Tallahassee’s wood-framed, coal burning electric plant on this site burned to the ground in 1919. In the same year, the Florida Legislature approved a new city charter for Tallahassee that provided a Commission-Manager form of government. The new government saw the building of a new electric building as an opportunity to impress its citizens and cities around the South with how efficient and cost-effective this form of government could be. In 1920 it brought in the services of Mees & Mees Engineers from Charlotte, North Carolina, to design the new electric plant. A year later, under the oversight of Yeager & Parker Contractors, the city had the new steel and brick framed City Power and Light Plant that was one of the “most modern and up-to-date plants in any city of the size of Tallahassee in the South” and was built for less than the original estimated price of $175,000.[1]
The interior of the building was divided into two parts, one with two floors and the other with three. The need for this odd arrangement was because the building was built into the side of a hill and because extra tall ceilings were required for two turbo-generators. The building also contained three coal and wood boilers and one switchboard. Besides the machinery, the building contained a storage attic, locker room and bathing area for the laborers, and the offices of the electric division of the Tallahassee Utilities Department. Another key part of the plant was a cooling pool for steam boilers located outside the building. The under-budget cost of construction as well as the efficient and powerful machinery in the new plant allowed the city to reduce electric rates “an average of more than twenty per cent” during its first two years of operation and still make a profit.[2]
In 1927, six years after the plant opened, the city’s demand for electricity was more than the plant could provide, an average of 200,000 kilowatt hours a month.[3] The city attached an addition of wood and tin to the east facade for another generator, this time diesel fueled. Three years later faced with ever greater demands, the city decided to purchase, via “a very good contract,” electric power from the private West Florida Power Company, which had built the Lake Talquin Dam.[4] Thereafter, this plant operated the switchboard and used its generators only for overload demand during Tallahassee’s hot and humid summers. After the opening of the St. Marks Power Plant in 1952, the city closed this plant and moved all electric division offices and employees to St. Marks by 1956. The building sat empty for many years, although the state used it temporarily for the Department of Natural Resources and storage after 1979. The building was adapted for reuse as a restaurant in 2015.
[1] Second Annual Report of the City of Tallahassee, Florida Under Commission-Manager Form of Government (Tallahassee, FL: T.J. Appleyard, 1922), 11.
[2] Ibid, 13.
[3] WM. R. Galt, “Facts About the Municipally Owned Utilities of the City of Tallahassee,” The Florida Engineer and Contractor, March 1926, v3, no. 2, pg. 258.
[4] Ibid.
The interior of the building was divided into two parts, one with two floors and the other with three. The need for this odd arrangement was because the building was built into the side of a hill and because extra tall ceilings were required for two turbo-generators. The building also contained three coal and wood boilers and one switchboard. Besides the machinery, the building contained a storage attic, locker room and bathing area for the laborers, and the offices of the electric division of the Tallahassee Utilities Department. Another key part of the plant was a cooling pool for steam boilers located outside the building. The under-budget cost of construction as well as the efficient and powerful machinery in the new plant allowed the city to reduce electric rates “an average of more than twenty per cent” during its first two years of operation and still make a profit.[2]
In 1927, six years after the plant opened, the city’s demand for electricity was more than the plant could provide, an average of 200,000 kilowatt hours a month.[3] The city attached an addition of wood and tin to the east facade for another generator, this time diesel fueled. Three years later faced with ever greater demands, the city decided to purchase, via “a very good contract,” electric power from the private West Florida Power Company, which had built the Lake Talquin Dam.[4] Thereafter, this plant operated the switchboard and used its generators only for overload demand during Tallahassee’s hot and humid summers. After the opening of the St. Marks Power Plant in 1952, the city closed this plant and moved all electric division offices and employees to St. Marks by 1956. The building sat empty for many years, although the state used it temporarily for the Department of Natural Resources and storage after 1979. The building was adapted for reuse as a restaurant in 2015.
[1] Second Annual Report of the City of Tallahassee, Florida Under Commission-Manager Form of Government (Tallahassee, FL: T.J. Appleyard, 1922), 11.
[2] Ibid, 13.
[3] WM. R. Galt, “Facts About the Municipally Owned Utilities of the City of Tallahassee,” The Florida Engineer and Contractor, March 1926, v3, no. 2, pg. 258.
[4] Ibid.
