Home > Montana > Great Falls vicinity > Morony Hydroelectric Facility, Dam and Powerhouse, Morony Dam Road, Great Falls, Cascade County, MT
Item Title
Morony Hydroelectric Facility, Dam and Powerhouse, Morony Dam Road, Great Falls, Cascade County, MT
LocationMorony Dam Road,
Great Falls vicinity, MT
Find maps of Great Falls, MT
Created/Published
Documentation compiled after 1968.
Notes
Survey number HAER MT-135-B
Building/structure dates:
1929 initial construction
Significance: It is significant as a very-well preserved example of design concepts common to the era standardization in US history of hydroelectric development (ca. 1929-1930). Design concepts reflected by the plant include the integration of the dam, powerhouse, and water intake system into a single structure; the use of fewer but much larger turbine-generators then in previous eras; and the location of a plant's transformers and gantry crane outside of instead of inside the powerhouse. In addition to the main turbine-generator units, the exciters, governors, transformers, and other hydroelectric equipment at the plant were state-of-the-art technologies for the time. The Dam and Powerhouse also derives the significance as an outstanding refection of an industrial structure rendered in the Art Deco style.
Subjects
Art Deco Architectural ElementsDamsHydroelectric Power Plants
Collection
Historic American Engineering Record (Library of Congress)
Contents
Photograph caption(s):
Context view of Morony Dam and Powerhouse, view to southeast
Overview of Powerhouse interior showing exciter units on generating floor, view to west
Motor-generator exciter unit 1, view to southeast
Motor-generator exciter unit 2, view to south
Turbine-exciter unit. Exciter at center, modern replacement governor at right and retired governor at left, view to west
Exciter turbine pit
Detail of exciter turbine showing shaft, scroll case, servo-motor and operating ring (left foreground) and hand wheel for butterfly valve (right background)
Overview of transformer platform showing three original step-up transformer (center), steel switchback (right), and modern step-down transformer (foreground), view to northwest
Close up of original step-up transformers (left) and steel switchback (right), view to northwest
Detail of original step-up transformer tank, view to west-northwest
Detail of original step-up transformer showing high-tension bushing on top of tank and oil tank to left, view to north-northwest
View of transformer platform from Powerhouse roof showing oil tank at original step-up transformer (center of foreground) and steel switchback (background), view to north-northeast
Detail of original step-up transformer showing water discharge pipe and rail supports
Modern step-up transformer, view to northwest
Modern step-down transformer, view to north
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