The powerhouse pictured kept a state run mental health hospital complex heated and fed with electricity for many years in the early part of the 20th Century. Oil and coal fired during different times in its service, it was a monster to behold in the day. As shiny as any Navy ships engine room and hissing, burbling and moaning whilst going about its critical business.

A staff of operating engineers spent careers and years walking these catwalks with pliers and wrenches in hand, tuning the machine for maximum efficiency all the while slathering on innumerable layers of navy gray paint. Behold the powerhouse, as dangerous a working environment as could be found most anywhere… long shuttered, in most probability waiting for the scrappers crane.

-stephen berner/45dgree.com