Howard M. Down Generating Station

 

Source: TFPNJ Postcard Archive

Vineland is one of those New Jersey cities that most folks in my native Essex County seem to know very little about. Whenever I'd bring it up, people would shrug their shoulders and say "I really don't know, it's just a weird little place in the pines". The city actually has a fascinating history though. It was founded by a man named Charles Landis who intended it to be a "temperance town". That meant no alcohol was to be sold or consumed within the district. It was this prohibition that led Dr. Thomas Welch to develop his famous fruit juice from the city's namesake grapes. The term "moron" was coined by a doctor working at the Vineland Developmental Center, which still remains a major employer within the city. In addition, Vineland holds the only municipal coal generating station ever constructed in New Jersey. Or, at least it used to. 

Source: TFPNJ Historic Document Archive

The original generating station on the property dated back to 1900. For context, this was only a couple decades after we started burning coal for electricity in the United States. Despite being somewhat revolutionary it was a small facility with equipment that was extremely inefficient by today's standards. The two belt driven stationary engines only generated a combined 270kw.  It wasn't long before the plant needed to be upgraded. A new boiler and a 750kw  generator were installed in 1917. Another 1000kw generator was added just a few years later in the early 1920s. Around this same time the Atlantic City Electric Co began to see the borough's electrical generating capacity as a threat to their business. After failing to muscle the utility out of providing service beyond their border, they offered $1.5 million for the existing plant. The borough was poised to follow through, which sparked outrage among the citizens. They voted down the sale, opting to keep the plant under local control. After the strong show of support the utility felt the need to upgrade the plant again. In 1929 a 3,000kw turbine was installed, the plant's most efficient generator yet. 

Source: TFPNJ Historic Document Archive

The plant was completely reconstructed in 1936 with funding from the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works. The original 1900s building was unfortunately demolished to accomidate the construction. This rebuild added another 4,000kw to the plants capacity. However, with more generating capacity came more boiling hot waste water that needed to be dealt with. This is one of the reasons generating stations are usually built alongside bodies of water that can be discharged into. Since no such waterway existed in Vineland, a small cooling pool was constructed across the railroad tracks from the main plant. The water was pumped over to the pond where it was dispersed into the air to cool. 

Source: TFPNJ Historic Document Archive

A boiler capable of producing 72,000 pounds of steam per hour was constructed in 1939. Three years later a second 4000kw generator came online. It took five more years for the plant to see another expansion. The addition brought a new 105,000lb/hr boiler, followed by a 5000kw generator another few years after that. The new boiler could burn either coal or oil, so an oil tank was added on the other side of the train tracks. Several homes between Pear and Peach streets were demolished to make room for the tank. The new unit was also the first to utilize a crossflow cooling tower, which was installed next to the cooling pool. The demand for power in the region continued to increase throughout the 1950s. A man named Howard Down, who was the General Manager of the plant at the time, recognized the utility could benefit from hiring a consulting firm to plan out future construction. Each sucessive expansion was done thoughfully and efficiently thanks to this decision. Another project began in 1952, the largest to date since the remodel two decades prior. A 7,500kw generator was hooked up to the newest boiler which was capable of pushing another hundred thousand pounds of steam per hour through the turbines. A bunch of new switch gear, pumps, and a forced down draft fan were also added to the turbine hall. A 1955 expansion saw the addition of yet another generator. This one was powered by a 130,000lb/hr boiler system and was capable of generating 10,000kw. A new, completely modern control room was constructed above the hall, connecting all the complex machinery together. In 1960 a new unit was added to the eastern flank of the building, capable of generating 16,500kw. Another set of crossflow towers were constructed along W. Pear. With the new unit up and running the facility was able to generate 50,000kw. The plant was now one of the largest municipal generating stations on the east coast. And construction wasn't even complete yet. 

Source: TFPNJ Historic Document Archive

Each time a new unit was constructed it was attached to the eastmost section of the plant. That meant by the time the Unit 10 was added to the plant in the late 1960s they were completely out of space. The company continued to have to purchase and demolish neighboring homes to accomidate their expansion. The cooling equipment for the 1960's unit was constructed on land along Plum Street. Down was now capable of producing just shy of 82,000mw.

Source: TFPNJ Historic Document Archive

As time pressed on, greater emphasis was placed on finding cleaner sources of energy than coal and kerosene. The relatively small output of the Down plant and its reliance on coal put it right in the crosshairs. The city couldn't justify retrofitting their old boilers or adding the expensive scrubber equipment that would allow them to continue to burn the fuel the plant was designed for. By 2010 the coal units were decommissioned, leaving only the more modern oil units online.

The following year a 64mw natural gas fired simple cycle generator was installed where the old cooling pool used to be in 2011. The new unit was dubbed Howard Down 11. The crossflow towers for the 1950s units were removed as well to clear up some space. 

Unit 11 was way more efficient and inexpensive to maintain than the old hulking powerhouse across the tracks. In addition, the company built another simple cycle unit in Clayville, bringing another 64mw of power to the grid. Unit 10 inside the old plant was kept around to be switched on during times of peak demand, but those times became more rare as the regional grid stabilized. By 2021 the utility had purchased an adjascent building and began moving all of the offices and workshops over. It was announced the following year that the rest of the old equipment would be decommissioned and the plant would be demolished.

I pulled up outside Howard Down on a warm August morning shortly after the demolition plans were announced. The iconic "Vineland Municipal Electric Plant" sign was dark, but the building was still lit up and humming. I had been keeping an eye on the plant for almost a decade, waiting for it to finally close. I first saw the beautiful brick behemoth while in town to document the former Newcomb Hospital. By then the building was hardly ever being used to generate power, but I remember watching workers going in and out of the front doors when I drove around it in the years after. Ten years after the first time I ever saw it and she still looked exactly the same. 

I was hoping there would be some clue that the workers weren't going inside the building anymore since the demolition was already announced. That wasn't the case. I carefully made my way around the building, eventually making my way to the railroad tracks that bisected the old plant from its modern replacement. It wasn't too long before I was climbing up a ladder that would eventually bring me inside. 

Quietly, I worked my way through the maze of boilers from different eras. I wasn't sure what I was going to find when I got to the generator hall. So often when these stations get updated the old generators are ripped out or torn apart for pieces and scrap. Thankfully that wasn't the case here.

Walking down the hall was like walking through history. Generators of different sizes and from progressively different eras lined the room from one end to the next, eight in total.

I did the best I could to document everything, but I only had my phone on me. I intended to return and shoot everything on my real camera, but time got away from me. While doing research for this post I opened up the street view and was horrified to see that demolition was already in full swing. I was sure by the time abatement started all the local power plant goons would be posting the place all over social media. I never saw another photo though. Hopefully someone did a better job documenting the building as it was such an amazing and rare relic of power generation. 

Only time will tell what will replace the old generating station now that the building is gone. I'm hoping a memorial display is installed somewhere for folks to see. The old neon sign that once graced the roof is set to be restored and reinstalled next to Howard Down 11. At least that will serve as a small reminder of the plant that powered the town for over a century.