Saying Goodbye to Hawley Powerhouse
Hawley Powerhouse, August 29, 2008
Hawley Powerhouse, a 1916 structure that comprises part of the head dam around Willamette Falls and now belongs to Portland General Electric, is being decommissioned and disassembled under an order of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, starting in July 2008.
As we enter Labor Day Weekend, the powerhouse has been taken down to its 'mezzanine'--an interior walkway with a wood railing all around the internal perimeter. Work to take the 1906 hand-fitted trusses out was staged from the lower river, with a large ship-mounted crane.
PGE generously allowed Willamette Falls Heritage Foundation to stage a commemorative heritage/art event at the powerhouse on July 26-27. The foundation and its PGE hosts supervised nearly 20 fine artists, capturing images of the site over the course of two days. Those talented painters, photographers, film and print makers will be working on their images for a winter 2008 collection.
Hawley Powerhouse sat next to PGE's Station A--the site of the first long-distance transmission of direct current in the nation--from 1916 to 1965, when Station A was demolished. The concrete foundations and rusting exterior metalworks of the two historic hydropower stations will be all that remains of that unique part of Oregon electrical history.