Historic McCurdy Smokehouse Complex

Historic McCurdy Smokehouse Complex. . , The last operating commercial herring smokehouse in the USA , , Beginning in the 1890s and until 1991, herring were smoked here in smokehouses on the Lubec Narrows using a traditional process with European roots., During the peak of the herring industry in Lubec in the 1920s, there were over 20 sardine canneries and almost 30 herring smokehouses. By the mid-1970s McCurdy's stood alone, the last smokehouse still curing herring for markets around the country., The history of the smoked herring industry is being told today in our Historic McCurdy Smokehouse Museum in the Skinning/Packing Shed, on your left. The McCurdy Smokehouse Complex was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993 based on its significance as an industrial site where a unique trade was practiced., When it closed in 1991, it was the last herring smokehouse in the U.S. still operating. Afterwards, commercial herring smoking completely vanished in the U.S., McCurdy's was an important economic hub of the community when it closed, as all of the sardine canneries had already closed. All but a couple of the sardine canning buildings are gone. One of the last sardine canneries in Lubec was Booth's, which is now the Inn at the Wharf, on Johnson Street., McCurdy's is not just the last site where the buildings of herring smoking formerly one of the most important industries of downeast Maine are preserved, it includes some of the only buildings representing the working waterfronts of the region from a vanished era., There used to be many different types of buildings along the Lubec waterfront, including "coal pockets," lumber wharves, ship chandleries, boat building yards, sardine canneries, and of course the other smokehouses., At one time they lined the waterfronts on ALL the Water Streets of Washington County's coastal towns. Now, McCurdy's is the "last of the last." To learn more, please visit the Historic McCurdy Smokehouse Museum, our Mulholland Market art gallery, and visit our website at: [see link], [photo captions, top to bottom:] , Herring choked and drying out before going into the smokehouse at Cadwallader Kelley's Fish Stand., Cadwallader Kelley's Fish Stand, circa 1918. Later sold to Arthur McCurdy. You are standing approximately where the photographer of this picture stood., Aerial shot of site showing positions of current and former buildings., September 1898 Sanborn Fire Insurance map of Lubec. How many smokehouses (Smo Ho) can you can count?