Gould Street Generating Station
Gould Street Generating Station was first opened in 1905 and is one of the last turn of the century stations still standing in the state. The generating station housed three 2 Megawatt steam-driven Westinghouse generators & was the first plant to burn pulverized coal. By 1907 the plant would be obsolete thanks in part to an expansion at Westport generating station. The three generators were sold to a silver mine in Mexico.
In 1925 Gould Street Station would reopen its doors after sitting dormant for 18 years. When it reopened, it was a technological marvel of its time! The station was known for having the most efficient systems in America. So well known that in 1927 the Chief Engineer of the Vickers Electrical Company in London, H.L. Guy, traveled to Baltimore just to see it! On his voyage back home, Guy went on and on about how this plant was just perfect and that the Baltimore Electric Company was an example for others to follow.
With the Korean War on the horizon, Baltimore Electric Company, now called Consolidated of Baltimore at this point in history, saw a reason to upgrade their various generating stations to support the war need.
You might be asking why Baltimore would need more power for the war impending war...two words, Bethlehem Steel.
Baltimore's Bethlehem Steel shipyards were a major part of the WWII war effort that ended in 1945 and pulled a massive amount of power from Baltimore's grid. In 1947, Bethlehem Steel expanded their property to another 1400 acres and added two new turbine generators to reduce their power needs from Consolidated of Baltimore. This helped reduce their yearly power cost to $1.7m.
In 1947 Bethlehem would invest another $30m into expanding their Sparrows Point factory. Consolidated would again have to provide more power to the grid for that section of Baltimore.
To keep up with the demand from the pre-war expansion, Consolidated built two new generators at Gould Street Station, a 100,000-kilowatt unit, and a 75,000-kilowatt unit.
The boiler I am inside of is part of the 100,000-kilowatt unit.
For the last ~20 years, the station was put in standby status. During the Summer months, the station's new natural gas generator would be fired up to help Baltimore's power grid. It was finally shut down for good in 2020.
