The American canning industry began in 1812 when Thomas Kensett introduced the canning process to America in New York, but it gained its early industrial strength in Maryland after 1860, especially in Baltimore and Frederick. Thomas and Company, already successful in western Maryland, established Montgomery County's first canning operation when the Thomas family chose Gaithersburg for a new plant in 1917. The building typified early 20th-century light American industrial architecture, with durable double-thick exterior brick walls reflecting a shift from wood-frame agricultural sheds. It initially canned corn and pumpkin, then quickly switched to corn and peas because pumpkin created too much waste to be cost-effective. Pea season lasted four to six weeks beginning in late May, followed after a six-week slack period by corn production through October. About 200 people worked there during peak season from 6 a.m. to 3 a.m., including college students and teachers on summer break alongside migrants from Alabama and Florida. The factory had its own railroad spur and siding to move canned goods to major distribution points. During World War II, labor shortages led to the use of German prisoners of war from a local camp. The operation incorporated 19th-century canning advances and assembly-line methods influenced by the auto industry. After the cannery was built in 1917 and its front addition followed about a year later, it was purchased with Thomas Foods by Jenkins Brothers Cannery Company in 1956, closed in 1962 because of repeated fire damage and the replacement of farms with homes, and was bought by Rockville Fuel and Feed Company, Inc. in 1967. It was designated a local historical site in 1987, entered in the National Register of Historic Places in 1990, and restored for commercial use in 2004. By 1997, the property in Gaithersburg's Olde Towne historic district had become a deteriorated, vacant cluster of structures that attracted vagrants and small animals and posed dangers at a prominent intersection. In a two-phase restoration assisted by architects and supported by county, state, and federal historic tax credits and city funding through the Federal Community Development Block Grant Program, fire-damaged warehouses were removed for a new 12,000-square-foot retail building, and the historic cannery itself was rehabilitated despite severe structural decay, missing openings, and extensive damage. Parts beyond repair were rebuilt, the masonry was cleaned and repointed, new windows and doors were installed in existing openings, a new roof was added, and the property became active and productive again within Gaithersburg's historic district.