Building 23

The Powerhouse. Overbrook’s powerhouse initially consisted of two main structures. The first structure was the coal building. This 1914 photo shows the coal receiving building portion of the powerhouse. Coal was delivered by trains coming from an offshoot of the Caldwell Eire rail line that extended onto campus. The railroad tracks can clearly be seen going into the structure. The other original structure at Overbrook’s powerhouse was the generating room. At one time, this smaller one story room held enough generators and turbines to power most of the northeast. It was here that power and steam were made and sent into the buildings through pipes in underground tunnels. In 1960, the powerhouse produced 445,000,000 pounds of steam.