The first photo shows what I believe to be the first Power Plant in the Imperial Sugar Refinery. (I'm not certain how the Cunningham Sugar Co. generated power. When Imperial was re-organized from the Cunningham Co., it may have inherited an earlier power plant than this one. ) The building is still standing to the west of Main & just across Oyster Creek from the Imperial Refinery site. I think the developers intend to use this building in their redevelopment plans.
Note the signage painted on the smoke stack. I'm certain the stack was part of the Imperial Power Plant, although it advertised the Sealy Mattress Company, whose building is just out of view behind-and-to-the-right of the Power Plant. (See the blog entry above for a picture of the building.)
Sugar Land had the first Sealy Mattress manufacturing franchise. It's an interesting story. I've included an ad that must date sometime between 1915 & 1925, give or take a few years. I don't know anything about the magazine (The FRA), but note the Sugar Land address for the company.
