Commerce on the Water

Commerce on the Water. . , 1. Construction of an ice plant on the waterfront allowed seafood packers to ship their products to more distant destinations. Buy boats, described in the next paragraph, are docked at the ice plant after unloading at one of the local packing houses., 2. Buy boats, moored at the county dock, sailed into the Chesapeake Bay to buy seafood directly from watermen and returned to the packing houses with the day’s catch. In this photo, the U.S. Customs House is at the left of the county dock and the city’s ice plant is at the far left., 3. These condos have taken up residence today in the area where the ice plant stood. As the city’s economy becomes less reliant upon seafood production, condos and townhouses are changing Crisfield’s waterfront., 4. The chimney shown here was part of a menhaden fertilizer plant. After Maryland outlawed menhaden fishing, the business was moved to Virginia. Only the chimney remained after a fire in 1932, and it has since served as a nautical marker. In 1962, this area became a part of Janes Island State Park., 5. Somers Cove Lighthouse, built in 1867 near the entrance of the Annemessex River, guided boats into Crisfield until discontinuing service in 1932. Its framework remains today and, with the aid of an automated light, it continues to be a marker for local watermen, who have nick-named it the “skeleton light.”