CAMBRIDGE, Md.- Phase one of the Phillips Packing house restoration project is now underway in Cambridge.
Crews have begun work on an 80-day repair project, on the iconic smokestacks. So far, they have taken down 17 feet and 31 feet from the 90-foot-tall structures, built back in the 1920's.
"It was so deteriorated that we didn't even need to use tools," says Wade Chubet, division manager for Structural Preservation System. "The crews could literally pluck the bricks off the chimneys one by one."
The packing house closed in the 1960's and the building has remained empty ever since. At its peak, it had nearly 10,000 employees who packed vegetables and shucked oysters inside its factory.
The effort is being led by Eastern Shore Land Conservancy and Preservation Maryland.
In November of 2018, the packing house was picked as one of Maryland's "Six-to-Fix" projects. They hope the Packing House will be home to businesses that support "Agriculture, aquaculture, environmental technology, and tourism."
