THE STORY

The Market Street Power Plant is a cathedral of industry sitting on the banks of the Mississippi River. Built in 1905 by the New Orleans Railway and Light Company, it was hailed by the Times-Picayune as the largest electrical generating plant in the South. Its twin smokestacks rose over the riverfront like sentinels, and for 68 years, this five-story fortress of glass, brick, and steel fed power to every streetcar, home, and business in New Orleans.

The plant burned coal and drew water from the Mississippi to cool its massive engines. In 1922, the New Orleans Public Service Incorporated — NOPSI, as locals knew it — was founded, and declared that all power to the city would flow from Market Street. For decades, this building was the heartbeat of New Orleans’ electrical grid. Every light that flickered on in the French Quarter, every streetcar that rolled down St. Charles Avenue — this is where that power was born.

In 1973, the plant was decommissioned. The city had outgrown it. Newer, more efficient power sources took over. The engines went silent. The smokestacks stopped breathing. And for over 50 years, the building has sat on the riverbank — rusting, flooding, and waiting.

INSIDE THE BEAST

Walking into the Market Street Power Plant is like stepping inside a sleeping machine. The scale is overwhelming — five stories of pipes, gauges, catwalks, and rusted steel rising above you in every direction. The lower floors flood regularly from the Mississippi, leaving a murky green lake at the base of the building. Light streams through shattered windows and graffiti-covered glass, casting colors across the industrial wreckage like stained glass in a church of decay.

Metal staircases, some rusted loose from the floors, wind through the structure leading to the rooftop where you can stand in the shadow of the twin smokestacks and look out over the Mississippi River and the New Orleans skyline. From up there, you can hear the music from French Quarter parades drifting across the water. It’s surreal — a dead building listening to a living city.

Urban explorers have called it steampunk heaven. Photographers describe it as one of the most visually stunning abandoned buildings in the country. The combination of industrial architecture, natural light, water, rust, and graffiti creates a landscape that looks like it belongs in a science fiction film. And Hollywood noticed.

ON SCREEN

The Market Street Power Plant’s cinematic decay has made it a magnet for film and television productions. The science fiction film Oblivion used the building’s interior. AMC’s Into the Badlands shot scenes inside the old turbine station. The Magicians filmed part of its pilot episode here. Its industrial skeleton provides a ready-made set that no production designer could replicate — because you can’t fake 50 years of real decay.

THE COST OF CURIOSITY

The Market Street Power Plant is not a safe building. It never was, even when it was operational. But in its abandoned state, it has proven deadly. On July 31, 2022, 18-year-old Anthony Clawson fell to his death when a platform collapsed as he was descending from the roof. According to NOPD, there had been 10 calls for service to the power plant earlier that year alone — reports of prowlers, suspicious persons, and medical emergencies.

The building is contaminated with asbestos. Staircases are rusted through. Floors are unstable. The lower levels flood with river water. Vagrants and drug users frequent the building. It is, by every measurable standard, one of the most dangerous abandoned buildings in the United States.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

The plant has changed hands multiple times. Entergy New Orleans sold it for $10 million in 2007 to Market Street Properties LLC, whose plans for a residential and entertainment center never materialized. It was then sold in foreclosure to developer Joe Jaeger. In 2022, Lauricella Land Company, Brian Gibbs Development, and Cypress Equities announced a deal to invest in the historic building and surrounding acreage as part of a larger River District development.

The plan is to transform the power plant into a hotel, retail, entertainment, and creative office space while preserving the historic architecture. Developers have spent millions on surveying, engineering studies, debris removal, and security. But as with everything in New Orleans — plans move slowly, and the building waits.

EXPLORATION NOTES

PHOTO GALLERY

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