Building Cannery Row
Historic Cannery Row
Roofing contractor Charles L. Frost (top) supervises his crew hot mopping a Monterey cannery roof. Concentrated along the shoreline, the fish processing plants were subject to storm damage. In addition, changes were required to accommodate new technologies to meet expanding production. Frost was a prominent roofing contractor in Monterey during the fish-canning era.
Cannery worker Hank Damewood (right) seems lost in thought as he passes under the enclosed conveyor crossover that moved processed fish products to railside warehousing. Work can be seen progressing to raise the roof height of the Carmel Canning Company. Known builders on Cannery Row included Ross Elio, Charles D. Todd, Sam Vassalo and Robert Jones, an architect who designed many cannery buildings.
Physical change was constant on Ocean View Avenue, and alterations and additions to cannery buildings occurred annually. P.A. Hansen’s Union Supply Company and the T.A. Work Lumber Company provided the necessary materials. The Edgewater Packing Company was the only brick fish processing plant on the Row. It was designed by Monterey City Engineer Howard Severance in 1917.
Marker is on Wave Street, on the left when traveling south.
Courtesy hmdb.org
