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Somerset Packing Co. & Cannery

Do you enjoy tomatoes? I found the coolest spot today if you’re a tomato lover.
This old warehouse shadows over Kings Creek, hundreds of farm acres, and the nearby railroad. A perfect location for a large canning factory.
The Somerset Packing Co. was opened in the late 1800’s. There were several canneries in south Somerset County, Maryland at this time. These canneries were always located close to railroads and the Pocomoke River so the produce, from local farms, could be shipped to other areas of the United States via trains or steamboats.
The Somerset Packing Co. was a tomato cannery in Pocomoke, MD. This company provided many locals full-time jobs from the late 1800’s to the early 2000’s. The tomatoes were harvested from nearby farm lands. These pictures were taken at the cannery in July of 1940.

(Source.)
That’s what the Somerset Packing Co. looked like then; here’s what I saw today…
(The largest, and meanest, boiler I've ever seen.)
(The old packaging and canning lines are no longer in the building.)
Proof of tomatoes! I knew that I was in the right spot as soon as I saw these blowing around the warehouse.

I'm assuming that the Somerset Packing Co. and cannery closed due to the recession and decrease of farming in the area. Hopefully this gem of a site remains visible in the area to preserve some rich history. The building and land is currently for sale/rent as a warehouse/storage space.

A little slice of tomato history from the Eastern Shore of Maryland!



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  • Ami Marie on

    Glad you enjoyed some of the posts about abandoned places on the shore. I’ve been living on the shore since 2005 and spent many, many hours driving around looking for neat places that were ‘off the beaten path’… I feel like many people just drive past abandoned homes/buildings and never take a second look. I want to know what happened at those places, ’ya know? Happy abandoned house hunting!

  • - on

    It’s at the very end of Market St. Can’t miss it.



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