{"nrhp_refnum":"79001810","name":"Woodland Avenue and West Side Railroad Powerhouse","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1180 Cathan Ave., NW","address_restricted":false,"city":"Cleveland","county":"Cuyahoga County","state":"OH","lat":41.496353405000036,"lon":-81.70357902699999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1979-06-04","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Commerce","Transportation","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A U-shaped brick railway powerhouse in Cleveland's industrial \"Flats\" beside the Cuyahoga River, built in two phases in 1892 and 1901 and designed by J. N. Richardson. Its address has since changed to 2000 Sycamore Street.","why_significant":"The powerhouse served the Woodland Avenue and West Side Railway, the last large Cleveland street railway to give up horses, and it tried engineering devices new to street railway history, such as a direct connection of a triple expansion engine to a generator. It is also valued for its architectural integrity and its role in Cleveland's transportation history.","narrative":"Standing in Cleveland's industrial Flats on a bend of the Cuyahoga River, this brick powerhouse once supplied electricity to a street railway. It is U-shaped and was built in two stages. The 1892 section has two rectangular blocks with parallel gable roofs, shaped gables and round-arched window reveals. A 1901 addition brought an ell-shaped wing with a monitor roof and a 240-foot smokestack. J. N. Richardson designed the original building for the Woodland Avenue and West Side Railway, then controlled by Marcus Hanna. The line was the last large Cleveland system to give up horses, and its plant used marine-type engines and a triple expansion engine connected directly to a generator. The railway later merged into larger companies, and the powerhouse closed in 1925. It then served as a barrel reconditioning plant and a warehouse. By the time of listing the interior had been stripped, leaving a shell that kept much of its architectural character.","period_of_significance":"1892; 1901","architect_builder":"J. N. Richardson","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"At the time of nomination the building was a largely empty shell, its interior removed and its windows and skylights unglazed; it was described as abandoned.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:53:12.999753-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/79001810.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79001810/8254c09c82-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79001810/8254c09c82-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"TenPoundHammer","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cleveland_aquarium_2.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">TenPoundHammer</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cleveland_aquarium_2.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71987582","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q137699102"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/cuyahoga-county/woodland-avenue-and-west-side-railroad-powerhouse-79001810/"}