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West Virginia » Eastern Panhandle » Berkeley County » Scrabble Vicinity » Dam No. 4, Hydroelectric Plant

Dam No. 4, Hydroelectric Plant

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1909. At the north end of Berkeley County 5/7, 1 mile north of the intersection with Berkeley County 5 at Scrabble
  • Dam No. 4, Hydroelectric Plant (Jet Lowe, Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record (HABS/HAER), National Park Service, taken between 1981 and 1991)

The first dam at this site was built in the 1830s as part of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal. A rock-filled timber crib, it was replaced in 1860 by the present stone dam. In 1909 a stone-faced hydroelectric plant was built into the south abutment. Inside, rope turbines still power the electric generators. The power system was considered state of the art at the turn of the century but has been superseded in most plants still remaining from that time.

Writing Credits

Author: 
S. Allen Chambers Jr.
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Data

What's Nearby

Dam 4
Swearingen House
National Conservation Training Center, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Bellevue (Van Swearingen House, Shepherd House)
Log Houses

Citation

S. Allen Chambers Jr., "Dam No. 4, Hydroelectric Plant", [Shepherdstown, West Virginia], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/WV-01-BE36.

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