J. C. Lore Oyster House facts for kids
|
J. C. Lore Oyster House
|
|
J.C. Lore Oyster House - South View, December 2008
|
|
 Location in Maryland
Location in the United States
|
|
| Location | 14430 Solomons Island Road, South, MD 2, Solomons, Maryland |
|---|---|
| Area | 0.266 acres (1,080 m2) |
| Built | 1934 |
| Architect | J.B. Lusby |
| NRHP reference No. | 84003869 |
Quick facts for kids Significant dates |
|
| Added to NRHP | March 22, 1984 |
| Designated NHL | August 7, 2001 |
The J. C. Lore Oyster House is a special old building in Solomons, Maryland. It's also known as the J. C. Lore and Sons, Inc., Seafood Packing Plant. This large, two-story building was built in 1934. It was used to pack seafood, especially oysters.
This building is important because it shows how people used to catch and prepare seafood in Maryland. It's also a great example of an old seafood packing plant. Today, the Calvert Marine Museum uses the building. They have turned it into exhibits, showing how the plant worked. You can see many of its original tools and records.
The J. C. Lore Oyster House was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. It became a National Historic Landmark in 2001. This means it's a very important historical site in the United States.
Contents
What is the J.C. Lore Oyster House?
The J.C. Lore Oyster House was a big part of the oyster industry. It supplied oysters to large grocery stores like Acme Markets and Kroger. These oysters were sold under the "Patuxent" brand. The J.C. Lore Oyster House is one of only five nationally important places linked to the oyster business.
Other similar places include the Rudolph Oyster House in New York and the Thomas Oyster House in Connecticut. These buildings help us understand the history of seafood packing.
Who started the J.C. Lore Company?
Joseph Cobb Lore (1863–1945) started the Lore company. He came to Solomons in 1888 from New Jersey. His goal was to buy and ship oysters to Philadelphia. He opened his own oyster packing house in Solomons in 1922.
Sadly, a strong hurricane in 1933 destroyed the first building. But Joseph Lore rebuilt it in 1934. His sons, J.C. Lore, Jr. and G.I. Rupert Lore, ran the business together. They worked side-by-side until 1961.
What else did the Lore Company do?
The Lore Company didn't just pack oysters. From 1925 to 1945, they also packed crabmeat and fish. They had other businesses too. These included renting boats and offering charter fishing trips.
They also had a bait store and a company store. They even had a "school boat." This boat was used to take children to school. It was more helpful than a school bus in that area.
Boats of the Lore Company
The Lore Company had a fleet of three boats. These boats were used to buy and plant oysters. Two of their boats were called the William B. Tennison and the Sidney B. Riggin.
These boats were once bugeyes, which are special sailing boats used for dredging oysters. The Tennison is now a National Historic Landmark itself. You can see it preserved at the museum. The third boat, the Pengui, was a Hooper Island draketail workboat.
The Lore company stopped its business in 1978. This happened because there were fewer oysters to harvest. Also, it became harder to find workers.
What does the Oyster House look like?
The J.C. Lore Oyster House is on an island in the Patuxent River. This is close to where the river meets the Chesapeake Bay. Part of the island was made by people. It was built up using oyster shells from older oyster houses.
The building you see today was built in 1934. It has two stories and is made of wood. It has a metal roof. The lower part of the walls is made of concrete. This helps protect the building from storm damage and floods.
Inside the Oyster House
The inside of the building was set up for different steps of oyster processing. There were areas for receiving, shucking (opening), processing, and packing oysters. The upper floor had space for cans and boxes. It also had office areas.
There was a special dock behind the building. This is where "buy-boats" and independent oystermen would tie up. They would unload their oysters here. From 1945 to 1965, oysters could be lifted directly from a boat into the receiving area.
How oysters were processed
Oysters were moved from the receiving room in wheelbarrows. After oysters were shucked, their shells were moved outside on a conveyor belt. The building had two long, narrow shucking rooms. Each room had concrete tables around the edges. About fifty shuckers could work at a time.
Shuckers stood at special three-sided stands. They would take whole oysters from the tables and open them at the stand. The empty shells would fall away outside. These stands protected the shuckers from the sharp shells. Shuckers stood on platforms that could be adjusted. This kept their feet off the cold, wet floor.
Buckets of shucked oysters were passed through a window into the processing room. Here, the oysters were rinsed, weighed, and counted. Shuckers were paid based on how much oyster meat they produced. The oyster meats were rinsed on a "skimmer table" to remove dirt and small shell pieces.
A "blow tank" was used to rinse the oysters with bubbly water. Then, the oysters were drained on another skimmer table. The meats were sorted by size and packed into metal cans. These cans were then sterilized with steam. The J.C. Lore processing room still has much of this original equipment.
The building looks much like it did in 1965. That's when some updates were made, including a fire sprinkler system. The museum has added a theater in one of the old cold storage rooms. The southern shucking room is now used as a classroom. A company store that used to be nearby was taken down in 1995.
Images for kids
-
J.C. Lore Oyster House - North View, December 2008
-
J.C. Lore Oyster House - Historic Marker, December 2008
-
J.C. Lore Oyster House - Can, December 2008
