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Phillips Packing Company Plant F
Inventory No.:
D-850
Date Listed:
10/28/2021
Location:
411A Dorchester Avenue, Cambridge, Dorchester County
Category:
Building
Period/Date of Construction:
1930-1962
Architect/Builder:
UNKNOWN
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Description:
The Plant F building is located in a small industrial area east of downtown Cambridge, Maryland. The original portion of the building was constructed circa 1920 by T. Milbourne Bramble for the Cambridge Furniture Company. The building is trapezoidal in shape with a nonhistoric addition on the north façade. The building is two stories in height with one-story additions on the north end. The brick building with punched openings and steel awning windows has no architectural ornamentation. Two tall, round brick chimneys are located at the east side of the south end of the building. The site is bounded by a brick industrial building on the south, a railroad right-of-way on the west, a drive and industrial building on the north, and Dorchester Avenue on the east. The property to the west of the right-of-way is the site of the proposed Cannery Park. The grade is generally level with the first floor of the original building and slopes down to the west so that the loading doors along the west side are level with a boxcar floor. Although much of the exterior of the building has a consistent appearance with brick bearing walls and steel frame windows, the building was constructed in several phases. The initial circa 1920 phase has a 20,304-square-foot, L-shaped footprint, and wood mill construction with timber columns in 17’-10” by 18’-1” structural bays. Each of the 14 structural bays on the west side facing Dorchester avenue is defined by pilasters on the column lines and two punched windows on each floor. The brickwork is typically running bond with one course of alternating headers and stretchers seven courses above the second-floor level. Wall copings are glazed terra cotta and pilaster copings are cast stone. The typical window has 5x5 fixed panes in a steel frame with a central awning window of 3x2 panes. Window sills are brick rowlocks and headers are steel angles. Typical glass is obscure glass but there are a variety of replacement glass types. First-floor windows on the east side are covered with painted plywood. One bay on the first floor has a personnel door and there are two loading doors on the second floor. The south wall of the original building has seven structural bays with a combination of steel frame windows, solid brick panels, and large wood double doors. The solid panels have a darker colored brick and likely were infilled after the initial construction. The west wall of the original building has four structural bays with fenestration similar to the east wall. After the property was purchased by the Phillips Packing Company in 1930, a steel-framed, trapezoidal shaped addition with a 9,678-square-foot footprint extended the building west to abut the railroad. Later steel frame additions with brick exteriors include a two-story addition with a 2,500-square-foot footprint on the north, a one-story addition with an area of 560 square feet in the northwest corner, and a boiler room on the south end connected to the two chimneys on the east side. Only the south and east exterior walls of the boiler room remain. After a fire in 1987 the north façade was rebuilt and a one-bay-deep wood-frame addition was added. A separate 20th century steel frame building with a sheet metal exterior and multiple additions was located on the north end of the property. Known as Building D-1, all that remains of this building is a concrete slab on grade and the steel columns cut off flush with the top of the slab. There is no visible evidence of the small Canteen building north Guard House indicated between Building D-1 and Building F on the 1945 Sanborn Fire Insurance Company map.
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Significance:
The Phillips Packing Company – Plant F building is significant for its history and its architecture. During the 20th century the Phillips Packing Company grew to be the largest producer of canned tomatoes in the world and Plant F was the main tomato facility. The company employed more than 2,500 people in Cambridge and helped to sustain the regional economy for the first half of the 20th century. The Phillips Packing Company – Plant F is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad pattern of the industrial and social histories at both the national and regional levels. The Phillips Packing Company was sold in the mid-1960s and the majority of their building in Cambridge were demolished. Plant F was spared from demolition and embodies the distinctive characteristics of early 20th century factory architecture and represents the era of the Phillips Packing Company empire.
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