Wayne County Training School

Photo: Northville Historical Society

Heating Plant and Power Generation

Marcus Burrowes with improvments by Aaron Gould

The Boiler House, also known as the Powerhouse was designed by Marcus Robinson Burrowes with renovations by Aaron Gould. It was located in the far northeast section of the property and there was a trail that led to the east that went down to Hines Park. The trail is still there and is now a paved path that goes from Hines Park to the far northeast corner of the housing development. The spot that the Powerhouse was on was back filled and built up. If it was still there it would be mostly buried below street level. The area behind the powerhouse is now a couple of retention ponds. This area was probably contaminated with decades of coal ash. The Powerhouse provided essential services that included heat and electricity. It contained three coal burning ovens that were used to generate steam from the water supplied by the one million gallon Reservoir that was located nearby to the west. The Powerhouse was built into a hillside with the back half (north) being about 30 feet tall and the front half (south) being about 20 feet tall. Coal burning ovens took up about 2/3rd's of the back half leaving a large open space on the east side. There was a large hopper/elevator outside of the oven room that coal was loaded into that fed the ovens. There was no evidence of a rail line leading to the Powerhouse so coal was most likely delivered by trucks. The west part of the back half had a fan room and a loading dock door facing to the west. There were stairs that led to the top floor where there was another room that had a loading dock door facing the north. The roof was accessible by climbing ladders and catwalks that were built around the ovens. Once on top of the ovens there was another large hopper with a conveyor belt. From there you could get out onto the roof. Vintage photos show the smokestack and an enclosure that was on top of the roof. The smokestack was demolished in the early 1970's before the school closed. The enclosure on the roof was there until the late 1980s when it was destroyed. The front (south) half was two stories tall and was an open floor plan design. It had a tool crib located in the southwest corner by the main entrance. The back part had a balcony that you could look down into the lower half behind the ovens. The floor space was cleared of equipment but most likely had generators for electricity. There were two ice machines (shown on the 1942 map) possibly cool the dynamos.