Beaton & Corbin: The Toxic Southington Factory

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There is a daycare operating now at 318 North Main Street in Southington, Connecticut. Next door is an ice cream shop. Down the row sit a jeweler and a medical office, arranged in a clean commercial plaza that could pass for any small-town strip in New England. What is underneath all of it is a different story. Before the plaza, there was a fire. Before the fire, there was a corporation that dissolved and left its contamination for the town to deal with. Before that, there was a vat of nickel-chrome solution laced with cyanide that cracked and leaked onto the concrete floor, and nobody around to take legal responsibility for the 500 gallons of it spreading across the building. And before any of that, for nearly a century, there was Beaton and Corbin.                              It seems Beaton & Corbin started out manufacturing knives before producing plumbing products. The property on North Main S...
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Hidden Gems #2: The Graffiti Dog House



Beware of the dog!

This small two story family house sits quietly between two other structures as cars whiz by. The heavy and colorful graffiti and rotting wood standing out. This local monstrosity caught my eye on the way to another local gem. In the corner of my eye, I saw her bright colored paint and knew I had to pull over and give her the once over. Someone actually lives here based on the padlocked chain around the door. Who would live in such substandard conditions? A roof is a roof in the quicksand of gentrifying neighborhoods and sky-high rents.

This house goes way back past 2007 as being boarded up. It wasn't until 2013 it received its base color of yellow and blue before receiving its graffiti marks sometime around September 2013 and September 2014. The house on the left was also vacant before being renovated.

Still continuing this series and feeling out where its headed in the future. So far I like the juxtapose of the old standing house mixed in with occupied and well-maintained housing. It truly stands out in these times of hyperinflated housing prices and obscene rents. 

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