{"nrhp_refnum":"84003614","name":"Erie Railroad Cleveland Powerhouse","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1246 River Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Cleveland","county":"Cuyahoga County","state":"OH","lat":41.49648406000006,"lon":-81.71160762599999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1984-07-19","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A brick industrial powerhouse measuring 85 by 114 feet at 1246 River Road in the Flats district of Cleveland, Ohio, built in 1906-1907 for the Erie Railroad. The builder and architect are unknown.","why_significant":"The nomination presents it as a well-preserved example of turn-of-the-century industrial architecture and a rare surviving powerhouse. It is one of two surviving railroad powerhouses in Cleveland tied to the iron ore transshipment industry. Its horizontal division of boilers and turbines differs from the vertical arrangement at the Pennsylvania Railway Powerhouse.","narrative":"Built in 1906-1907 on the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland's Flats, this brick powerhouse once supplied electricity to ore unloaders on the Erie Railroad site. It measures 85 by 114 feet and has a gable roof with a raised monitor, projecting brick piers, corbelled eaves and paired windows with segmental arches. Inside, a thick brick wall divides the building lengthwise. Coal was fed from underground bunkers to boilers in the south half, which powered turbines in the north half. Cleveland became a major port for transferring Lake Superior iron ore to railroad cars, and the site had held the first mechanical ore unloading system, installed in 1880-81. The powerhouse is one of two surviving railroad powerhouses in the city. The other, the Pennsylvania Railway Powerhouse, uses a vertical rather than horizontal arrangement of boilers and turbines. In the 1920s the railroads bought power from a central utility, and the boilers and smokestack were removed. A machine shop later used the building, which was rehabilitated starting in 1982.","period_of_significance":"1906-1907","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Turn-of-the-century industrial architecture","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied; in the process of a major rehabilitation nearing completion and presently used for industrial manufacturing.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:53:14.808663-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/84003614.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71987907","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":null},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/cuyahoga-county/erie-railroad-cleveland-powerhouse-84003614/"}