Power plant passes review for register

Ruston’s old power plant has made it over the first step toward possible inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.

Louisiana’s National Review Committee on Thursday unanimously approved the city’s request that the plant be included on the register.

“From this, it goes to the National Park Service in Washington, D.C., for a final review,” Brian Davis, with the Louisiana Trust for Historic Preservation, said Friday.

It could take several months for the park service to make its decision. Though placement on the register is an honorary designation, properties on the list are eligible for up to 45 percent combined state and federal rehabilitation tax credits.

The city hopes to sell the plant to Monroe developer Michael Echols. Echols has said he wants to remake the abandoned plant into apartments and retail space.

The plant, located on East Mississippi Avenue, is an industrial-style building, the main part of which was constructed in 1900.

The grounds also include a meter house, a warehouse and an underground reservoir that held water for the plant and for the now-closed municipal swimming pool located across the street.

“It’s not just architecturally important, but also the fact that it played such an important part in the history of Ruston,” Davis said.

Without the plant and the expansions made to it over its approximately 60-year lifespan, Ruston wouldn’t have been able to grow, Davis said.