Wallace Power Station across from Peoria, IL

(History; Satellite, there were several comments about it being blown up, including that it was done at 6:00am and that it was cold, but no one mentioned the date! According to Historic Aerials, it was blown away between 1995 and 1998; and the Walmart Supercenter building was built by 1998, but the parking lot area still had coal.)

Larry Mill III shared Ken Christianson's post
Wallace Power station opposite downtown Peoria. Rows of coal cars behind are on the TP&W lines leading up to their bridge. Just beyond them is the IT East Peoria yards.

Satellite

I wonder why there was four stacks but five cooling water intakes. (I assume they are intakes instead of outlets because it looks like they have a sluice gate inside.) Since these structures are not in the way of redevelopment they left them because it wasn't worth the cost of removal. But they strike me as a memorial to the power plant that once was here.

I included the TP&W and IT tracks in this aerial excerpt. I count just three smokestacks. The plumes must be hiding the fourth stack. One of the plumes is clean, one is dirty, and it is hard to tell about the other plumes. The fifth unit in the photo on the east side was obviously built after 1938.

1939 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

Photo Gallery

Matt Smith posted
CILCO BUILDING, Tazewell County. I snapped this building in 1995, days before it was ground to dust. By comparison, a virtual carbon copy in Baltimore’s inner harbor was re-developed and for the last 30 years has been the crown jewel of that city. But this being Illinois, this beautiful riverfront building was unceremoniously knocked down to make way for… wait for it… a Walmart.
Debbie Shehan R. S. Wallace station.
Stephen Lenz I took the asbestos out of 1126 W Camp st ie Wallace Station. It would have been cost prohibitive to fix this building. The old part contained 6 turbines, to fill the holes they left would have required extensive engineering. We used to play baseball during lunch on top of the roof.
Brandon Hill I remember the day they imploded this building. It shook both towns on each side of the river. My house 2 miles away shook from the explosion. And it was definitely weird crossing the river and not seeing it anymore!
Dan Fogarty Apples to oranges. Baltimore's Inner Harbor is a huge tourist area that supports the businesses housed in the building you refer to. Altbough I live in Will Co. IL, I have no idea where Tazwell county is, nor do I think the area in the photo will ever be a tourist attraction.

Rob Smith commented on Matt's post

Tyson Herrmann commented on Matt's post
Matt Smith Tyson Herrmann Exactly. But I’m sure a Super Walmart would have the same visual and economic impact.

Scott Laugel commented on Matt's post
I worked for CIPS at the Newton Power Station. The coal fired power plants are slowly closing down.

(new window)  They didn't get all of the coal dust cleaned out. The resultant dust cloud was black instead of gray.



The Cuba and Fiatt Mines used to supply Wallace Power Station. There were other suppliers, but I have yet to absorb all of the information in this post.