The W.B. & J.S. Zacheis, Inc. cannery operation stood across the street from the schoolhouse from the early 1900s until after World War II. When the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal and the railroad diverted most commercial shipping away from the area, local businesses adapted by packaging agricultural products for export. Peaches, tomatoes and other produce were processed, canned and exported to markets in Philadelphia, Baltimore and beyond. The cannery was a major employer in Port Penn for almost half a century, and along with other export operations connected the town's economy to trade networks throughout the country and the world while shaping its identity as a working town of cannery workers, water workers, and farmers.