"Rock Point and Lake Champlain," The Metropolitan News Co., made in Germany. Special Collections, University of Vermont Library.
A postcard from the early twentieth century shows a view looking northwest towards Rock Point and Lake Champlain from Battery Park. The J.R. Booth lumber yards can be seen along the edge of the waterfront in the foreground of the image, emerging from the foliage of Battery Park.
"Rock Point and Moran Municipal Generating Station," taken by Kate Lepore on October 16, 2012.
A photograph of the Burlington waterfront looks northwest towards Rock Point. The brick Moran Municipal Generating Station and Burlington waterworks buildings are visible at the edge of the waterfront rising from the foliage of Battery Park.
Moran Municipal Generating Station
The Moran Municipal Generating Station was a large brick, steel-frame building located north of the J.R. Booth Lumber yards along the Burlington waterfront. In 1869 the Burlington waterworks building and a lumber shavings house were in the location of the Moran Municipal Generating station. (59) The lumber yards were located to the east and south of the waterworks and shavings buildings. In 1871, only the waterworks building was located in that region of land. (60)
In 1953, the Electric Light Commissioners released a report discussing the planned Municipal Generating Station and how they had made an agreement to lease the new station to Green Mountain Power Corporation for seven and a half years and Green Mountain Power Corporation would sell the city all its required energy at a specified rate. (61) The Municipal Generating Station was built in 1954, but not without facing certain issues. In a report from the Electric Light Commissioners, the ongoing process of constructing the Municipal Generating Station was described:
The construction of the new generating plant progressed and although there was delay in obtaining steel the last beam of the main structure was put in place December 8, 1953. Due to causes beyond our control construction was held up. However in early March of 1954 the plant was 70 per cent completed. Two strikes at the plant in April stopped construction and the results of them delayed the completion date by a month. (62)
It was also noted in the report that J.F. Pritchard and Company was responsible for building the Municipal Generating Station. (63) During the next few years, gas and oil companies began to use the previous lumber yards surrounding the site of the Municipal Generating Station for bulk fuel tank storage. (64) Some of the companies listed as having fuel tanks in the region directly north of the generating station were the Tidewater Associated Oil Co., Gulf Oil Corporation, The Texas Co., and Shell Oil Corporation. (65) The Texas Co. (or Texaco) had oil tanks in the region directly north of the Municipal Generating Station on the waterfront as early as 1937. (66)
In 1986, the Municipal Generating Station was decommissioned and initial plans for rehabilitation of the Burlington waterfront began. (67) In the 1990s, the bulk fuel tanks were removed from the surrounding area of the Generating Station. In 1994, the Community and Economic Development Office accepted proposals for adaptive reuse plans for the Moran Plant site, but financial considerations led them to postpone further action. (68) In 2008, the Community and Economic Development Office resumed plans for the development of the site and began the assessment and recovering of environmental contamination. (69) In 2010, the Moran Municipal Generating Station was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The elements of the project that were developed as of 2011 included the Moran Municipal Generating Station site rendering, the local zoning permit from the site, preconstruction services were hired, and construction documents had begun to be drawn up. The environmental work involving the clean up from pollution in the area, continues today in preparation for the Moran project. (70) The Moran Municipal Generating Station is currently vacant except for the Lake Champlain Community Sailing Center, which uses the basement of the building for boat storage.
Notes
(59) Insurance Maps of Burlington Vermont, Chittenden County, (New York, Sanborn Map Company, 1869), Sheets 3, 5.
(60) Burlington City Directory, (Burlington, VT: Hiram S. Hart, 1871), Page 7.
(61) Annual Report of the City of Burlington, Vermont, (Burlington, VT: Free Press Association, 1954), Page 71.
(62) Annual Report of the City of Burlington, Vermont, (Burlington, VT: Free Press Association, 1954), Page 72.
(63) Annual Report of the City of Burlington, Vermont, (Burlington, VT: Free Press Association, 1954), Page 72.
(64) Burlington City Directory, (Massachusetts: H.A. Manning Co., 1952), Page 305.
(65) Insurance Maps of Burlington Vermont, Chittenden County, (New York, Sanborn Map Company, 1942-1960), Sheets 35-36.
(66) Louis I. McAllister, Oil Tank Construction-Texaco, (Burlington, VT, 1937).
(67) Annual Report of the City of Burlington, Vermont, (Burlington, VT: Free Press Association, 1986), Page 50.
(68) Annual Report of the City of Burlington, Vermont, (Burlington, VT: Free Press Association, 1994), Page 39.
(69) Annual Report of the City of Burlington, Vermont, (Burlington, VT: Free Press Association, 2008), Page 35.
(70) Annual Report of the City of Burlington, Vermont, (Burlington, VT: Free Press Association, 2011), Page 35.
