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January 1941. "Industrial area around New Bedford, Massachusetts." 35mm Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano. View full size.
My father used to say men would eat beans and sit on top and fill them up. As a young boy, it sounded possible, and was reinforced one day when we happened to drive by a gasometer and men were sitting on the top. They were probably painting the structure or performing maintenance, but we happened to catch them on a break.
These are the gas holders for the New Bedford Edison Gas & Light power station, today called the Cannon Street Power Station.
The gas holders are visible in these photographs:
https://whalingmuseumblog.org/2015/06/14/the-mystery-of-the-new-bedford-...
https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth:8s45qn13k
https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth:8s45qn07f
And especially here, note the dark band near the base: https://www.insulators.info/pictures/?id=346208369
The buildings and smokestacks don't quite line up, however. But note the Fairhaven Bridge over industrialized Fish and Popes Islands in the aerial photographs. There's nothing else like it in New Bedford, and the power plant is between the bridge and the open sea.
New Bedford suffered badly in the 1938 hurricane and many factories were damaged. Some were demolished. We may be looking towards what is today the Boa Vista public housing project, across the New York, New Haven & Boston rail yards that became the JFK Memorial Highway.
This photo probably looks bleaker in color than it would in black and white.
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