After the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company flipped the switch on its sprawling new Avon Lake site in 1926, the brick behemoth, then one of the world’s largest coal-fired power plants, helped usher in a new era of regional economic growth in northeastern Ohio. Nearly a century later, the plant sits dismantled and disconnected. It was shut down in 2022, and just one of its six towering smokestacks remains. The proposed cleanup and redevelopment of this ossified power plant joins a growing collection of such projects across the nation. The sites were so decayed, community members considered them a blemish.

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Organizations: Cleveland Electric Locations: Avon, Ohio, Lake Erie, Hell