Saturday, March 23, 2024

Covanta Warren

One of the more interesting experiments in power generating technology has been the implementation of garbage fired power stations. Rather than using a high efficiency fuel source like coal or natural gas, these plants run on municipal waste instead. The premise is the same; the trash is burned and the resulting heat is applied to water in the boilers. This creates steam, which is used to spin a turbine generator. One of the largest providers of Waste to Energy power in the country, Covanta, built one such plant in Oxford in the late 1980's. 

Covanta Warren opened in July 1988. At the time there wasn't much any development around the property. The adjascent landfill was still being cleared, it didn't open for another two years. 

At its peak the facility was handling 550 tons of waste a day. That translated to between 13 and 14 megawatts of power production. That may not sound like very much compared to the output of the average coal plant, but it was still enough to power over 10,000 homes.  

The econonics of Waste-to-Energy facilities are complex, and are largely affected by federal regulations. These pressures eventually began to outweigh the fiscal benefits of keeping the plant open, so Covanta announced in 2019 they were closing the facility. 

The complex only sat idle for a few years. I visited once during that time, regrettably without my camera. It was not the most impressive plant, and Oxford is a fairly inconvenient place to get out to from where I live.

 I found out from my brother one day in March of 2024 that it was in the process of being demolished. I can't say I'm too sad to see it go. I think the area will look a lot better without the obtrusive industrial facility sticking out from the trees. It goes on to join a long list of retired and eventually demolished power plants in the state. 

Friday, March 22, 2024

Brick Presbyterian Church

Source: TFPNJ Historic Postcard Archive

Sometimes a building will be so iconic, it becomes synonymous with a specific neighborhood. Sometimes it's a hospital, or a tall tower, but more often I find it's a church. The first example of this that comes to mind for me is, without a doubt, Brick Church. 

The Presbyterian congregation that founded Brick Church formed in 1832, but it wasn't until 1878 that the iconic red brick structure rose up on the corner of Main Street and Prospect. The new house of worship was designed in a handsome Romanesque style. 

The founding congregation was dwindling by the turn of the century. The building was sold to the Temple of Unified Christians, a small Haitian ministry. 

The large building was more space than the congragation could keep up with. The main sanctuary was slowly falling apart while the Temple used the large choir room in the back. I had been keeping an eye on the building as it continued to deteriorate. Over the years. Every so often I would see a member of the congregation outside the building. One time I asked if I could go inside and take pictures. Unfortunately I was flatly rejected.

The Temple Of Unified Christians eventually left the building in 2020, right around the time Covid was running rampant. I continued to check up on the building, but without an official closure announcement I wasn't totally sure if the building was totally unoccupied yet. Then one day a friend of mine who was in the area let me know there was a door ajar out back. 

The next morning  I was inside documenting the building. The main sanctuary was less impressive than I always imagined, but I was very grateful to finally see what was on the other side of the stained glass.

Then on April 19th of 2023 that same friend sent me a frantic message. " Dude.... did you know they're tearing down brick church??" accompanied by a screenshot that showed the work. I flew down to the site to see it for myself, and sure enough there was a massive hole ripped through the most structurally intact portion of the building.

The demolition was done under the cover of darkness because the owners knew they would never be able to get the proper permits for the work if they went about the demolition the right way. 

Horrified passers-by called the police, who showed up and promptly halted the work. Unfortunately too much damage had been done, and the building was now beyond fixing.

The church sat wide open to the elements for almost a year as the city decided whether or not to allow the owners to finish the job. Eventually they were given the go ahead, and work started up again in March of 2024.

There are so many people to blame here. Whether by ignorance or malice, this historic treasure which was the namesake for the neighborhood is now gone. The demolition was done so quick and sloppily, and with almost no attempts made to salvage the beautiful, priceless interior. Hopefully this loss will serve as a motivation for city officials to never let this happen again. 








Thursday, March 21, 2024

Snuffy's Pantagis Renaissance

Snuffys Steakhouse was founded by William Robertson in 1932. Robertson was local speakeasy proprietor who had operations all throughout the neighboring towns. With prohibition ending just a year later, Snuffys hit the ground running. 

The resteraunt expanded in the late 1960s. The building was transformed from a glorified burger stand into a banquet hall. Several large new rooms were added, including the Crystal Room, Gaslight Room, and Fireplace Room.

Robertson ran the resteraunt until the early 1970s. After several decades of success, he decided to retire. Snuffys was sold to the Pantagis family the following year.

The Pantagis family rebuilt Snuffys in the late 1970s and into the 80's. They changed the rather humble banquet hall into a tacky, gaudy psuedo-palace. Every ceiling was adorned with mass produced stained glass and cheap embossed millwork. While impressive to the untrained eye, the building was really a poorly constructed clashy nightmare. 

The Covid 19 pandemic had a major impact on every aspect of the wedding industry, and the Pantagis banquet hall was no exception. The family decided to abruptly close the business on October 20th, 2020. Covid 19 was cited as the main reason for the closure, but the business  owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes as well.

After several years sitting empty, Scotch Plains approved plans to demolish the venue. Work started right at the beginning of 2024, and continued swiftly until the lot was clear. Lots of folks were upset that none of the stained glass or woodwork was saved, but I don't think they really understood how little value any of it had. A Lidl grocery store will soon be built on the lot, certainly more of a benefit to the town than the vacant building was. Snuffy's goes on to join Pals Cabin, The Circus, and the Chatterbox on the long list of iconic. NJ resteraunts replaced for generic retail. 



Saturday, December 9, 2023

Fewsmith Memorial/ Pilgrim Baptist Church

The late 1800s saw the growth of all types of religion in the city. By far, one of the most prominent denominations was the Presbyterian Church. They established their first worship space in the city in the 1660's. Two centuries later the group was building santuaries all over Newark. One example was the Fewsmith Memorial Presbyterian Church. At first the group worshipped inside a small Carpenter Gothic structure that was built along Jay Street in 1886. By 1893 the congregation had grown so much that they decided to build a large beautiful brick sanctuary along Hudson Street. 

The new sanctuary was a beautiful Gothic building, complete with a large bell tower. Despite the beautiful, relatively new building,  Fewsmith merged with the Roseville Presbyterian Church in 1924. Over 150 former Fewsmith members started attending mass at Roseville, which was about 10 blocks west of their original home. A new Fewsmith Memorial Church was also established in neighboring Belleville the same year. Around the same time, a small group that had split off from Bethany Baptist began working out plans for a new congregation. The group would go on to become Pilgrim Baptist Church. After several months of meeting in different members houses, they purchased the Fewsmith building from the Newark Presbytery and moved in on December 14th. 

A few decades passed, and with it came several new leaders. In 1939 Reverend Charles C. Withers resigned, and Elder Wilson of the Bethlehem Baptist church was called in to lead while they determined who would take charge next. Instead, Bethlehem was actually absorbed by the Pilgrim congregation to worship in their Hudson Street building. To memorialize this, a new cornerstone was installed at the base of the bell tower.

Pilgrim was a critical part of the city and region as a whole, which is reflected in some of the hosuing initiatives undertaken by the church. Under the stewardship of Reverend Arthur Washington Jones in 1979 Pilgrim Baptist Village was constructed to help provide low and moderate income housing to the city. The apartments were built on Bergen Ave at 18th St. on land that was once held dozens of abandoned residences. They also helped get single family housing built all throughout the City of Orange. 

The main sanctuary underwent a large renovation project in 1992. Included in the project were new pews, air conditioning and the iconic blue stained glass windows in the main sanctuary. The work was done under the stewardship of Reverend Clarence E. Thomas. 

Pilgrim Baptist continued to do good work in the community decades. Unfortunately over time, as is often the case, the congregation began to dwindle. As the group got smaller and smaller, the bills got bigger. The large brick and wooden structures needed extensive maintenance and repair work. Then in March of 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic hit. 

Churches all over the country were forced to close their doors to worship, while the needs of their respective communities skyrocketed. Pilgrim Baptist was no exception. By the time the pandemic was officially declared over, the congregation had essentially disappeared. They hadn't used their Facebook account in years, but reviews and photos indicate that services were still being held in 2020. The following year they updated the copywrite on their website, but that seems to be the last sign of life I can find.

The buildings were listed for sale in December of 2022, ninety eight years after Pilgrim Baptist moved in. It was on the market for less than a year, before selling for nearly one million dollars. Unfortunately the new owners had no intention of keeping the old church buildings around. Demolition began in November of 2023, just a month after the new owners closed on the property. 

I'm guessing they wanted to act swiftly, to ensure nobody tried to get the old buildings listed on the city or national registers of historic places. Work started with the original 1886 chapel on Jay Street. The large equipment made short work of the old rotted timbers. They paused briefly, to ensure they could get everything of value out of the main sanctuary. However, they made sure to put a gigantic hole in the back wall to ensure it would be too late for any last minute preservation attempts. 

Salvaging the interior elements took about a week, after which demolition commenced in full stride. By the end of 2023, the lot was clear.



Pilgrim joins the long list of city churches that have been unceremoniously demolished in the last few decades. I'm not sure which historic building will be targeted next, but I know this won't be the last. 

Drone photo courtesy of my brother.






Thursday, August 17, 2023

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.