Venice Power Plant
Venice, Illinois

The Venice Power Plant sits on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River, upstream from the plant at Cahokia, and startlingly close to the approach to the McKinley Bridge.

The plant opened in 1942. Converted to oil in the late 1970s, its capacity dropped off in the 1980s, but was reconditioned and reopened in 1995. Today it is owned and operated by Ameren.

Somewhere around 2003, the plant lost its towering smokestacks. They are distantly visible in a photograph of the Carr School I took from the City Museum around 2001, and again in a 2001 shot from my East St. Louis wanderings. The lopped-off stubs of the stacks are still visible from the east.