Situated on about seventy acres of "man-made" land, which was filled in from Lake Michigan. The plant is built directly on the Indiana side of the Indiana-Illinois border. The project first went underway with the permission from the United States government to fill in the lake, this was sought around the first part of 1924.

After receiving the necessary Federal and State permits, the first contracts for developing the site were awarded in May of 1925. In March 1926, the owner and operator of the generating station, the State Line Generation Company was incorporated. In September 1926, the order for generating Unit Number One was placed. On April 14th, 1928 the cornerstone of the building was laid. The first preliminary trial commercial operation took place on July 1st, 1929.

Unit Number One produced a total of 208,000 kilowatts of power. Making it the largest electrical production unit in operation anywhere in the world, upon its completion. The plant was originally planned to have five generating units for a total capacity of over one million kilowatts. When the building was first opened the power plant was about one fifth of its eventual size.

The facility's first generator, Unit Number One, built in 1929 was retired in 1978. A second generator Unit Number Two was built in 1938 and was taken out of service in 1979. The plant's current operating generators, Units Number Three and Four were put on line in 1955 and 1963 respectively. Total generating capacity is 490 megawatts, or enough to power 60,000 homes.

All of the power produced at building is sold to Commonwealth Edison Company for use in Chicago and it's surrounding cities and towns. None of the plants power is used by Hammond or any of its neighbors. The building was recently sold during the first half of this year to Southern Company of Atlanta for $68 million. The new owners have ambitious plans to refurbish the plants two operating generators and replacing the two decommissioned generators with two natural gas fired generators.

Construction of the Building:

Turbine Room trusses.

Boiler House lake view.

Interior of Boiler House.

The plant's original main building and main gate entrance is of the Renaissance Revival style of architecture. The building is quite an impressive site not only because of its sheer size, almost ten stores tall, the structure also contains many beautiful architectural details. Although the plant has been expanded over time, the main building and main entrance are largely intact from its original design.

NOTE: Photos and Artwork obtained from the Hammond Historical Society / Calumet Room.

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