Stairs Station Hydroelectric Power Plant Historic District

The Stairs Station Hydroelectric Power Plant was built in 1894-1895 in Big Cottonwood Canyon, about 8mi southeast of Salt Lake City, Utah. The plant comprises the powerhouse, switchyard, penstocks, and a pipeline. A dam next to the site is associated with the Granite Power Plant farther downstream, and is part of neither historic district. The powerhouse is the only remaining building associated with the plant. It is an example of an intact high-head generating plant from the late 19th century.HistoryThe station was designed by Robert M. Jones for his Big Cottonwood Power Company at a cost of $325,000. In 1895 the company contracted to provide power to the Salt Lake and Ogden Gas and Electric Company, In 1897 the Big Cottonwood company was absorbed into the Union Light and Power Company in 1899. An operator's house was demolished on the site at an unknown date.DescriptionThe power plant was originally built with four Pelton wheels, since replaced by a single Francis turbine capable of generating 1.2 megawatts. The station was designed in the Second Renaissance Revival style with two levels, the lower housing the generating equipment, the upper formerly housing switchgear.Until the late 1950s water was impounded behind the Storm Mountain Dam, built in 1921 to replace an earlier dam about 2500ft above the station horizontally and 200ft vertically. The dam is a low earthfill structure, about 10ft to 20ft high and 500ft long, concrete faced on the upstream side. A 1200ft steel pipeline, now abandoned, connected the dam to a penstock that made the fall to the power plant. The penstock is about 1750ft long, made of.5in steel, with a non-contributing standpipe at its head