The Glenwood Power Plant (also known as the Yonkers Power Plant) in Yonkers is one of two power stations constructed for the electrification of the New York Central Railroad from Grand Central Terminal to the northern suburbs of New York City.
Built as a result of an act passed after 1900 to electrify the urban railroads of New York, the Glenwood Power Plant was designed by Minnesota-based architects Reed and Stern. The Glenwood Power Plant is approximately 4.7 acres of the 150 Acre Brownfield Opportunity Area.
History
In 1902, NYC sought to electrify its tracks going in and out of New York City to expand Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan. A massive brick structure, designed by architects Charles Reed and Allen Stem in the Romanesque-Revival style, was built at Glenwood-on-the-Hudson between 1904 and 1906.
The Plant was built and designed in conjunction with the redesign of the Grand Central Terminal to enable the first electrification of the New York Central Railroad, therefore, it is quite historic. The Plant served the railroad for thirty years, but it soon became more cost-effective for the company to purchase its electricity rather than generate its own.
The New York Central Railroad owned and operated the power station between 1907-1936 when it served the sole function of powering the railroad. The Glenwood Power Plant was sold to Yonkers Electric Light and Power Company in 1936, which was then merged into Consolidated Edison (ConEd) in 1951. The power plant became a public utility, generating power not just for NYC, but for the surrounding population.
The Yonkers Power Station was put on standby in the 1950s and closed in 1963. The turbines and boilers have all been removed along with all other major machinery, though much remains to be seen inside. In 1965 the building was sold to Independent Scrap Iron and Steel Company of Brooklyn and in the late 1970s and has sat idle and vacant since.
The Yonkers Power Station was sold in the spring of 2012 to a new owner the Goren Group who is inclined to reuse the buildings. Subsequently, the site was cleared of its overgrowth, marking the first sign of any official work at this site since the substation closed in the mid-1980s. Ivy was carefully removed from the walls of the power station and the substation buildings so that the mortar would be protected from the invasive plant.
Renovations on the structure began in 2013 to transform the building into PowerHouse, an arts-focused event complex. Phase II includes plans for restaurants, a 90-room hotel, and a 22-slip marina.
The volunteer was forced to spend significant initial resources on securing the property from vagrants and performing above ground cleanup work associated with the removal of dioxin dust left on surfaces from the old furnaces
On December 8, 2016, the Goren Group was awarded $5 million from the state’s Economic Development Council towards the stabilization of the power plant, estimated to cost $15.3 million. Work involved cleaning the site, stabilizing floors, ceilings, and walls 3 and was completed in October 2017.
Breathtaking Photos of Abandoned Plant
There actually are two major buildings at Glenwood Power Plant: the smaller substation and transformer building on the north and the main generating building.
The generating building is split into two sections. The turbine room in the northern half is a cavernous hall, like a great arcade of sorts, open in the middle, surrounded by walkways on the side, with light filtering in from the monitor roof above. A giant metal hook emblazoned “1” hangs above the entrance on the east end. The pit down below is gutted and filled with pools of stagnant water.
The second floor of this side of the building features the switchboard for the main generators, behind an operating gallery from which a plant manager could supervise. Other odd remnants of machinery lay about here and below. A staircase leads up to the third floor, on which just a small walkway on the east end of the building connects the two sides. An open-air walkway traverses the space between the generating building and the substation.
The south side of the generating building contains the boiler chambers. The room is split into two halves, with an aisle leading to a view of the Hudson River, directly opposite the Palisades. On either side of the aisle are individual chambers, the walls of which have collapsed into large piles of brick. Small rooms at the east end were offices and bathrooms. The smokestacks and coal bins are supported well above the ground floor.
Who designed the Glenwood Power Plant?
The Power Station was designed by the architecture firm of Charles Reed & Alan Stem who, in association with the firm Warren & Wetmore, also designed Grand Central Terminal. Specialists in the design of railroad buildings, Reed & Stem designed both the Glenwood and the Port Morris Power Stations, the associated substations, and various local stations on the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad lines.
How to Get To The Glenwood Power Station with Public Transport?
Directions to Glenwood Power Plant (Yonkers, NY) with public transportation.
By bus: there are 2 bus stations near Glenwood Power Plant in Yonkers, NY.
- Take a bus No 1. to the Warburton Ave Bus Stop @ Glenwood Ave or N Broadway Bus Stop @ Lake Ave;
- Get out at the Warburton Ave or N Broadway and take a 5-10 minute walk to the Glenwood Power Plant.
By subway:
- Take a line No. 1 subway in NY and get out at C – 242nd Street Subway Station;
- Or take a line No. 6 subway in NY and get out at Yonkers Subway Station;
- Then just take a 5 minutes walk from subway station to the abandoned Glenwood Power Plant
The following transit lines have routes that pass near Glenwood Power Plant. These Train lines stop near Glenwood Power Plant: HUDSON.
Trains leave for New York City every hour on weekdays and about every 25 minutes during rush hour. It is 15.5 miles (24.9 km) from Grand Central Terminal and travels time to Grand Central is about 38 minutes.
