Early Canning Processes

In 1902, Otosaburo Noda, a Japanese immigrant farmer, labor contractor, and businessman, moved his abalone canning operation from Point Lobos to the rocky shoreline of Monterey, where he and his partner Harry Malpas built the Monterey Fishing and Canning Company, the first canning operation on the world-famous street of the sardine. In 1907, James A. Madison, Joseph A. Nichols, and Bernard Senderman bought the failing Malpas Cannery and, after a major renovation, renamed it the Pacific Fish Company. Sardines were cut by hand, drained and fried in peanut oil, then packed in handmade oval cans and sealed with hand-soldered lids. By World War I, increased demand and large profits spurred the mechanization of Monterey’s canning industry, and in 1926 the Pacific Fish Company was renamed the California Packing Corporation. Empty cans were shuttled from warehouses on the inland side of Cannery Row to canneries on the bay side of the street, then after being filled and cooked were carried back over the street through enclosed crossovers to warehouses and rail sidings, making the crossover a distinctive architectural feature on Cannery Row.

Monterey, California · United States