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Showing posts from November, 2017

City Gardens: Trenton's Lost Punk Rock Mecca

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The building seemed to sag against the Trenton sky, its walls leaning in a way that looked both tired and dangerous. I was driving, searching for a lunch spot after a morning spent exploring the city's industrial skeletons, when I saw it. A questionable choice, maybe, but curiosity is a powerful guide. I pulled over. Getting inside was one of the sketchiest entrances I’ve ever attempted. But once my feet were on the dusty floor, the danger faded. An enormous space stretched before me. It was sparse, cleaned out. My footsteps echoed where a stage once stood, a fact I’d later confirm in a NNKH YouTube video about the building’s past life as an underground punk club. The video showed a vibrant scene, an electric place. But the ghosts of that life were mostly gone. The long, rounded bar, where thousands of hands must have slapped down crumpled bills, had vanished. The dust-coated wine and shot glasses that once lined its shelves were gone, too. The club’s glittering crown jewel, a l...

Former Bayside Oil Depot

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Currently on site are ten 50-foot fuel containers. The seven-acre site is under NYC ownership for a long-awaited future park that may be called "Maker Park". Although Bushwick Inlet Park exists down the road. The city envisions a much larger park on this waterfront property to the chagrin of residential developers. Trust, there will be taller buildings close to this park with waterfront views once the building begins. As it stands, no plans have been laid out by the city for when development will begin or the long decontamination of the oil depot will take before any park can be situated here. Bayside Oil Depot has historical roots dating back to the Civil War. Charles Pratt seeing fortune during the beginnings of Pennsylvania oil fields established Astral Oil on the banks of Bushwick Inlet in 1867. Soon other oil refineries dotted the banks of Williamsburg and Greenpoint. Astral Oil was the first modern refinery in the nation and produced what some called th...

Chemical X Warehouse

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Chemical Lane This property once housed a chemical manufacturer over the years that produced the ubiquitous varnish lacquer so prominent in household and commercial applications. Over the years, the site housed many chemical companies that stored a wide array of chemicals in the warehouses situated on the property. Not before long, after sitting for over 20 years a three-alarm fire broke out consuming the wood-framed roof of two of the buildings. Currently, the owners cannot be found regarding the contamination of the soil surrounding the facility. The city is currently looking to condemn the site and transfer the property to a developer who would be on the hook for cleaning up the site.

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