Georgetown Steam Plant Video Archives
Join regular tour guide and City Light Sr. Resource Planner Mike Aronowitz for an interesting overview usually provided at the beginning of every tour, including history of a fast-growing Seattle in the early 20th century, the innovative architecture and construction of the building, and the role its builder and designer played as a pioneer of time and motion studies in America.
This video series is made possible through donations given by visitors of the Georgetown Steam Plant. Seattle City Light thanks filmmakers Angela Bernardoni and Derek Johnson for their special dedication to this project and also to the wonderful volunteer docents for generously sharing their knowledge and time.
Learn how technological innovation weaves and advances throughout the steam plant and over the years with this informative presentation by volunteer docent Greg A., who shares his passion for the engineering involved via the final turbine installed in the plant in 1917.
Set against a bank of west facing windows, two monuments to innovation loom large; these are two of the only Curtis Vertical Steam Turbines left in place in the world. Join electrical engineer and volunteer docent Kelsey W. to learn more about the context in which they were created, how they work, and other special features of the engine room.
Electrical engineer and volunteer docent Kelsey W. illuminates the history of how electricity spread across the nation in the 1800s, the people leading the innovations making it possible, and the emergence of hydropower.