Wind Turbine Project Fuels Powerhouse Comeback
By Laryssa Wirstiuk | Online Only | Sept. 30, 2008
The McGregor Powerhouse
Credit: Argus Architecture & Preservation, P.C.
Thanks to a $184,000 grant from Noble Environmental Power, restoration of McGregor Powerhouse in Altona, N.Y., will finally begin. Although the grant, part of the permitting process for the construction of 65 wind turbines in Altona Wind Park, is only a fraction of the $1.5 to $2.1 total restoration cost, locals say it will jumpstart the project.
"It's really a beautiful building," says Altona historian Bridgette Coolidge. "It's going to be a great asset to the town. Once we can turn it into an educational center, it will be great."
Located on the Great Chazy River in upstate New York, the powerhouse has been closed since the early 1960s. It is one of three remaining features of a hydroelectric power system built by William H. Miner and the Pittsburgh-Des Moines Steel Company in the early 1920s. Miner, a millionaire businessman and developer, used the hydroelectric system to power the village of Chazy, N.Y., and Heart's Delight Farm, a family homestead which grew to 12,000 acres in 1918. The powerhouse is currently vacant and partly used for storage by Altona, the plant's current owners.
With three tall chimneys, the brown and stucco-coated McGregor Powerhouse is an example of the Spanish Mission style. That style "was highly unusual for northern New York and, also, that it was a revival style outside the mainstream neoclassical movement of the time," according to an assessment report released by Altona.
Part of the grant will be used to archive local historical records, and some money will be used "for the purchase and installation of historic markers in the town," says
John Bonafide, historic preservation services coordinator for the state historic preservation office.
Higher order needs include a roof replacement, which will secure the four-story building from pigeons, and a thorough cleaning. However, possible asbestos and lead-paint contamination will delay the renovation. "We're working to refurbish the powerhouse," says Coolidge, "but it's in the beginning stages. We have to wait for feedback. It's going to be a long process."
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