VICTORY PARK WATERFALL HISTORY, Part 3

We continue with our series about the history of the Victory Park waterfall. After the Red Mill on E. Erie St. closed around the turn of the century, the Albion Electric Light Company purchased the property and converted the mill for generating electric power. The Commonwealth Power Company purchased the Albion Electric Light Company in 1905.

In September, 1905, the Commonwealth Power Company embarked on an up-grade of the Victory Park dam and raceway in order insure an adequate flow of water to its generating plant. It entered into a contract with local contractor George E. Dean (1872-1932) to perform the work. Work commenced on September 7 of that year. An 1896 graduate of Albion College, George Dean of course was later president of Union Steel Products, but before that he was a local contractor and had laid the first concrete sidewalks in Albion with the date of 1901 on them.

The Albion Recorder reported on September 14, 1905: "The new dam that George Dean is building for the electric people will not be any higher than the old one and property owners along the river need not worry about an overflow. The new dam is to be built over the old one and the entire work will be in cement. Yesterday the water being let out of the race, the rocks below the dam were converted into regular fish traps. Many large fish were taken by hand out of the shallow water in the rocks below the dam."

The former Red Mill burned in a spectacular blaze on June 30, 1913 and was subsequently replaced by a new generation station many of us remember as the Consumer’s Power building at the entrance to the Market Place.

From our Historical Notebook this week we present an unusual photo of the Victory Park dam, circa 1907, with very little water flowing over it. That’s because when this photo was taken, the water was being diverted into the raceway leading to the E. Erie St. generating plant. The flow of the raceway was controlled by the adjacent gates north of the waterfall which are still there today. Boys are playing below the waterfall in this photograph. How many of our readers have been to the Victory Park waterfall?

	Frank Passic — Albion Historian An Albion native and 1971 graduate of Albion High School, Frank Passic has been researching and writing Albion history since 1976. He is the creator of the Albion Historical Notebook, with hundreds of articles appearing weekly in the Morning Star and The Recorder. Frank maintains an extensive personal archive including Riverside Cemetery records, family surname files, genealogies, photographs, city directories, and high school yearbooks. Support his 2026 research at the Historic Albion Michigan Facebook page. Historical Notebook \| From the Archives \| Subject List \| 100 Years Ago \| Alphabetical Index \| Frank Passic Home Page \| Albion History Books \| Contact Frank
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