One of two power stations constructed in the early 1890s close to the Inman & Poulsen Company’s sawmill to take advantage of the cheap and plentiful fuel (mainly refuse from the mill) and water there. This one was located in the lumber yard to the east of the mill – at the nominal southwest corner of SW Third and Sherman – and was founded by the East Side Railway Company in May 1892.
By 1896, the plant was only operated when auxiliary power was required. However, the machinery from the old Fulton Park power house was transplanted here in 1897.
The plant is shown on a 1901 Sanborn map as belonging to the Portland General Electric Company, and is named as “the Electric Company’s power-house” in a March 26, 1897 article about a storm cutting power to the city. [When did ownership pass from the East Side Railway to PGE?]
In January 1903, the machinery from the plant was taken out and moved to a new power house at Boring to power the Oregon Water Power & Railway Co.’s Cazadero line until the power house at the Faraday Dam was completed.