# Bellefield Boiler Plant

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"Cloud Factory" redirects here. For the Jinjer album, see [Jinjer](/source/Jinjer).

The Bellefield Boiler Plant, affectionately known as the "Cloud Factory", in Junction Hollow

**Bellefield Boiler Plant**, also known as "**The Cloud Factory**" from its nickname's use in [Michael Chabon](/source/Michael_Chabon)'s 1988 [debut novel](/source/Debut_novel) *[The Mysteries of Pittsburgh](/source/The_Mysteries_of_Pittsburgh)*,[1] is a [boiler plant](/source/Heat-only_boiler_station) located in [Junction Hollow](/source/Junction_Hollow) (referred to as "The Lost Neighborhood" in Chabon's book) between the [Carnegie Institute of Pittsburgh](/source/Carnegie_Institute_of_Pittsburgh) and [Carnegie Mellon University](/source/Carnegie_Mellon_University) in the [Oakland](/source/Oakland_(Pittsburgh)) district of [Pittsburgh](/source/Pittsburgh%2C_Pennsylvania), [Pennsylvania](/source/Pennsylvania).

Built in 1907 to provide steam heat for [Carnegie Museum](/source/Carnegie_Museums_of_Pittsburgh), it was designed in the [Romanesque Revival](/source/Romanesque_Revival) style by the architectural firm [Longfellow, Alden & Harlow](/source/Longfellow%2C_Alden_%26_Harlow). The 1907 brick chimney measured 150 feet (removed in 2010), and the newer concrete stack (built in 1966) is 255 feet.[2] The plant has burned both [coal](/source/Coal) and [natural gas](/source/Natural_gas) but stopped burning coal on July 1, 2009. Its steam system expanded in the 1930s to service the [University of Pittsburgh](/source/University_of_Pittsburgh)'s [Cathedral of Learning](/source/Cathedral_of_Learning). Today it pumps heat to most of the major buildings in Oakland. It is owned by a consortium made up of the [University of Pittsburgh](/source/University_of_Pittsburgh), [University of Pittsburgh Medical Center](/source/University_of_Pittsburgh_Medical_Center), [Carnegie Mellon University](/source/Carnegie_Mellon_University), the [Carnegie Museum](/source/Carnegie_Museums_of_Pittsburgh), the City of Pittsburgh, and the [Pittsburgh Public Schools](/source/Pittsburgh_Public_Schools).

During its coal burning years, the plant could consume up to a 70-ton [hopper car](/source/Hopper_car) of coal per day, delivered by the [Pittsburgh Junction Railroad](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pittsburgh_Junction_Railroad&action=edit&redlink=1) (now in the [P&W Subdivision](/source/P%26W_Subdivision) of [CSX](/source/CSX_Transportation)) that ran through Junction Hollow next to the plant. The plant's small 1942 [Plymouth](/source/Plymouth_Locomotive_Works) DE 25T locomotive[3] would shuttle the cars between the siding and the plant via a wooden trestle bridge[4] (demolished 2012) spanning Boundary Street.

Bellefield Boiler Plant as it looked in 2014.

A close up of the boiler plant in 2008.

According to reporting by the *[Pittsburgh Post-Gazette](/source/Pittsburgh_Post-Gazette)*[5] the 2007 film *[The Mysteries of Pittsburgh](/source/The_Mysteries_of_Pittsburgh_(film))* does not use the actual Bellefield Boiler Plant, but instead uses what remains of the [Carrie Furnace](/source/Carrie_Furnace), a storied blast furnace that was part of [US Steel](/source/US_Steel)'s Homestead Works, a few miles south in [Swissvale, Pennsylvania](/source/Swissvale%2C_Pennsylvania).

## Source of the phrase the "Cloud Factory"

Image taken from Schenley Bridge

Chabon may have coined the name "Cloud Factory" himself, or heard it first from locals before employing it to great effect in his novel. It is also possible that he may have borrowed the phrase from [Henry David Thoreau](/source/Henry_David_Thoreau)'s essay *Ktaadn and the Maine Woods*,[6] which was first published in five serialized installments in *[Sartain's](/source/John_Sartain) Union Magazine* in 1848. The piece describes a [transcendental](/source/Transcendentalism), "mountain-top" experience Thoreau had in the summer of 1846 while hiking [Mount Katahdin](/source/Mount_Katahdin) in [Maine](/source/Maine):

Sometimes it seemed as if the summit would be cleared in a few moments, and smile in sunshine; but what was gained on one side was lost on another. It was like sitting in a chimney and waiting for the smoke to blow away. It was, in fact, a *cloud factory*—these were the cloud-works, and the wind turned them off done from the cool, bare rocks.

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** Chabon, Michael (1988). *The mysteries of Pittsburgh* (1st ed.). New York: W. Morrow. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-688-07632-7](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-688-07632-7).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** ["'Bellefield Boiler Plant' District Heating no. 3, Winter 1967"](http://www.waterworkshistory.us/DH/1967Bellefield.pdf) (PDF). *US Waterworks History*.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** ["Plymouth Industrial Locomotives Part 2"](http://www.northeast.railfan.net/diesel123.html). *North East Rails*. describes the locomotive as "Ply DE 25T, ex USN65-00278 blt 1942 cn4417."

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** ["RR bridge at Carnegie "Cloud Factory""](http://pghbridges.com/pittsburghE/0589-4477/cloud.htm). *Bridges and Tunnels of Allegheny County and Pittsburgh, PA*.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** Vancheri, Barbara (October 17, 2006). ["No mystery: Writer-director knew he was the one to bring Chabon novel to the screen"](http://www.post-gazette.com/movies/2006/10/17/No-mystery-Writer-director-knew-he-was-the-one-to-bring-Chabon-novel-to-the-screen/stories/200610170159). Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 15 October 2015.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** Thoreau, Henry David (1988). *The Maine woods*. New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-14-017013-8](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-14-017013-8).

## External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to [Bellefield Boiler Plant](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Bellefield_Boiler_Plant).

- [Historic photo of Pittsburgh's "Cloud Factory"](https://web.archive.org/web/20130907213958/http://www.clpgh.org/exhibit/neighborhoods/oakland/oak_n234.html)

[40°26′32″N 79°56′56″W / 40.4422°N 79.9490°W / 40.4422; -79.9490](https://geohack.toolforge.org/geohack.php?pagename=Bellefield_Boiler_Plant&params=40.4422_N_79.949_W_region:US-PA_type:landmark)

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