Avon Lake Power Plant/Beach Park Station

I usually gauge my route by the temperature and wind speed. If the temperature is below 75 and the winds are high I tend to stay south in the more residential area. The reason? All of the houses block the wind for an easier ride and with the temperature being lower I try to stay away from the lake as much as possible, because believe it or not once you hit Route 6 the temperature drops about 10 degrees and the wind is much higher making the ride much more difficult. That being said, my favorite route is down Lake Road (Route 6, Erie Avenue, Liberty Avenue and whatever else it is known by). On June 1st the weather was perfect for a nice, long ride down Lake Road, but this time I went East. This is also the first route I photographed using an actual camera, so the quality should be slightly better.

25.48 Miles.

On this trip I photographed two historical places, both located in Avon Lake. One was the Avon Lake Power Plant and the other is the old Beach Park Lake Shore Electric station.

Avon Lake Power Plant

Rendering of the proposed $30,000 power plant in the Lorain Journal in 1924 (Dan Brady)

The Avon Lake Power Plant was built in 1926 by the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company to replace the original Beach Park Power Plant that was destroyed in a fire. The plant was positioned right on the coast of Lake Erie to utilize the natural source of cold water which was used to condense steam as it left the turbines. When it opened the plant was the largest of its kind in the entire world. The plant is still in use today. It is currently operating under NRG.

Original Plant in 1902. There was a resort here before the plant. (Gilbert Hodges)

New Power Plant being built in 1926. (Thomas Patton)

What the power plant actually looked like when completed. This picture was taken in 1967. (Cleveland State University)

What the plant looks like today. Notice that a few stacks were removed.

Bottom Left: Photograph from 1977 of workers standing next to a steam engine used to transport coal to other plants. The power plants owned by C.E.I. had its own railroad system, which began in 1925. (Cleveland State University) Top Right: The loaders are still there today. I am not sure if they are still in use though.

Another angle of the plant.

One of the parks placed around to help with the plants image.

A shot from Miller Road Beach. Another park placed around the plant.

In the 1950's the power plant was put under a microscope after a power outage caused by a massive amount of dead fish that broke through the grate at an intake tunnel and flowed into the cooling tubes, causing all of the generators to shut down at once. This prompted investigation by the EPA who determined the fish were killed due to an extreme drop in temperature caused by the plant. They also looked into the massive amount of coal used by the plant. In the late 50's C.E.I. tried to slow down the efforts of the EPA by installing parks in the surrounding area in an attempt to make the plant look more appealing. After half a century of fighting on both sides the EPA finally determined in 2011 that the plant was guilty of excessive ozone emissions and that in April, 2015 the tallest building in Lorain County will be shut down for good. I understand why this has to happen, but it still makes me sad to see a structure that played such an important role in our county (more than likely) be torn down for some lakefront estates. (Cleveland Historical)

The Beach Park Station

There is a shopping center in Avon Lake just East of the power plant that looks like it is as old as the city itself, and it pretty much is. The original purpose of this shopping center is actually quite interesting and played an important role in Lorain County's history.

Shopping center on Electric Boulevard as it stands today. It is now home to some restaurants and a salon.

Before the salon the larger portion of the building was a movie theater, but what if we go back farther?
(Cinema Treasures)

Beach Park was the name of area that today stretches from Electric Boulevard to the lake in Avon Lake. There was a resort located where the current power plant is located until 1902 when the first power house was built there. This area was a very popular tourist destination in Ohio and it needed a large interurban station to accommodate the amount of people flocking to the area. This building was that station and was one of the largest Lake Shore Electric stations on the railway.

Top: The Beach Park station when is opened in 1896. (Thomas Patton) Bottom: How it looks today.

The road that the shopping center currently resides on is Electric Boulevard. It was named so because it was paved in its entirety over the old right-of-way for the Lake Shore Electric interurban cars.

Top: Station in 1902 with LSE tracks to the left. As you can see trains were stored and received maintenance in the rear of the building. (Gilbert Hodges) Bottom: The electric lines to the left sit on where the tracks used to run. Those lines run into Electric Boulevard.

This path leads to the South end of the power plant from the old LSE station. It used to be the tracks.

Top: Bridge over Powder Creek in 1935. (Drew Penfield) Bottom: Current Path over Powder Creek. Old abutments still in place.

The path continues to the power plant.

The ultimate goal of Beach Park was to create a small city around the resort and station, this is why they built the station so large.. The LSE even ran track to the South end of Lorain to the steel mill, which was supposed to expand. The mill never expanded and the city of Beach Park never came to be so the track was never really used. 

With that I will conclude this post with a few pictures I took of the beach that was once known as Beach Park.

Thanks for reading!