It was sited near the south branch of the Chicago River to provide access to water for steam and barge traffic for coal, and closed down in 2012.

[1] Fisk's original Unit 1 was an 11,000 horsepower - 5000 kilowatt (or 5 million watt abbreviated 5 MW) steam turbo-generator built by the General Electric Company, whose Chairman Charles A. Coffin initially balked at the size requested by Insull.

It was far larger than any other steam turbine built up to that date, the next biggest being a 1,500 kilowatt Westinghouse unit installed by the Hartford Electric Light Company[2] around 1900.

The original 5 MW turbine (1903)[4] was returned to the Schenectady, New York headquarters of General Electric, "where it stands today as a monument to engineering genius."

Electrical World, a trade magazine, waxed eloquently in 1908 on the plant's long standing significance: "No article can do justice to the care and thought bestowed on it, or to the completeness and beauty of the whole.

It is a great cathedral, devoted to the religion of power, and a feeling of worship is inspired by the gigantic machines, the towering walls, the long-drawn aisles" In 1999, Midwest Generation, a subsidiary of Edison Mission Energy, paid $4.8 billion to acquire seven fossil-fuel generating plants and five peaker plants from Commonwealth Edison's corporate parent.

The case was transferred to the NLRB in May 2002 and in September 2004, by a 2–1 panel vote, the George Bush-appointed Board[9] found that Midwest Generation had not violated the NLRA.

With respect to the remedy, the Seventh Circuit directed the Board to consider whether the lockout coerced the employees into accepting the contract offer, thereby voiding the agreement.

[11] On December 17, 2012, Edison Mission Energy – parent company of Midwest Generation, and operator of numerous power plants in Illinois and other states – filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Three hundred firefighters had responded to a fire that started at Throop Street where a coal chute conveyor emerged from an underground passage.

The fire spread along the coal conveyor to a control room, switch house, boiler and turbine buildings and caused $8 million in damages.