Cannery Row is a historic waterfront street in Monterey, California, once home to a thriving sardine cannery industry. Originally named Ocean View Avenue, it was nicknamed "Cannery Row" as early as 1918 and officially renamed in 1958. The area was immortalized in John Steinbeck Cannery Row (1945) and Sweet Thursday (1954). The area retains many of its early industrial structures and is listed as a significant cultural and historic landmark in Monterey.
Monterey’s canning industry began in 1902 and expanded rapidly during World War I, when high demand for canned fish led to the construction of numerous canneries along the shoreline. At its peak in the early 1940s, more than 30 canneries and reduction plants lined Ocean View Avenue. After the sardine population collapsed in the postwar years, the canneries closed one by one, with the last shutting down in 1973. In the following decades the former industrial buildings were adapted into shops, restaurants, and attractions, including the transformation of the Hovden Cannery site into the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which opened in 1984.
Description
Cannery Row is a commercial street in Monterey, California. It was formerly called Ocean View Avenue before being renamed in 1958 in honor of
John Steinbeck's novel
Cannery Row. It follows the natural curve of the coastline, running roughly northwest to southeast, starting near San Carlos Beach and extending southeast toward Lovers Point in Pacific Grove. The city of Monterey is located 25 miles (40 km) south-southeast of Santa Cruz and 1 mile (1.6 km) southeast of Pacific Grove.
Cannery Row has several surviving historic buildings. These include part of the
Hovden Cannery (1916), the Monterey Canning Company Warehouse (1918),
Wing Chong Market (1918), the Conveyor Bridge (1918), and Pacific Biological Laboratories (1937).
History
Monterey's
sardine industry began at the turn of the century, and grew over the next five decades to become the nation's leading fishing port. Production surged during World War I to meet the increased demand for
canned goods. New canneries were built, forming a continuous row along Ocean View Avenue. The term "Cannery Row" dates from this period. During Cannery Row's peak years, in the early 1940s, 30 canneries and reduction plants lined the commercial street, each with its own colorful sardine label on packing labels and tins, and individual whistle that summoned workers to their shifts. Business slowed during the
Great Depression, but picked up again during World War II. After the war, the sardine population declined and a few years later vanished from Monterey Bay. Canneries and packing houses closed one by one.
Hovden Cannery was the last cannery to close in 1973; Hovden's former building site was later transformed into the new Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Early years (1902–1919)
In 1902, Frank E. Booth purchased a failing cannery on Fisherman's Wharf with the intention to can
salmon. He renamed the business the Monterey Packing Company.
After observing the plentiful supply of sardines in Monterey Bay, Booth decided to can sardines. After a fire destroyed Booth's cannery in 1903, he rebuilt and expanded his operation, renaming the new company the F.E. Booth Cannery. South of Fisherman's Wharf, the first major cannery built on Ocean View Avenue was the Monterey Fishing and Canning Company, which opened in March 1902. The small cannery was later renamed the Pacific Fish Company in 1908 after it was sold to new owners.
Booth hired the Norwegian fisheries expert and engineer
Knut Hovden in 1905 to help modernize his business. Booth also enlisted Sicilian fishermen Pietro Ferrante and Orrazio Enea to help recruit a large labor force of fellow Sicilians and improve fishing efficiency, ensuring a more reliable supply of sardines to the canneries. Ferrante introduced the Mediterranean-style Lampara net to Monterey Bay. Use of the net by local fishermen dramatically increased the cannery's fish supply. In 1913, Hovden developed a modern assembly-line system for large-scale sardine canning.
Demand for Monterey sardines rose sharply in 1914 after France suspended sardine exports due to World War I. The U.S. government promoted the consumption of canned fish because they could be easily shipped overseas to feed troops and civilians in Europe. This demand fueled a massive expansion in the canning industry, particularly for sardines. As part of the war effort, posters were produced emphasizing the connection between canning and Allied victory.
Boom years (1920–1946)
The busy canneries and reduction plants employed fishermen, primarily Sicilian and Japanese, along with a diverse labor force of cannery workers including Portuguese, Sicilians, Hispanics, Chinese, and Anglo-Europeans; many were women and children. In the 1930s and 1940s, Sicilian women made up approximately 30% of the cannery workforce and they typically packed sardine cans. Before cannery processes were automated, Asian and Hispanic men and women typically worked as fish cutters, while white men handled mechanical tasks such as tending the boilers that cooked the canned fish. Cannery operations revolved around the sardine catch. There was little work from March to September. When the sardines were running from October to February and the boats came into the harbor loaded with fish, workers were called to the production line by whistles unique to each plant. The work continued until every fish was either canned or reduced, with 12- to 15-hour shifts being the norm.
In the early 1940s, over 24 canneries and reduction plants operated on Cannery Row. The sardine season saw wide fluctuations in total catch from year to year. At its peak, the canneries employed 3,000 to 4,000 people in fishing, canning, and reduction—nearly half of Monterey’s 10,000 residents. During slow periods, canneries continued to be profitable by processing
fish meal. The industry declined during the
Great Depression, but increased demand during World War II led to another boom for the canning industry and the construction of more canneries in the southern part of Cannery Row.
Industry decline (1947–1973)
The decline of Monterey's sardine fishery was probably the result of a combination of
overfishing, shifts in ocean tides and temperatures, and long-term sardine life cycles.
At the height of production in 1946, the total sardine catch was 142,282 tons; a year later the total catch had dropped to 26,818 tons. Many factories closed in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Hovden Cannery stayed open until 1973 by canning squid.
By 1958, there were five surviving, struggling canneries. The canneries were no longer packing sardines, but a combination of
tuna,
anchovy, and
mackerel. The California Packing Company, one of the largest and oldest canneries, closed in 1962. Abandoned waterfront properties were bought by investors eager to capitalize on California’s growing tourism industry.
Steinbeck's Cannery Row
The Cannery Row waterfront was immortalized by John Steinbeck's novels
Cannery Row (1945) and
Sweet Thursday (1954). The first book was set in the
Great Depression, and opens with Steinbeck describing Cannery Row as "a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream."
The story revolves around Doc, a local
marine biologist, and his relationship with Mack and friends, a group of unemployed men, and other residents living on Cannery Row.
Pacific Biological Laboratories was a biological supply house managed by
Ed Ricketts, who was the inspiration for Doc, and several other characters in Steinbeck novels.
The current building, located at 800 Cannery Row, replaced the 1928 structure that burned down in the Del Mar Canning Company fire of November 1936.
The City of Monterey offers public tours of the preserved laboratory and Rickett's family home.
Across from the laboratory stands the historic building that once housed the Wing Chong Company grocery, featured in both
Cannery Row and
Sweet Thursday. Though no longer a store, today the historic two-story building contains several shops.
Across the street from Rickett's laboratory is the vacant lot that was the "home" of some of the homeless characters in the novel. It now houses three one-room replicas of cannery worker cottages.
Tourism
Cannery Row is now a tourist attraction with many restaurants and hotels, several of which are located in former cannery buildings. The Monterey Bay Aquarium is located at the north end of Cannery Row. The aquarium stands on the site of the
Hovden Cannery, which was built in 1916 and operated until it went out of business––the last Monterey cannery to do so––in 1973.
The aquarium was constructed around the cannery's boiler house, which is preserved as a non-functioning public exhibit. When it opened on October 20, 1984, it was the largest public aquarium in the United States. The aquarium focuses on sea life found in Monterey Bay, and was the first aquarium to exhibit a living
kelp forest. Attracting nearly two million visitors each year, the organization also conducts research and conservation initiatives for marine animals, birds, and fish.
See also
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Canned fish
-
John Steinbeck bibliography
-
List of canneries
-
Sardines as food
Gallery
Monterey_Canning_Company_1918_(cropped).jpg|Monterey Cannery Co., 1918
Carmel_Canning_Company_1920.jpg|Carmel Canning Co., c. 1920
Line3012 - Flickr - NOAA Photo Library.jpg|right|Cannery Row looking towards the Monterey Bay Aquarium, 2003
Pacific_Biological_Laboratories_Monterey.jpg|1937 replacement of the Pacific Biological Laboratories building, 2014
Sources
External links
