hen Durham, N.C.-based Duke University’s steam plant was built 100 yards from the railroad tracks near East Campus in 1927, it was heralded as one of the best in its class, featuring Georgian architec- ture with 2-story-tall window arches and interior oak finishes. At a cost of $440,000 during the unsteady financial times of the late 1920s, the steam plant included architectural features and touches uncommon for an industrial building. Cornices, decorative brickwork and inset square concrete panels resemble details of tobacco factories and warehouses. Rail cars delivered coal along a trestle to a corrugated-metal shed on the plant’s roof. From there, the coal dropped through floor gates to three furnaces below. For about 50 years, the plant’s coal- fired boilers supplied steam through underground pipelines and tunnels to heat campus buildings in concert with the West Campus Steam Plant, which also was constructed in 1927.