Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
Marshall Cohen—researcher and producer, CNN
Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
KEY CITY GAS COMPANY
KEY CITY GAS COMPANY. In the 1920s the Key City Gas Company was the largest coal gas plant in Iowa. Located between 10th and 11th STREETS on Pine and running east to the MISSISSIPPI RIVER, the plant was able to receive coal by barge from the Ohio River. In 1927-28 the gas plant, constructed about thirty years before, was remodeled. The additions included fifteen vertical coke ovens installed by the United Gas Improvement Company of Philadelphia. Of German invention, these ovens were the first of their kind constructed in the United States. The plant had a daily capacity of over one million cubic feet of gas.
The auxiliary plant at Bluff and Dodge which alone served the city's needs for many years, succeeded the original plant built in 1857. Gas west of the Mississippi was then considered a novelty.
