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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Corporación de Fabricación de Laca Unida





Sobre 2.72 acres, adyacente a las bulliciosas líneas de Amtrak y New Jersey Transit, el desolado esqueleto de United Lacquer Manufacturing Corporation estuvo una vez en pie. Ahora reducido a escombros, los ecos de su pasado se aferran obstinadamente al aire. Este trío de estructuras, abigarradas en altura de uno a tres pisos, alguna vez se dedicó a la producción de lacas, barnices y esmaltes. Sin embargo, durante 15 a 20 años fueron consignados al silencio, el abandono y la ruina. Esta propiedad abandonada estuvo sujeta regularmente a un sombrío ciclo de incendios y vertidos ilegales, lo que subraya su trágica trayectoria de declive.



La historia de la tierra, contada por la ciudad de Linden, se lee como una letanía de contaminación química de múltiples fabricantes y de un propietario anterior que desaparece en el éter, dejando atrás una pesada carga fiscal. Como era de esperar, la ciudad finalmente perdió la paciencia con este sombrío cuadro de incendios y negligencia iniciados por humanos. Como consecuencia, la propiedad se transfirió mediante expropiación a una empresa de desarrollo.



Pronto, este lugar una vez desolado latirá con el murmullo de la vida diaria, hogar de 402 habitantes. Meridia 1001 Linden LLC ha presentado planes para transformar el espacio en 1001 West Elizabeth Ave. Su plan prevé 402 unidades residenciales, junto con servicios, tiendas minoristas en la planta baja y una oficina de administración. La propuesta no se detiene en los ladrillos y el cemento, sino que se extiende para abarcar la estética más suave del paisajismo, la iluminación y las instalaciones de estacionamiento.



En los años de su abandono, recuerdo que el sitio era demasiado accesible, su puerta bostezando abierta sin una pizca de disuasión. Era un imán para las desventuras, y podría decirse que su abandono avivaba los fuegos que ardían de forma intermitente allí. El mugriento interior era un cóctel de desechos domésticos y de construcción, mientras que el edificio más grande mostraba las cicatrices viscerales de los daños causados ​​por el fuego. Vigas de madera ennegrecidas, convertidas en carbón, yacían esparcidas por el suelo de metal oxidado. El techo picado de viruelas, perforado con enormes agujeros, amenazaba con derrumbarse bajo el peso de los soportes derrumbados, reducido a grumos nudosos de madera y metal retorcido.



En cambio, el segundo edificio logró conservar algunos vestigios de respetabilidad. Parecía haber sido requisado por patinadores, sus pisos de concreto liso y rampas de madera improvisadas sugerían una nueva e ilícita oportunidad de vida. Otra parte de la propiedad fue menos afortunada. Se redujo a una fusión destrozada de tejas y cristales de ventanas, un testimonio sombrío de los furiosos incendios.



En una publicación anterior titulada "Químico X Almacén", he compartido más imágenes que capturan este evocador paisaje de decadencia urbana. Pronto, la narrativa de esta trama volverá a cambiar, esta vez para mejor. A medida que somos testigos de su transformación, recordamos las capas de la historia que se ven y el potencial que se avecina.


The English version of this essay can be found here: URL

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