A Fond Farewell to the Powerhouse

After the powerhouse was built in 1921, the coal trucks have lumbered up the entrance hill, dumped the boiler’s sole diet, then rattled down the hill empty. Whether it was late at night or early in the morning when the attending man opened the boiler door, it was always hungry for more fuel. We were not always delivered the high quality Blue Gem coal, which burned down to a fine ash and was mined in several areas in south-eastern Kentucky. Some cheaper deliveries burned down to large clinkers that were troublesome to handle. If a clinker got lodged behind the firebox, there was labor to pay to dislodge it before serious damage developed. Senior adviser Joey Edelen tells this story: “When we lived in the cottage ner the old laundry, (now the apartments), my dad (Paul) was the plant manager. One of his main concerns in the winter was keeping the boiler operating. One day he attached a trigger and electric wire to the powerhouse door, strung the wire across the campus to his bedroom, ending the line with a small light bulb. When the unfortunate fellow attending the furnace in the wee hours of the morning opened the boiler door, the light would come on in Dad’s bedroom, and he knew that he didn’t have to leave his warm bed to fill in for the absent attendant.”

By November 1922 the F.A. Clegg and Co. from Louisville had installed an electric pump, complete Durham Heating System for the Academy, convent and church, an Aldnich V Vertical Triplex Utility Pump connected to seven cisterns and the kitchen pipes and three fire hydrants. The water pipe from “Lake Mary” to the powerhouse was eventually laid with Thomas M. Egan in charge. Kewanee Oiler and Canton Stoker and Conveyor Co. installed a new boiler in the fall of 1975. This was in addition to the two old boilers that were still to be used for standby. Most of us can clearly remember the clanging and banging of the cold pipes when the locomotive head of steam came rushing through them into the radiators to take the chill off the convent rooms. The early morning roaring of the process left no need for an alarm clock.

The original smokestack was replaced in 1934 by W. L. McClellan and Son from Springfield, Ky. It was constructed of brick and concrete. It stood 100 feet from grade to top with a diameter of 7 feet, 4 inches at the bottom and 4 feet, 8 inches at the top. There was a flue opening 3 feet by 4 inches from bottom to top. The carefully constructed building and smokestack which were conscientiously improved, repaired and maintained over the years were demolished this past September by Marion County Welding and Fabrication Company of Lebanon, Ky. They took great care to remove the white cross on the front of the building where it was embedded into the brick structure. The cross and a foot or two of the brick wall was sandwiched between a heavy board frame held together by large screws. The whole piece was separated from the wall, gently lowered to the ground and hauled away to storage for perhaps another project later. Joey assured me that neither he nor his dad will have any separation anxieties with the exit of the necessary but worrisome powerhouse, which outlived its usefulness, was full of asbestos and was a liability.