The Glendale Power House is a historic power station on the

Housatonic River The Housatonic River ( ) is a river, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 in western Massachusetts and western Connecticut in the United S ...

, just off

Massachusetts Route 183 Massachusetts Route 183 (MA 183) is a north–south state highway in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. The entire route travels from a continuation of Connecticut Route 183 by Colebrook, Connecticut to U.S. Route 7 (US 7) and US 20 in Le ...

Stockbridge, Massachusetts Stockbridge is a town in Berkshire County in Western Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 2,018 at the 2020 census. A year-round resort area, Stockbridge is h ...

. The 1905 power house, built for the

Monument Mills Monument Mills are historic textile mills at Park and Front Streets in the Housatonic village of Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Developed beginning in the mid-19th century, they were a major American producer of jacquard fabrics, operating unt ...

, was one of the first places in the United States where electricity was generated for the purpose of providing power to an industrial facility. The station was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1982. The facility has been rehabilitated and converted into modernized hydroelectric power generation plant.

Description and history

The Glendale Power House is located southwest of Stockbridge's village center, sandwiched between

on the northwest bank of the Housatonic River, below the point where Glendale Middle Road crosses the river. The property is over in size, with a dam at the northern end (just south of the bridge), a power canal in length, and a stone power house. The dam is in height, and is built out of poured concrete. The canal is wide, and was dug out of heavy clay. The power house is a single-story stone structure, three bays wide and four long, with a slate roof. The interior is a single large chamber, which historically house turbines and electrical control equipment. A sliding gantry-style crane provided the means to move equipment around within the building for maintenance. The power plant was built in 1905 by

of Housatonic, at the site of a dam that dated to the 1840s for a papermaking operation. The stone building uses stone originally quarried for the Glendale Woolen Mill. By 1909, this plant was providing half of the mills' power requirements. The power station was taken out of service in 1946, and most of its original generation equipment removed. The property was redeveloped to provide hydroelectric power to the main grid in the 1980s. Its four turbines can produce 1.07 MW of electricity.Enel Green Power North America website, http://www.enelgreenpower.com/en-GB/ena/power_plants/ne/glendale/ accessed 2014-10-03. Electricity generation depends on the availability of water; during a drought, the water level might fall too low to run the turbines.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Berkshire County, Massachusetts Buildings and structures in Berkshire County, Massachusetts Stockbridge, Massachusetts Power stations in Massachusetts

Description and history

See also

References