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The land in which the American Cyanamid was constructed was originally known as "Clarksville". The small farming community existed so far back that it predates the American Revolution. George Washington is said to have marched through Clarksville after departing Trenton in 1777. As centuries passed, the landscape of what was once Clarksville remained relatively unchanged. That is, until the 1960s.
The American Cyanamid corporation was formed in 1950. A decade later the company broke ground on what would become their new research facility on what was once Clarksville farmland. At the time the complex was just a few small buildings and a couple greenhouses.
Throughout the decades the building complex expanded to cover nearly 700 acres. The structures were on both sides of Clarksville road. By now the land that the road was named for was completely indistinguishable from the farmland it once was.
In 1994 American Home Products merged with American Cyanamid, creating the ACC Agricultural Division. It was around this time that chemicals were discovered to be leeching into the groundwater from one of the companies landfills. Landfill #2 mostly consisted of lab glass and labratory waste. In 1995 the site was excavated to prevent further contamination.
Five years later BASF, a German based chemical producer, purchases the labratory from American Home Products. However AHP retained ownership of land until the contamination was dealt with. Two years after the sale, American Home Products Becomes Wyeth Corporation.
The Rouse Corporation purchased property for $35 million in 2004. Two months later General Growth Corporation purchases Rouse. It was around this time that manufacturing and research ceased at the property, leaving the complex vacant.
In 2009, Rouse declared bankrupcy after several failed attempts to develop site. Rouse restructured and came out of bankrupcy shortly afterwards. They formed the Howard Hughes Corporation to shelter non-core assets. Once again, several devopment proposals were pitched for the site, and all were denied. HHC held onto the property until 2019, when it was sold to Atlantic Realty.
The facility had been languishing for nearly 15 years before I had a chance to visit. I was blown away with how well the buildings held up to the elements. At the time almost nobody knew the place existed, so I was one of the first people to visit to document it. A few years later the place made it onto public Instagram accounts, which we all know is a death sentence for any location.
Soon visitors were coming to smash and steal whatever they could. They started breaking windows and skylights, allowing water to infiltrate the once-pristene buildings. I'm glad I was able to visit when I did, so readers of this blog can see what the location looked like before the trash visited.
The property will inevitably be demolished and developed, its only a matter of time. Its unfortunate others had to be so self aggrandizing, but that's just the nature of insecurity. Its not the first local location ruined by Instagram, and it certainly won't be the last.
