Industrial Philadelphia: Lower North Delaware and Hunting Park East

This post is a continuation of the epic bike ride I took through the northeast. On that ride I biked through two industrial areas: the area that is just north of Fishtown along the Lower Delaware River and Hunting Park East. This conveniently (and nerd-aly) allows me to compare the two areas in a very plannertastic way.  Additionally, while doing research on this ride I came across an amazing Industrial Land Atlas allowing me to really geek out.  The atlas was prepared for the City of Philadelphia by the innovative planning and design firm, Interface Studios. I love these guys; they do some amazing work and have some of the most compelling and well designed infrographics.  Anyway, with this atlas I was able to really understand both areas.  I was inspired to make a map for this post. The following is a map of the two industrial areas and my bike ride for reference.

Lower Delaware Industrial Area

The Lower Delaware Industrial Area area stretches from the under-utilized Delaware Generating Station (near Penn Treaty Park, where I left off last post) to just north of the Betsy Ross Bridge, about 4 miles long.  According to the Industrial Land Atlas the area is approx. 950 acres with a land vacancy rate of 19%, a tad bit higher than the city’s average of 8.1%.  

Part of the reason for such high vacancy is the area contains one of the largest vacant parcels in the city, the former William Cramp and Sons Shipyard.  Dating back to 1825, the yard built the first battleship in the U.S. Navy, the USS Indiana and some of the first major American-built ocean liners.  The yard was sold in the 1920s and closed shortly thereafter, only to be reopened during World War II in order to build destroyers and submarines.  The yard officially closed in 1947 and has practically remained vacant ever since. In 2004, Pinnacle Entertainment proposed building a casino on the site, but the plan was abandoned and SugarHouse was late developed. Today the site has reverted back to natural grassland with a few trees having popped up throughout the decades. Along the edge of the site (where Beach and Richmond streets intersect) the roads are hard to maneuver and completely trash strewn.  However on the sunny day I went there were families traversing the cobblestone street on their way to Penn Treaty Park.  If that doesn’t show latent demand for a greenway I’m not sure what does! 

As I biked further north along Richmond Ave, then eventually along Delaware Ave again, I found areas that were still productive industrial uses, huge uses. Some of the highlights area as follows:

Riverside Material, at the corner of Richmond and Allegheny, a company specializing in asphalt materials. The company occupies only a small portion of a land parcel on which was home to the Reading Company’s terminus for anthracite coal. 

Westway/Kinder Morgan Petroleum terminals, I don’t have much information on the area but I have this awesome picture that shows a bridge of pipes that cross the extremely wide Delaware Ave. 

Tioga Marine Terminal, a 116 acre shipyard that is fairly active.  According to the Industrial Land Atlas a fun fact is that the terminal is home to ships that bring much of the region’s fruit in from Chile. 

A large waste water treatment plant

Lastly the Richmond Generating Station, an abandoned relic similar to the Delaware Generating Station that is used only during peak load periods.  It has been the back drop for two movies filmed in the area:  12 Monkeys and the Decepticons’ lair in Transformers 2.  Unfortunately I have no good pictures of the building.

Further past the intersection of Lewis and Delaware is a bridge over the Frankford Creek which looks like it was built by a local Boy Scout troop. I, of course, had the desire to check it out.  After biking through a puddle, crossing the bridge, and snapping a few photos, I came face to face with TWO semi-trucks attempting to cross the rickety bridge.  It was scurry.

An interesting point in this ride along the Delaware was the discovery of a small park, at the end of Allegheny Ave, named Pulaski Park. Named after a Polish commander in the American Revolution the half acre sliver is owned by the New Kensington CDC and seemingly used primarily for fishing. The park is about as forgotten as the person for whom it’s named.  With geometric mounds and very straight paths that lead to a rather bland plaza, the park looks as if it was designed in the 1970s and hasn’t really been touched since (with the exception of a new-looking railing along the river).  There are no trees in the tree wells, two benches, one of which is busted, and an area of rocks which you could go down onto through a 7 foot chain link fence. Additionally, I was fortunate to be in the presence of a very grumpy fisherman (pictured) and an odd many doing some sort of yoga on the rocks/tires below. 

Hunting Park East

After journeying through several non-industrial neighborhoods I ended up at the corner of Luzerne and I Streets and the edge of the Hunting Park East industrial area. Sidenote: Who knew that Philly had lettered streets? AND they go all the way to O St. in the neighborhood of Juniata. This area is located between the Juniata and Hunting Park neighborhoods of North Philadelphia, just west of the Frankford Creek.  According to my research the area is 821 acres and is privy to a considerably lower land vacancy rate than the Lower Delaware, 10%

One of the fun facts I learned from the Industrial Land Atlas is that the area is home to one of the nation’s largest Coca-Cola bottling plant/distribution center, along G St. between Erie and Luzerne Avenues. The plant produces 30 million bottles of Coke a year and employs 1,200 people. I guess that would have been a serious closure if Coca-Cola went through with their threat if the soda tax was passed, luckily it wasn't. The area has much smaller industrial parcels and therefore many more business scattered among its acreage. Some of the larger manufactures/warehouses are: Conoco Phillips, Case Paper Company and J.B. Hunt Distribution Center.  In addition to the smaller parcels, the lower land vacancy rate and the fact that the area is sandwiched between two dense neighborhoods gives the Hunting Park East industrial area a much more diverse feel than the Lower Delaware.  It’s more vibrant in a way, scattered among the industrial buildings are shopping centers, school and civic buildings attracting much more traffic than found along Delaware Ave.  This provided quite the quandary for me on my bike as people were much less aware of their surroundings as they sailed down Luzerne Ave, but there were many more cars for me to watch. 

One last note, even though the Frankford Creek lies east of the industrial area, it is just as disgusting if not more so than when it enters the Delaware.  In fact, it’s like a mini-L.A. River in this area.