign in the windows is from. I don't know what happened next, but clearly the plans fell through and construction was halted, quite early on. It doesn't appear that they got very far- they put up some guardrails around the dangerous bits, and cleared out some rooms in preparation for working on them. From the look of it, they left quite abruptly- there is a lot of value in the tools they left, and there are some personal effects as well. Perhaps they thought they would be returning. In any event, they left a number of their architectural renderings lying around, which I photographed:


There is a building permit on one of the locked doors for some large signs to be constructed. The date is September 2nd, 2004
Interestingly, the satellite picture of the area from Google Maps appears to show a great deal of activity at the site. I can only assume the image was taken during this last bout of construction.

Though I like the idea of living in a converted coal plant, I'm selfishly glad their plans fell through. It's nicer as a ruin than it would have been as a housing development, and there has already been enough spoilation of the riverfront in the past few years. Just take a look at this view from the High Bridge, of the bank leading up to the city:

That was in 2002. They were just clearing the land. Here's the same space, just a few years later:


At one end of the main building is a set of blue doors, with the glass mostly broken out. This was our entrance point.


Enough dilly-dallying! Continue to Page 3: Inside the Factory!-------->