1416 Platte St
Denver, CO, USA

National Register of Historic Places - Denver Tramway Powerhouse (Forney Historic Transportation Museum; Recreation Equipment Inc.; 5DV541)

Statement of Significant:

The Denver Tramway Company Powerhouse is eligible for the National Register under Criterion A for its association with the expansion and operation of the city's electric streetcar system. The construction of the powerhouse in 1901-04 corresponded to the transformation of Denver's streetcar network to an all-electric system. Following its 1911 addition, the powerhouse became the primary source of electricity for Denver's streetcars and operated until the end of the Tramway's streetcar service in 1950.

The powerhouse is also eligible for listing under Criterion C for its engineering significance. The powerhouse represents a type and method of design and construction typical of industrial architecture at the beginning of the twentieth century. Brick pilaster construction with extensive sash infill constitutes common industrial design of the period. The use of steel wall framing in the 1911 addition speaks to continued advances in structural design. On the interior, the high interior spaces with steel roof trusses, the accommodation of travelling cranes in long narrow production bays, and the use of built-up steel framing all represent advances in industrial design and materials adopted by engineers in the early twentieth century.

POWERING THE TRAMWAY SYSTEM

The transportation enterprise that eventually became the Denver Tramway Corporation (DTC) was organized in 1885 and incorporated the following year as the Denver Tramway Company. In 1890 it absorbed the Denver Tramway Extension Company and the South Denver Cable Railway Company. In 1893 the growing concern merged with the Metropolitan Railway Company to form the Denver Consolidated Tramway Company. A final merger in 1899 with the Denver City Traction Company resulted in the Denver City Tramway Company. The streetcar company resumed the Denver Tramway Company name in 1914 and in 1924 changed to the Denver Tramway Corporation. During most of its operational life the entity was known informally as the Denver Tramway Company (DTC).

Streetcar systems changed the character of Denver and many other cities during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Extension of streetcar lines allowed cities to expand outward from congested downtowns, thus speeding the development of surrounding suburbs. As people moved out from the city centers, retail business moved or expanded into downtown areas and other businesses developed along the busiest streetcar routes. Denver followed this growth pattern as the DTC extended rail lines outward to undeveloped areas.

The evolution of Denver's mass transportation includes a history of horse-drawn cars, an early but unsuccessful electric system, and a cable railway network. Horse barns provided the feed and sleeping quarters necessary for the first equine powered transit systems. The cable railway system required a more complicated infrastructure that included cable pulling powerhouses. Two cable railway facilities kept the system operating. The Denver City Cable Railway Powerhouse at 1215 Eighteenth Street (National Register listed) began operating in 1889 to power the thirty- mile network. The other powerhouse at Colfax and Broadway (demolished) occupied a prominent location just west of the State Capitol building.

In addition to the cable system, DTC also inherited electrical powerhouses from the smaller streetcar companies it absorbed. An example was the powerhouse and garage at the West End Street Railway Company (demolished). Built in 1890 at Thirty-eighth Avenue and Utica in northwest Denver, the plant continued to supply electric power after joining the DTC system.

Even in urban areas where central station power was available, manufacturers often chose to operate their own electric power plants, just as they had relied on their own steam engines to power factory millwork. In fact, industrial power plants produced nearly half of the nation's electric power before World War 1.3 By the early 1900s the Denver Gas & Electric Company provided electrical power to most Denver area homes and businesses. It remained common for the city's major industrial plants to supply their own needs with company owned powerhouses. The streetcar system required significant amounts of electricity along with a guarantee of uninterrupted service. DTC management felt most comfortable filling its generating needs with company-owned plants.

The consolidated transit system provided DTC with an opportunity for economies of scale. In 1892 DTC constructed a major new electric power generating facility at Thirty-second and Blake (extant) to provide a central power source. This powerhouse supplied a major portion of DTC's needs until 1911.

The Tramway Co. built a new $1,000,000 powerhouse at 1416 Platte Street in 1901-04 to provide additional electric power to its ever-expanding system, which by 1903 covered 155 miles. The last cable cars ran in 1900 and with the arrival of the new century DTC operated an all-electric trolley system. The new powerhouse was intended to take the place of seven smaller facilities. The company managers chose the new plant's location for its easy access to railroad delivered coal, its proximity to the DTC's main terminal and downtown Denver, and its nearness to the South Platte River, which provided water to cool the powerhouse's turbines as well as a means of disposing of waste.

The Tramway Co. ran a very integrated system. Coal for its powerhouses came from the firm's own coal mine in Leyden, northwest of Arvada. The DTC used its Denver and North Western Railroad subsidiary to haul the coal to the Denver plants. The power plants themselves were organized in 1901 as the wholly owned DTC subsidiary, the Denver Tramway Power Company. The subsidiary operated until its absorption into DTC in 1912.

A major addition to the Platte Street powerhouse in 1911 increased the plant's capacity to handle a network of rail lines that extended over 200 miles. The plant expansion made the Platte Street facility the system's main source of electric power. The enlarged plant could produce up to 9,500 kilowatts. In order to distribute this electrical power throughout its operating system, DTC established a number of electrical substations throughout the Denver area.