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Power House (Alcatraz)

1939 establishments in CaliforniaAlcatraz Island
Alcatraz Outside 13
Alcatraz Outside 13

The Power House is an electrical supply building on the northwest coast of Alcatraz Island, off the coast of San Francisco, USA. It was constructed in 1939 for $186,000 as part of a $1.1 million modernization scheme which also included the water tower, New Industries Building, officers quarters and remodeling of the D-block. The white powerhouse smokestack and lighthouse were said to give an "appearance of a ship's mast on either side of the island". "A Warning. Keep Off. Only Government permitted within 200 yards" sign lay in front of the powerhouse to deter people landing on the island at the point. Between 1939 and 1963 it supplied power to the Federal Penitentiary and other buildings on the island. The powerhouse had a tower duty station which was guarded with a "30-caliber Winchester rifle with 50 rounds of ammunition, a Colt .45 semiautomatic pistol with three seven-round magazines, three gas grenades, and a gas mask."

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Power House (Alcatraz) (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Power House (Alcatraz)
Alcatraz Wharf, San Francisco

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 37.828055555556 ° E -122.42444444444 °
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Alcatraz Island (Alcatraz)

Alcatraz Wharf
94123 San Francisco
California, United States
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nps.gov

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Alcatraz Outside 13
Alcatraz Outside 13
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Nearby Places

Model Industries Building
Model Industries Building

The Model Industries building or Industries Building is a three/four-story building on the northwest corner of Alcatraz Island off the coast of San Francisco, USA. This building was originally built by the U.S. military and was used as a laundry building until the New Industries Building was built as part of a redevelopment program on Alcatraz in 1939 when it was a federal penitentiary. As part of the Alcatraz jail, it held workshops for inmates to work in. On January 10, 1935, the building shifted to within 2.5 feet from the edge of the cliff following a landslide caused by a severe storm. The warden at the time, James A. Johnston, proposed to extend the seawall next to it and asked the Bureau for $6500 to fund it. He would later claim to dislike the building because it was irregularly shaped. A smaller, cheaper riprap was completed by the end of 1935.A guard tower and a catwalk from Hill Tower was added to the roof of the Industries Building in June 1936 and the building was made secure with bars from old cells to bar the windows and grill the roof ventilators and to prevent inmates from escaping from the roof. It ceased use as a laundry in 1939 when it was moved to the upper floor of the New Industries Building. Today the building is heavily rusted due decades of exposure to the salt air and wind and the Hill Tower no longer exists. The guard tower formerly located on top of the building now sits across from the Power plant where it is on display.

June 1962 Alcatraz escape attempt
June 1962 Alcatraz escape attempt

In June 1962, inmates Clarence Anglin, John Anglin, and Frank Morris escaped from Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, a maximum-security prison located on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. Late on the night of June 11 or early morning of June 12, the three men tucked papier-mâché heads resembling their own likenesses into their beds, broke out of the main prison building via ventilation ducts and an unused utility corridor, and departed the island aboard an improvised inflatable raft to an uncertain fate. A fourth conspirator, Allen West, failed in his escape attempt and remained on the island. Hundreds of leads were pursued by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and local law enforcement officials in the ensuing years, but no conclusive evidence has ever surfaced favoring the success or failure of the attempt. Numerous theories of widely varying plausibility have been proposed by authorities, reporters, family members, and amateur enthusiasts. In 1979 the FBI officially concluded, on the basis of circumstantial evidence and a preponderance of expert opinion, that the men drowned in the frigid waters of San Francisco Bay without reaching the mainland. The U.S. Marshals Service case file remains open and active, however, and Morris and the Anglin brothers remain on its wanted list.New circumstantial and material evidence has continued to surface, stoking new debates on whether the inmates managed to survive.