The Fulton Park power house, date unknown. The building is oriented east-west and the photographer is looking south-easterly. The track south to the cemeteries passes by the front of the power house, where a track also entered the car barn. The car seems to be on a wye that ran west of the facility, with the other leg running along Miles Street. This wye potentially also provided a direct connection to the Oregon & California railroad for freight transfer.
This substantial two-story building was constructed to store and service cars and to power the Metropolitan Railway Company’s pioneering Fulton Park line in 1889.
Getting fuel and water to the plant was always a problem, and it was supplemented by power from the East Side Railway’s power house at the Inman–Poulsen Mill as early as April 1892. By 1894, the Fulton Park power house was only used when the main Union power station was not operating. Finally, much of the electrical machinery was moved to the City & Suburban’s Inman–Poulsen plant in 1897 as power operations were consolidated into larger, central facilities.
The property is mentioned as “the power-house at Fulton Park and plant” in the November 1900 transfer of the Second-street line from the Metropolitan Railroad Company to the City & Suburban, so it seems that the building lasted at least that long, if not the contents.