The name of a
Baltimore building that has seen a variety of uses in its
century of existence.
After three railroad companies merged to form the United Railways and Electric Company, a new source of electricity was needed to power the cars that would traverse over 300 miles of streetcar tracks. A new power plant was begun in 1900 directly on the Inner Harbor, was built in three pieces, and was completed in 1909. The plant was purchased in 1921 by Consolidated Gas and Electric Light and Power, the company that would later become Baltimore Gas and Electric, and was used to heat downtown buildings until 1973.
The Power Plant sat idle until City of Baltimore purchased the building in 1979, and in the 1980s it was used as an "urban theme park" operated by Six Flags. When that project failed, the space was used as a nightclub for a few years, but that also closed down.
Once again the building on Pier 4 was quiet for several years, throughout most of the 1990s. In 1998, the "new" Power Plant opened as home to several major retail chains. The building currently houses an ESPN Zone, Hard Rock Cafe restaurant, and Barnes and Noble bookstore. Its four smokestacks have now been partially obscured by a large guitar bearing the Hard Rock Cafe logo.
Source: http://www.ce.jhu.edu/mdcive/power.htm