Armory Rolling Mill

IN 1854, A ROLLING MILL FOR THE HARPERS FERRY ARMORY was erected on the site of the present Potomac Power Plant. The mill was described as "146 by 45 feet, one story of 16½ feet, built of brick, on stone foundation, covered with slate." This mill contained two tilt-hammers, two reverberatory furnaces, one forge, two train of rollers, and a set of large shears used to roll "scrap iron into bars of suitable sizes for use in the shops." [View images of the Harpers Ferry Armory].

Harpers Ferry Paper Company

On October 22, 1884, Thomas H. Savery of Wilmington, Delaware, purchased the old Musket Factory site from the government at a public auction for $25,100. He outbid the B&O Railroad for the property by $100. He also purchased the property known as Hall’s Rifle Works along the Shenandoah River adjacent to Virginius Island for $810. In 1890, on the former site of the Armory’s Rolling Mill, Savery erected the Harpers Ferry Paper Company – a sister mill to the Shenandoah Pulp Company which he had just completed on his other property.

Water supplied from the Armory Canal drove 10 turbines – eight 36-inch "New American" wheels on horizontal shafts and two 27½-inch "Improved Success" wheels on vertical shafts. These turbines powered disc barkers, wood pulp grinders, shaking screens, and wet press machines which rolled "Spruce Ground Wood Pulp" into thick sheets which were bundled and sold to paper mills.

Two more turbines were subsequently installed to generate electricity. In 1910, a Dayton Globe Co. (New American) vertical turbine was installed. This wheel developed 330 horsepower, and, in 1912, was attached to a new 240 KW General Electric generator. In 1923, a 900 horsepower S. Morgan Smith vertical turbine was installed in the pulp mill, also for the purpose of generating electricity. These wheels were leased to the Harpers Ferry Electric Light and Power Company. [Learn more about waterpower at Harpers Ferry].

Potomac Power Plant

On January 15, 1925, at 3:00 a.m., the Harpers Ferry Paper Company was destroyed by fire, and pulp making operations at the mill ceased. However, the building walls withstood the conflagration, and a "power plant was immediately rebuilt" on the pulp mill foundations. The reconstructed building, which became known as the Harpers Ferry Hydro Plant, was significantly smaller that the original pulp mill.

The 240 KW GE generator was salvaged and, in 1925, a new 600 KW General Electric generator was installed and attached to the 900 horsepower S. Morgan Smith turbine. For the next several decades, this small hydro plant generated electricity for Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, Brunswick, Maryland, and several other nearby communities.

In 1973, the Dayton Globe turbine dating from 1910 and the 240 KW GE generator attached to it were retired from service by the Potomac Edison Company. The generator was subsequently removed from the building. In January 1991, the S. Morgan Smith turbine and 600 KW GE generator attached to it were also retired, and the power plant closed. Potomac Edison subsequently sold the S. Morgan Smith turbine, and in April 1995 the turbine was removed from the site. The development of waterpower at Harpers Ferry, spanning more than two centuries, had finally come to an end.