RochesterSubway.com : Into the Incinerator

Into the Incinerator

March 3rd, 2014

Last week we looked at some photos of the Beebee Station power plant at High Falls. That post drew some comments about another interesting facility nearby which is sometimes confused with Beebee; the City’s old garbage incinerator plant on Falls Street .

Thanks to a group of intrepid urban explorers—Benjamin Colburn , Brandon Davis , Sean Galbraith , Andrew Hiltz , and Tom Maszerowski —we can take a look inside…

The original incinerator plant was built in 1911 by Decarie Incinerator Company of Minneapolis. The photo above shows the older facility which was demolished around 2012. The taller brick building and smoke stack that remain today (shown below) were built in the 1940s.

The plant was decommissioned and taken over by Delco (an automotive parts manufacturing subsidiary of General Motors) in the late 1950s, and eventually abandoned sometime around 1990.

PHOTO: Tom Maszerowski

According to this 1912 issue of Municipal Journal the incinerator first began operating in February, 1912…

This plant is of 60 tons capacity and is representative of the latest and most improved form of incinerator designed by this company. It is intended to handle rubbish only and is equipped with inclined conveyor from receiving floor to sorting room where the various salable rubbish is removed by pickers and deposited in bins the remainder passing by means of the same conveyor to and over the incinerator where it automatically dumps into a hopper and chute to the furnace.

PHOTO: Andrew Hiltz

Between the receiving floor and the incinerator room there is a baling room equipped with a motor driven baling machine in which the paper of various classes will be baled.

PHOTO: Sean Galbraith

In connection with the incinerator there is installed a 150 hp water tube boiler through which the combustion gases from the furnace pass and thence to the stack.

PHOTO: Tom Maszerowski

The power for motor driven conveyors and baling machines and for lighting the plant is purchased from a local electric lighting company at 2J4 cents per kilowatt hour and the steam produced has been contracted for by the same company at the rate of 10 cents per 1,000 lbs per hour.

PHOTO: Tom Maszerowski

PHOTO: Andrew Hiltz

PHOTO: Tom Maszerowski

In a 1915 survey and appraisal of City services, an account of the plant’s operations was written in great detail:

A plant for the burning of the rubbish was built in 1911, and put in operation early in 1912. It included, in addition to the burning or incineration, a provision for the reclamation of the valuable portions of the rubbish.

PHOTO: Tom Maszerowski

The conditions which must now be met by a rubbish plant in Rochester are as follows: It must handle all the rubbish from a population estimated to be about 240,000 consisting of paper, wood, leather, rags, old clothing, bedding, shoes, bottles, broken glass, empty cans, metal scrap, and other discarded trash which is not placed in the ash or garbage can. This material is collected daily from the business portion of the city throughout the year, and once per week from the residential section.

PHOTO: Andrew Hiltz

In addition to the above mentioned material a large quantity of rubbish classed as “trade waste” also finds its way to the plant. This material may be defined as the rubbish from the manufacturing plants, power houses, business buildings, large stores, warehouses, hotels, restaurants, etc., or in general, the rubbish from any place where it is produced in the regular course of a business conducted for profit. In 1914 the following amounts and classes of rubbish were handled by the plant:

Total weight received 10,392 tons
Material per 1,000 persons 43.3 tons
Total valuable portions reclaimed 3,146 tons
Percent reclaimed 30.3%
Material reclaimed per 1,000 persons 13.1 tons

PHOTO: Tom Maszerowski

The plant had three sections with three distinct functions: unloading/storage, sorting/baling, and incineration.

PHOTO: Andrew Hiltz

In the sorting & baling section trash was separated into items that could be reclaimed and sold, and rubbish to be burned. The 1915 report lists several materials that could be reclaimed including brass, copper, lead, zinc, iron, tin cans, pewter, aluminum, and glass.

PHOTO: Andrew Hiltz

Formerly bottles were separated and sold, but now they are broken and sold as broken glass. Shoes also were picked out, but there being no market for them, this is no longer done. The larger pieces of junk which are not valuable are thrown into a bin and later dropped into a wagon and hauled to a dumping place. The tin cans are the last thing picked out before the material leaves the sorting room. They are thrown on the supplementary conveyor and conveyed to the bin outside the building where they are stored until time for shipment.

PHOTO: Andrew Hiltz

The present method of shipping the cans loose in box cars is expensive both as to time in loading and space in the car. It has been suggested that they be baled but objection was raised to pressing the cans flat. It was claimed that the company which buys them cannot remove the tin. Further study may develop the possibility of partially flattening and baling by use of an automatic jaw press or rolls proposed by one of the officers. It is recommended that this matter be taken up with the purchaser and some better way of handling the cans devised.

PHOTO: Andrew Hiltz

The combustible rubbish which is not reclaimed passes out of
the section on the conveyor to the incineration section where it is burned.

PHOTO: Andrew Hiltz

The Incinerator section of the plant contains an incinerator furnace, boilers, and accessories in which, or by which, the nonvaluable combustible portions of the waste are burned, and the heat therefrom utilized in the generation of steam, which is used in the operation of the plant or sold to the Rochester Railway and Light Company. The conveyor from the sorting room rises on a steep incline to a point in the middle of the incinerator room some fifteen feet or more above the top of the furnace where it ends and the material drops into a chute which carries it to an opening at the top of the furnace where it is supposed to slide through automatic doors into the basket grate of the furnace proper. The hot gases generate steam both in the incinerator and in two boilers through which they pass on the way to the stack.

PHOTO: Andrew Hiltz

PHOTO: Tom Maszerowski

PHOTO: Brandon Davis

The survey went on to report on the benefits of the plant:

The physical results from the installation and operation of the rubbish plant have been the practical elimination of the paper and a great deal of the other rubbish from the dump more sanitary disposal thereof; the reclamation of large quantities of valuable material — as much as 3 per cent, of the total handled; land an improvement in the appearance of the city through the elimination of the unsightly portions of the refuse from the dumps.

PHOTO: Andrew Hiltz

PHOTO: Benjamin Colburn

It is to be noted that the amount of material delivered to the plant has increased over 20 per cent, in 1914 over what it was in 1913, and that the percentage reclaimed has increased 36 per cent. This is probably due to the more careful and thorough separation of the rubbish from the ashes, through the increased attention given by the field collection force, and to the more thorough picking and sorting at the refuse plant, all of which indicates an increase in efficiency.

PHOTO: Andrew Hiltz

PHOTO: Sean Galbraith

The survey also pointed to certain operations which should be improved:

The furnace room results leave much to be desired in several ways. First, the material does not feed into the furnace automatically, as the design originally intended it should. This necessitates the employment of a man in the top of the room where it is especially hot, dusty and smoky. The conditions are so bad in the summer time that few men are able to stand the work for long periods at a time.

PHOTO: Andrew Hiltz

Second, the material is not completely burned, and it is possible for material to be raked out without having passed through the fire for a long enough period to sterilize it.

PHOTO: Sean Galbraith

Third, the stoking and removal of partly burned material from the grates to wheelbarrows brings a large amount of dirt on to the floor, and brings smoke into the room.

PHOTO: Flickr, chammoudeh

Fourth, the nuisance of a burning dump is not eliminated, although it has been reduced very greatly.

PHOTO: Brandon Davis

Fifth, the apparent low temperature of combustion, and the lack of complete combustion, make it possible for odors to pass through the furnace without being eliminated, although this trouble will be but seldom experienced in such a plant.

PHOTO: Andrew Hiltz

Operational issues aside, the same report noted that the plant more than paid for itself and recommended adding additional furnace units.

14 Responses to “Into the Incinerator”

kmannkoopa says:

March 3, 2014 at 8:16 am

So, they recycled (reclaimed) and resold 30% of the total waste, do we recycle that much today?
Christopher Brandt says:

March 3, 2014 at 8:51 am

Great article and photos Mike! I’m sad to know that they tore down the 1912 building. I went in there 3-4 years ago, the building had great light and location.
Christopher Brandt says:

March 3, 2014 at 8:54 am

On another note…it was a cutting edge convenience to have your own incinerator built into your home in the late 1920s. My c.1928 Teekorator (manufactured in Rochester) is still present in my basement and feeds directly into the chimney.
RochesterSubway.com says:

March 3, 2014 at 9:26 am

Thanks Christopher. At the rate these tear downs are going, I’d give the the newer building 5 years to live, at most.
David Hutchinson says:

March 3, 2014 at 7:10 pm

Thanks for posting the article and great pictures. I remember that there was also a city incinerator on Culver Rd near Humboldt St many years ago. My family would occasionally take stuff there that wasn’t picked up on our regular trash day. Any info on that incinerator?
Zach Dumrese says:

March 3, 2014 at 8:22 pm

Very cool article.

I thought I heard/read somewhere a few years back that this building is loaded with asbestos, making disposal/demolition very expensive. I was always under the impression that the city would rather let it sit than pay for expensive disposal….?
Tom Maszerowski says:

March 4, 2014 at 5:00 pm

It’s worth noting that the garage building and the building I found the “Worthington” in have both been demolished. The incinerator remains, however, probably because of the asbestos and general contamination from burning garbage.

And if you’re going to visit, I’ve been aware I’m not alone every time I’ve been there so keep that in mind.
Nick Fiocca says:

March 15, 2014 at 10:12 am

Does anyone have pictures of the giant hole in the floor in the old warehouse that went 2, maybe 3 floors down?
Schiff says:

June 27, 2014 at 11:09 am

Tom, when you say that you’ve been aware you’re not alone…could you provide more details? I fully expect to encounter plenty of used needles and what not. My last walk down I was greeted by some tougher looking people nearby but being alone I opted not to enter the remaining structure. Still, curiosity is definitely getting the best of me.
Tom says:

June 27, 2014 at 2:36 pm

One time, I actually saw a couple of people but they didn’t bother me (nor I them) and they simply moved somewhere else. Other times, I could hear but not see that someone was near but again, no issues.

I make a habit of making enough noise to announce my presence so that I never surprise anyone. I also never take anything as souvenirs or disturb what appears to be someone’s sleeping area.
Jazz says:

November 7, 2014 at 5:38 pm

I actually have a few awesome photos taken (mostly of me in one of the windows, atop the crane head) from exploring this place a few months back!

I’m glad to see others appreciate the abandoned structures around Rochester as much as I do.
Tim Roy says:

January 10, 2016 at 11:40 am

I too recall the incinerator at Culver and Humbolt. A very intimidating structure to pass each day on the way to school. My family lived on the block of Culver that was razed for the construction of the then ‘new’ East High..when the wind was blowing in the right direction, our houses, cars and ourselves were covered with ash from the incinerator. I was glad to move out in 1959 to the comparatively ‘upscale’ North side of Main St.
dave says:

January 19, 2021 at 9:04 am

Really nice, even 7 years later. Thank you
guy says:

May 21, 2022 at 9:56 pm

still good to go in 2022 but it is nothing like the photos anymore and basically the entire place is tagged

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