Buildings that heated with coal

Many of the older buildings in my region burned coal at one time. Buildings in the 1950's were still being design to burn coal. However, natural gas came through the region in the 1960's and most buildings were converted. Over the years, most of the evidence that the buildings burned coal has been remove. Occassionaly, some equipment has been abandoned in place.

Here are some photos of one such building. It is an elementary school in Western NY built in 1949.

Dual coal bin doors as seen from the road.


Inside of the coal bin. Note door at near ceiling. Ceiling mounted electrified hoist to was move coal to boilers.


Boiler draft guages and control panels mouned on wall.


Inside of a typical draft motor control panel in a sister building.


Motor damper on boiler breeching. This regulated the draft in lieu of a barometric damper.


Old and new draft controls in sister building.


Ash was removed through a hoist shaft in the boiler room with another hoist.


Outside of building showing hoist shaft and chimney. Note the tall chimney was to keep not only good draft, but keep smoke out of the neighborhood.

The area where I grew up in NW Colorado had a number of Schools, churches etc. that used coal into the '90's. Coal to gas conversions for Schools etc. are still going on in small remote towns around here. In 2007 the last remaining university on coal in this state converted to gas....I bet they cringe at their heating costs since the conversion.

My very first memory of coal is as a child in elementary school growing up in the Bronx, NYC. I vividly remember coal (probably bit) being delivered to the school in the big truck, going down the chute, into someplace I never saw. Boy, that stuff was dirty ... however, I grew up and now I am burning coal!

Thanks for posting the photos!

The asbestos caught my eye!

snuffy wrote:The asbestos caught my eye!

You stole my thunder!!!!

envisage wrote:My very first memory of coal is as a child in elementary school growing up in the Bronx, NYC. I vividly remember coal (probably bit) being delivered to the school in the big truck, going down the chute, into someplace I never saw. Boy, that stuff was dirty ... however, I grew up and now I am burning coal!

NYC schools burned anthracite. I saw an article on the news there once where they were saying that there are several schools that are still burning coal. This was during the late 90's.

you need a blind eye

You can't judge a book by the cover. This is not the orginal boiler in the building you are looking at. I believe the breeching was abated and re-covered with a calcium silicate product in the 1990's. The covering is a painted cloth. In any case, a independent agency is hired to test all suspect materials for asbestos and the asbestos is abated prior to construction. There were over 3000 products that used asbestos. Not only insulation, but caulk, gaskets, adhesives, roof products, siding, floor tile and the list goes on. You can't tell by looking at it, it has to be tested.

Amazing that some of us have lived through the asbestos & lead paint era did we really put a man on the moon

I agree asbestos has been overly vilified by the lawers but on the other hand, I lost a cousin last year to Mesothelioma. He was 55. We suspect he got it from brake pad dust from the airplanes he worked on when he was in the Air Force in is younger years.

envisage wrote:My very first memory of coal is as a child in elementary school growing up in the Bronx, NYC...

Ha! I have a clear memory of my fifth grade teacher on Staten Island going over our spelling words for the week, including Anthracite, Bituminous, and Lignite.
She explained that anthracite was the best grade of coal, and burned very cleanly with little smoke or soot, and that it was used to heat our school.
This was in the 1970s.

I also lived very near a different school of the same age, and remember the racket, through the 1990s, early every morning on "garbage days," when the custodians would winch a couple dozen ash cans up to the sidewalk for the garbagemen to take away.
I don't know whether that school is still heated with coal, but it sure was then!

- Eric

samhill wrote:Don't let anybody kid you Steamup, asbestos is terrible, almost lost my job over it.

Don't get me wrong, Asbestos is a health hazzard and must be handled accordingly. However, the uneducated want you to think that if you touch the stuff, you will die. Regulations are becomming more realistic with the non-friable asbestos materials. The Liars, oops, I mean Lawyers are moving on. The new mantra in the legal world is "mold is gold". You can see where this is headed.