The Apple Industry

For well over one hundred years, the Hancock area stood at the heart of Maryland's apple industry. In the early twentieth century, its gently rolling hills and vast open territories held more than twelve major orchards, including J.A. Cohill, R.M. Daniels, John T. Mason, Glenn Allen, The Marvania Orchards, and the Ridgefield Fruit Farms. One of the largest producers, American Fruit Growers, claimed annual harvests of 75,000 barrels of apples. At this site stood a packing shed, typically a wood-framed and sided structure on a stone or concrete foundation, beside a siding track where apples were sorted, packed, and loaded onto freight cars. The apple industry in the Hancock area, like the Western Maryland Railway, has passed into memory but is not forgotten.

Maryland · United States