THE NECESSITY FOR RUINS

[POINT BREEZE, 1935]

Much of the tidal Schuylkill is scarred by the the remains of an overbuilt petroleum distribution system whose scale is evidenced by the above photograph from National Geographic in 1935.  Perhaps ’scarred’ isn’t the apt verb to describe the subterrenean impact of this petroleum drosscape: much of the damage affects soil and groundwater.  In retrospect, the calamitous Depression that created these vast sinuous tank centipedes portended the more sustained slowdown that would eventually render virtually all of this Fordist oil-moving infrastructure obsolete.

[EPA ENVIROMAPPER, GREEN-HAZARDOUS WASTE]

But in 1935, Philadelphia’s Atlantic Refining Company, later to become Atlantic-Richfield, owned Point Breeze as any industrial firm could claim dominion over a vast swathe of any city.   While in our earlier post we alluded to the constriction of the petroleum refining industry in Philadelphia over time, what strikes anyone about the transformation of land is the relative persistence of refining operations in and among the same parcels of land.  The interation goes something like this:  the two big petroleum landowners Atlantic (later Atlantic-Richfield ARCO) and Gulf were purchased and subsumed into Sunoco and BP, Chevron, and Cumberland Farms respectively.  Regional powerhouse Sunoco snapped up both of these companies’ Philadelphia refining and distribution operations.  Interestingly, while most petroleum companies have adopted post-Fordist transactions based on horizontal networks, flexible production, and saavy brand manipulation–the fact remains that crude must still be refined and “cracked” in vast industrial plants taking up huge amounts of urban land.

While global demand assures endless permutations of brand and ownership arrangments with reductions in physical footprints, these landscapes–with their accumulated waste of defunct companies–of course, still remain.

[Special thanks to Adam Levine for the well-worn National Geographic of July, 1935]

[...] Point Breeze, 1935 « THE NECESSITY FOR RUINS. (via ruins.wordpress.com) March 3rd, 2009 in America, Philadelphia, Railroad | tags: built environment, drosscape, Environmentalism, Infrastructure, maps/geography, petroleum refining [...]

Pingback by Jimmy’s Awesome Stuff » Blog Archive » Point Breeze, Philadelphia in 1935 March 3, 2009 @ 3:12 pm

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I just found this site. This is a really cool photograph. I’ll be adding you to my RSS reader, keep up the good work!

Comment by Jimmy March 3, 2009 @ 4:59 pm

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