The complex of parking lots and buildings running parallel to Columbus Boulevard, and contained loosely by Moore, Oregon and Water Streets, offers an array of big box mega-stores to give any suburban retail archipelago a run for its money.  The Pennsport brand-name shopping Mecca boasts one of the city’s three five Target locations, meaning that you can buy your birthday cards, butter knives, breadmakers and bathing suits all in one convenient location.

Target today

As recently as 50 years ago though, 1 Mifflin Street would have been your destination of choice for barrels.

Map of the area in 1895

In the late 19th century, the Irish and Italian immigrant families that populated the Pennsport neighborhood were an engine for the Industrial Revolution.  The image taken here from the G.W. Bromley’s 1895 Philadelphia Atlas shows a dense cluster of refineries, foundries, mills and rails where…