Oakland Underfoot

Broadway at 21st Street

Apparently this part of town had a steam heating system — a steam district heating system. It’s like central heating, but for a neighborhood.

Oakland’s district heating system was established in 1911 and shut down in 1980, according to a compilation by Dr. Morris Pierce of the University of Rochester. It was put up by the Oakland Gas Light & Heat Company and absorbed into PG&E in 1919. It may have used waste steam from the Great Western Power Company plant just a block away.

I don’t know what was near this intersection in 1911. A streetcar line running on 22nd Street might have had a generator that fed this steam system. On Telegraph Avenue, there was the First Baptist church at 22nd and the YMCA apartment building on 21st that could have used this service. The system might have served the Paramount Theater when it was built in the 1930s.

The American District Steam Company was founded in 1881 in Lockport, New York. It survives as Adsco Manufacturing LLC in Buffalo, near its birthplace.

This entry was posted on 7 January 2024 at 5:14 pm and is filed under  Access covers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.