The Pratt Street Power Plant — also known as the Pier Four Power Plant, The Power Plant, "Pratt Street Toenail", and Pratt Street Station — is a historic former

power plant A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the electricity generation, generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an el ...

located in downtown

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, USA. It has undergone significant repurposing development since retirement and 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 ...

in 1987.

History

The building and its active years

The structure is a complex of three buildings located at

Pratt Street Pratt Street is a major street in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It forms a one-way pair of streets with Lombard Street that run west–east through downtown Baltimore. For most of their route, Pratt Street is one-way in an eastbound di ...

and Pier 4 at Baltimore's

Inner Harbor The Inner Harbor is a historic seaport, tourist attraction, and landmark of the city of Baltimore, Maryland. It was described by the Urban Land Institute in 2009 as "the model for post-industrial waterfront redevelopment around the world". Th ...

. The structures are brick with

terra cotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...

trim and steel frame construction. It was built between 1900 and 1909 and is a massive industrial structure with Neo-Classical detailing designed by the architectural firm of

Baldwin & Pennington Baldwin & Pennington was the architectural partnership with Ephraim Francis Baldwin (1837-1916) and Josias Pennington (1854-1929) based in Baltimore, Maryland. The firm designed an incredibly large number of prominent structures throughout the Midd ...

. It was one of only 11 buildings in the zone of the

Baltimore Fire of 1904 The Great Baltimore Fire raged in Baltimore, Maryland from Sunday, February 7, to Monday, February 8, 1904. More than 1,500 buildings were completely leveled, and some 1,000 severely damaged, bringing property loss from the disaster to an estimate ...

to survive that event.See HAER entry. It served as the main source of power for the

United Railways and Electric Company The United Railways and Electric Company was a street railway company in the Baltimore Metropolitan Area of the U.S. state of Maryland from 1899 to 1935. In 1900, the company built the Power Plant in Baltimore's Inner Harbor to provide electrical ...

, a consolidation of smaller street railway systems, that influenced the provision of citywide transportation and opened up suburban areas of Baltimore to power its electric street railway in the city. It later served as a central steam plant for the Consolidated Gas, Electric Light and Power Company, a predecessor of the Baltimore Gas and Electric Company. The boilers were coal-fired, and the plant's location on the harbor allowed easy delivery of coal by ship. The location also provided access to cooling water for the condensers, with intake on one side of the pier and discharge on the other. The plant, with by-then obsolete equipment, was used sparingly until it was returned to service to meet the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

production demand for electricity. Baltimore Gas & Electric finally ceased use of it in 1973.

Post-retirement life

After the electric plant was retired from service, the building was vacant several years, eventually becoming acquired by the

City of Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...

. It has since been redeveloped and repurposed for a variety of commercial projects. The first two attempts at redevelopment - an indoor

Six Flags Six Flags Entertainment Corporation is an American amusement park corporation, headquartered in Arlington, Texas. It has properties in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Six Flags owns the most theme parks and waterparks combined of any a ...

theme park named

Six Flags Power Plant Six Flags Entertainment Corporation is an American amusement park corporation, headquartered in Arlington, Texas. It has properties in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Six Flags owns the most theme parks and waterparks combined of any amu ...

(1985–1989) and a short-lived dance club called P.T. Flagg's (1989–1990) - were not successful. Since that time, other projects have had more success. The Power Plant's more recent tenants have included the first

ESPN Zone ESPN Zone was a theme restaurant and entertainment center chain in the United States that included arcades, TV studios, and radio studios, operated by the Disney Regional Entertainment subsidiary of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts using the Disne ...

in the country (opened July 11, 1998; closed June 2010 and replaced by Phillips Seafood, which moved from nearby

Harborplace Harborplace is a shopping complex on the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, Maryland. Description The property is composed of 2 two-story pavilions: the Pratt Street Pavilion and the Light Street Pavilion. Each of these buildings contains many stores an ...

Hard Rock Cafe Hard Rock Cafe, Inc. is a British-based multinational chain of theme restaurants, memorabilia shops, casinos and museums founded in 1971 by Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton in London. In 1979, the cafe began covering its walls with rock and r ...

(opened July 4, 1997), Barnes & Noble (opened 1998, closed August 28, 2020),

Gold's Gym Gold's Gym International, Inc. is an American chain of international co-ed fitness centers (commonly referred to as gyms) originally started by Joe Gold in Venice Beach, California. Each gym offers a variety of cardio and strength training equi ...

(closed early 2010; and replaced by Pandion Performance Center in June 2015), and loft offices. Maryland Art Place, a contemporary art gallery for Maryland artists, is located in the northwest corner. It lends its name to the nearby

Power Plant Live! Power Plant Live! is a collection of bars, restaurants and other businesses in the Inner Harbor section of downtown Baltimore, Maryland. It was developed by The Cordish Companies and opened in phases during 2001, 2002, and 2003. The entertainme ...

nightlife complex. The Cordish Company has its headquarters on the sixth floor.Contact Us
" Cordish Company. Retrieved on September 13, 2011. "601 East Pratt St., 6th Floor, Baltimore, MD 21202" Cordish also developed the adjacent Pier IV building, whose tenants include Dick's Last Resort.

References

External links

* {{National Register of Historic Places in Maryland Buildings and structures in Baltimore Inner Harbor, Baltimore Former coal-fired power stations in the United States Power stations in Maryland Towers in Maryland Energy infrastructure completed in 1909 Energy infrastructure on the National Register of Historic Places Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Baltimore 1909 establishments in Maryland Exelon Historic American Engineering Record in Baltimore Tourist attractions in Baltimore Adaptive reuse of industrial structures in the United States Former power stations in Maryland