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Fire at Shwank House

by Matt Geary

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1.
Fire at Shwank House 05:08
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2.
It Feeds 04:31
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about

There was an abandoned house in the town I grew up in we called The Shwank House. The house was tucked back in the woods and was next to an abandoned railroad trestle. The Shwank house was a place where the local kids would drink and local metal bands with members who'd go on to form Rumpelstiltskin Grinder and other Philly metal bands would come and take promo shots.

The railroad trestle would provide materials to the Swell Bubble Gum Factory down the street from Shwank House. It would also deliver lumber to National Wood Preservers across the street from the bubble gum factory. The National Wood Preservers reportedly disposed of liquid waste in a well leading to groundwater under the plant contaminating the groundwater. Liquid wastes were also spilled on the surface, contaminating soil in the area. This would result in Delco's first superfund site down the street from where I currently live. The wastes were mostly oil contaminated with pentachlorophenol (PCP). My dad would be involved with the cleanup when I was a kid.

Shwank House burned down when I was a freshman in high school. Luckily for me and my friends there was also an abandoned mental hospital in town we would go to. That is until I got caught by the police there and they took me to the station and called my parents. My urban exploration days were over after that... for the most part.

When I was young it didn't even cross my mind that the Shwank House, the bubble gum factory, and the mental hospital were ever not going to be there.

The railroad trestle, Swell Bubble Gum Factory, and the mental hospital are all gone now. New construction homes take the place where the Shwank House was, The Swell Bubble Gum Factory was knocked down and replaced with a YMCA on top of the superfund site, and the Mental Hospital is a 55+ HOA with a community nature center, soccer fields, hiking trails, and frisbee golf.

Residents in the area are still dealing with issues of ground water contamination as a result of work practices from National Wood Preservers from 1947-1991. A groundwater treatment plant expansion began in 2021 and is expected to be completed by 2031.

Where there is smoke there is fire.

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released April 12, 2024

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Matt Geary Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

What you hear is what I see.

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