Constructed from 1929 to 1931 on a site once known as the Oxbow, the Hardy Hydroelectric Plant was built by Consumers Power Company and named for George Hardy, a partner in the firm that financed Consumers' projects from 1911 through 1928. The complex includes a Spanish Colonial Revival-style powerhouse and intake tower, an oil house, and a dormitory, and it originally included four operators' houses on the eastern bank of the pond that were Sears-Roebuck kit homes. Because of advancements in fossil fuel steam generating plants, it was the last conventional hydroelectric plant built by Consumers. Flowing water had long powered mines and mills, and with advances in electricity in the 1800s, waterpower was soon used to generate electricity. The country's first public demonstration of hydroelectric power occurred on July 24, 1880, when sixteen carbon arc street lamps lit Grand Rapids using a belt-driven dynamo powered by a water turbine at the Wolverine Chair Factory. Michigan's extensive water resources were harnessed to power electric generating equipment, first at existing dams and mills and later at sites built expressly for hydroelectric generation, and electricity from these plants powered homes and businesses and helped fuel Michigan's growth as one of the nation's premier industrial states.