I wrote about this last fall, see Save the Smokestack. The smokestack is coming down this Saturday, all 556 feet of it. The coal burning high bridge plant is not longer in service and has been replaced by a gas burning plant that fired up last winter.
The stack is a landmark of sorts. I use it to find my way home. Like my next door neighbor I find the blinking lights on the top of the stack oddly comforting. I have lived in it’s shadow since 1982.
It is a shame that it can not be saved and mader into some kind of a monument. Like I said last fall, we preserve grain elevators and tiny homes that were built in the mid 1800′s why would we demolish a landmark? The stack is 556 feet tall and can be seen for miles. It is also a home for the peregrine falcons. (See the live cam)
I think we are making a mistake by tearing it down.
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I agree, it is a shame it can’t be saved.
Aloha,
Keahi
I too am very sad to find out that this smokestack will be destroyed. I love Saint Paul and have finally moved here. That smokestack is in my front yard! It is a beautiful landmark and its a shame that it couldn’t be saved. If I were the type, I would lay down at its base in protest…
Some people totally love st paul and some people just don’t appreciate it’s history or know the area that well, but the people that do love this area. These are some nice quality photos
I live on the West Side and drive past the smokestack at least twice a day, and honestly, I have mixed emotions about Xcel demolishing it. I’ve toured a coal plant before and it is pretty interesting. Part of me thinks the high bridge plant would make an excellent space for something educational, like an energy museum. Regardless, the building has some historical significance to the city itself. But another part of me thinks that people won’t miss it nearly as much as they think once they see how the landscape looks without it. Xcel’s Web site has an artist’s rendition of the post-demolition plans for the area: http://www.xcelenergy.com/XLWEB/CDA/0,3080,1-1-1_27620_22655_23912-20543-0_0_0-0,00.html
So did they decide to implode it? The Villager reported less than a week ago that it was still undecided how to demolish it…. Thats a surprisingly short amount of time to plan it and prepare the neighbors for what will probably feel like a small earthquake!!!
As for the decision to keep it or remove it , I have to go against the grain and say I won’t miss it one bit. I have a fondness for historic and architecturally significant structures, but I find the giganic smokestack so visually offensive that I might just have to do a happy dance on the high bridge on sunday morning.
When I walk past this site on the river and look toward St. Paul I am always amazed that there is not fifty people fighting over the development of this site. It is the prettiest part of the Mississippi and would make a great outdoor dining or anything else that would take advantage of the view. I am disappointed at our lack of imaginative leadership right now in St. Paul.
The smokestack is far prettier than its protected, ugly little brother, the grain elevator, about a mile downstream. Why the heck can’t they blow them both up?
When I walk past this site on the river and look toward St. Paul I am always amazed that there is not fifty people fighting over the development of this site. It is the prettiest part of the Mississippi and would make a great outdoor dining or anything else that would take advantage of the view. I am disappointed at our lack of imaginative leadership right now in St. Paul.
The smokestack is far prettier than its protected, ugly little brother, the grain elevator, about a mile downstream. Why the heck can’t they blow them both up?
Judy – they are going to turn the grain elevator into a resturant. You are so right about the land, it is a beautiful part of the river.
Chris – I have read all over the place that it will be imploded. That is what the xcel site says. I can here Jack hammers down there almost constantly this week. No one really communicates with us on this part of the bluff so I could be wrong.
Nick I have seen the artists rendition. I will miss the building too. I guess I am just confused about how we approach preservation.
Sharee – happy that you are not going to lay down at it’s base, I really hate to lose neighbors that way!
Thanks Ron, I love taking pictures of the river at night. Heck I love looking at the river.
Though I’m not living is such a place I find it really beautiful.. it was just a pity that a historical and a wonderful place like that will be just destroy. Is there anything that people of that place can do to keep it preserved? I like the looks of the river and the lights they are very relaxing..
One good thing is that you now have photos of it and the the it was.