Preserving Amatol

[Kevinhooa]

I know there have been a lot of threads on this site before, but I was wondering if any attempts have ever been made to preserve the structures at the amatol site? I know many of the pouring buildings still stand but have trees growing through them which could end up destroying them faster than the weather ever could. Especially the 4.7 inch building which I think was the biggest of all the pouring buildings. Even something as simple as cutting the trees out would help a little until a park like the one in the Estell Manor Park where the Bethlehem loading company is located, but I think that the state would get pissed at that. Could something be done to help without it being illegal?

Kevin

 

[MarkBNJ]

I have never heard anything official, but I would guess that it is sort of like Batsto vs. Atsion. You can't preserve everything, so the question becomes whether enough has been preserved to be representative of the period. I don't know how much historical value is assigned to the Amatol site by the people who make such decisions.

 

[Ben Ruset]

What may work faster would be to contact the municipality that the park is in. Express your concerns, and maybe offer yourself as a volunteer to help clean up the place. They may be receptive to that - free labor is hard to deny.

 

[Kevinhooa]

amatol

yeah, asking the twp. would probably be the first thing to do and the best thing to do. I guess I'll start there and see what happens. I would really like to see at least one structure preserved. It seems the state / government has been selling off some of the western property and there's even a house at the eastern end on the bend in Moss Mill now. And the barracks building (part of Magnolia Camp) is being used as a training facility and being shot to hell by practice rounds so who knows what will happen to that. I guess get the pictures now before they're gone forever.

Kevin

 

[Ben Ruset]

I guess get the pictures now before they're gone forever.

In most cases that's all you can do. It's sad to see the state that the Brooksbrae Brick Company ruins are in compared to 5 years ago.

 

[pinelandpaddler]

Good topic, Kevin.

It's pretty wild to think of how the whole town was dismantled over the years. For one reason or another, people found ways to use
the building materials for their own purposes. My Dad's property was once a blueberry operation. There is a man-made pond there, the banks of which were fortified with tons of concrete from Amatol. I bet there are bits and pieces of the twon scattered all over the area.

 

[MuckSavage]

I remember reading that the bords from the racetrack were used to build______? (I forget what it was used to build)

"The Atlantic City speedway was built in 1926 on a portion of the former Amatol site at a cost of millions of dollars. The vast project was backed and sponsored by Charles M. Schwab, Marshall R. Ward, H. E. Clark and S.D. Clark. At a dinner at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia the invited press was assured that horse racing was not to be a feature of the track. It was pointed out that 1/5 of the U.S. population was located within 150 miles of the speedway. The Jack Prince Construction Company of Oakland Ca. was the contractor. The track was a steeply banked 1. 5 mile long and 50' wide wood oval and built to handle speeds of 160 MPH. The construction required 4.5 million board feet of lumber, enough to fill 253 railroad cars. The southern hemlock and white Engleman spruce boards were laid on edge in the construction of the track. A 50' wide dirt track was built as an "apron" on the inner side of the board track. The Atlantic City Motor Speedway Association was incorporated in the state of Delaware December 1925. The Atlantic City Motor Speedway Association held an exclusive franchise from the American Automobile Association. No other races could be held within 250 miles of the speedway."