BILL STRUEVER: So you're ready for a story?

(chuckles).

DION BANKS: This is the greatest story that's never been told.

And you can't get a slice of American pie like you can here anywhere else in the country.

KISHA PETTICOLAS: There are a lot of stories in these walls.

KATIE PARKS: It's a scary space.

And so, you spend a lot of time taking people through, talking about what it could be, why this is important.

MARGARET NORFLEET-NEFF: It just builds on the history.

And so, yes, you feel it.

It tells a story.

KISHA: You can't tell the story of Cambridge without talking about the slave ships coming.

You can't tell the story of Cambridge without talking about places like The Packing Plant.

But you also can't tell the story of Cambridge without talking about the civil rights movement.

H. RAPP BROWN: If America don't come around.

We should burn it down, brother.

(police sirens and shouts from a crowd of people).

CESAR GONZALEZ: How has this town stayed together through everything that has happened here?

I don't know.

And a lot of people leave.

But you know what a lot of those people are coming back now.

MAYOR JACKSON-STANLEY: It's like the phoenix.

We are coming up from the ashes.

KISHA: It is projects like The Packing House that are injecting energy and creating conversations.

TREVOR PRYCE: It's the kernel, it's the spark.

That's what I hope Packing House is the spark for, a spark for a place that people kind of forgot about.

WALTER CARTER: We've got a pandora's box of opportunities and it's in a good way.

KISHA: It could certainly be the heart, the beginning of a long-lasting change in this community.

BILL: So, all you can do is think, you know, what can I, in my little way, make a difference?

Packing House is making a difference.

(energetic up-tempo music).

(energetic up-tempo music).

MARGARET: Packing House is a 60,000 square foot building, one of the last of the Phillips Packing Plant, which was the largest canning company, um, in the world.

SECRETARY KENNETH C. HOLT: When I went in there, it was a complete derelict building.

Holes in the roof, pigeons all over the place.

And I thought, "Oh, my gosh, what are we getting into?"

And I looked up and there was a vulture... (chuckles).

Perched in the rafters of that building.

KATIE: But this building was so significant to the culture and the history of the community that we felt it was worth investing the time into seeing how could we create a viable reuse?

(slow and pensive music).

MARGARET: You feel what was there.

You can begin to see, start looking at what's around, and really begin to understand the power of what this what the place was before.

SECRETARY HOLT: People worked there.

Thousands of people worked there.

And it was the engine of their livelihood.

And when it stopped, their livelihoods were damaged profoundly.

And nothing came along to replace that.

Something is coming along right now to replace that engine.

(sounds of electric drill).

TREVOR: And you need to find a way to restart what was once there.

It starts with space first.

KATIE: You have the Packing House, which is going to create community gathering.

It's going to create jobs.

It's going to create economic opportunity through training and workforce development.

So, when you start bringing these different pieces together, I mean, it's...

It's a real renaissance.

KISHA: There are a lot of stories in these walls and a lot of hopefulness and togetherness that happened here.

White people and Black people were working side by side.

They might not have been able to get along outside of here, but here, they created relationships.

And so, if that kind of energy that was here can permeate back into the community, I think we're off to a great beginning.

(car rumbling).

KATIE: And when you think about rural communities like Cambridge, access to education and workforce development can't be emphasized enough.

SECRETARY HOLT: But we had a vision, and the vision was to first rehabilitate a very important historical structure to address uh, something that had been abandoned for generations that had been so vital to the community for, I don't know, probably 80 years.

And then all of a sudden it disappeared.

And the people that work there, they disappeared.

They had no jobs.

They had no livelihood.

And so, it drove high unemployment.

It drove distress and hopelessness.

(sounds of cars driving down road).

KISHA: There are lots of towns that have gone through this very thing where, you know, the money dried up, the jobs went away, and now what do you do?

And that is very much at the heart of Cambridge's story.

We are unique because of our geography, and we're unique because of our history.

But the face of that story is the same in a lot of places.

(atmospheric medium-tempo music).

CESAR: I think that what America needs to learn from Cambridge is, number one, how to get along and how to move forward.

The incredible thing about this town is that it's so small.

And so, I think that we understand or at least are trying to understand the experience that everyone else is living.

KISHA: There is definitely energy flowing in the right direction.

Things are happening.

This Packing House, this project is a long time coming.

NARRATOR: The Packing House is a pledge to the communities on Maryland's Eastern Shore.

In its heyday, Phillips Packing House was a place that fueled the economy, influenced race relations, and shaped the land, water, and people.

When it shuttered in the early 1960s, the building and everything around it deteriorated.

MAN: So, this is 480 here... NARRATOR: Now more than a half-century later, the Packing House is taking shape as a bold experiment.

The building is being renovated and brought back to life.

If the experiment works, it will revitalize the community.

New jobs and social programs will get the factory buzzing again.

KATIE: And so, the next piece of the conversation was "how do we create a re-use that supports the resource-based industries?"

Right?

So, food farming and our fisheries are such an important part of who the region is, like the very fabric of the region, but also the economic backbone; and when we look at communities like Cambridge who have struggled and have been, you know, economically depressed for a very long time, creating jobs and creating jobs that are relevant to this surrounding region is really important.

So, we started saying, well, "how can this support the next generation of a strategic opportunity around food farms and fishing?"

WYLIE ABBOTT: Back in the 1900s, all the way up 'til probably 30 years ago, between farming on land and watermen, that was 99% of all the income in Dorchester County.

(sound of boat rumbling).

JORDAN SHOCKLEY: Most exciting thing is just being able to, to work with watermen and show them a way that, you know, you can, you can maintain your roots um, from harvesting oysters, but it's in a new way that's sustainable.

MARGARET: Blue Oyster Environmental will have two components cold water processing as well as their oyster bar.

And then, they'll also be working with their nutrient training program and a number of other different things like that.

Um, we'll have a shared-use kitchen.

Um, so that in itself is a space where barriers are dropped.

AMANDA KIDD: Along here, on the other side of the corridor is our storage.

So, the Four Eleven Kitchen is a shared kitchen space, so it's an opportunity for food entrepreneurs uh, who, you know, had not been able to break into the culinary industry, the food restaurant industry, just due to barriers of not having a space to cook out of, not having the proper equipment to utilize, um, so it's really breaking that barrier, providing that opportunity, ah, for them to gain the experience and the support that they need in their business.

All right.

So, this space here is our entry to our kitchen and then along the windows, we will have four pods that will be utilized for dedicated cooking spaces.

So, we're looking to really incorporate education and the hospitality and culinary skills training to really help empower the workforce and the community.

MARGARET: All of a sudden, you've got caterers, bakers, new... new food producers, value added folks making different products, all kinds of... all kinds of stuff.

AMANDA: So, growing up we had a fairly tight-knit family, always had family gatherings and uh, food was the center of everything.

So, I would always find myself just gravitating to the kitchen, this opportunity at The Packing House, to be able to create our vision in this space.

It has definitely grown beyond my dreams.

And then we have here another educational component.

MARGARET: Where this continual passion comes from is that all of a sudden you find yourself working side by side, not only with the community and on the project and construction but with these folks that are doing these huge startups.

(road sounds).

(up-tempo music with beat).

NARRATOR: Cambridge, nestled along the shores of the Choptank River on the Eastern Shore, in the heart of Dorchester County, is one of Maryland's oldest and most storied communities.

MAYOR JACKSON-STANLEY: From my perspective, I would like people to remember that Cambridge is a special community.

We have pride in ourselves and you can't beat the land.

The land and the water are the magnets that draw people to our community.

MARGARET: Cambridge is a remarkably, um, original town.

Um, it has just genuine grit and just talent and courage.

And now is it's time again.

CESAR: I love this town.

I love this.

I love this town.

My description of Cambridge, Maryland: um, it's an incredible town of vibrancy and a life and history of beauty and physical beauty as well.

It's just gorgeous to look at.

And then when you start to dig in and start to hear the stories and meet the people and understand the history, it's fascinating.

DION: Cambridge was founded in 1684 and it was actually a plantation port.

KISHA: There are families who can trace their lineage to getting off of a boat and being sold here in Cambridge and then there are families who can trace their lineage to being slave owners.

And we're all still here.

It is projects like The Packing House that are injecting energy and are creating conversations about our economics, about our race issue, about the fact that there are not enough of the right jobs for our community here.

DION: The Packing House itself, again, I think it's creating, uh, a safe space.

It's creating an inviting space and there's going to be something here for everybody.

MAYOR JACKSON-STANLEY: The Phillips Packing House and the revitalization that's being done here is an example of the hardworking people that made this place important in our community.

(Noise of cars driving down road).

CESAR: We've had a lot of famous people come through Cambridge, but by far I think the most inspiring story is that of Harriet Tubman.

The idea that this tiny little woman could dream that she could bring freedom to other people and that she by herself could defeat all the other forces that were trying to entrap her and to kill her for doing what she was doing.

That idea is amazing.

And that is, I think, central to this place.

You know, this tiny little place dares to dream that it can be something greater than it has been.

And that spirit of Harriet Tubman just keeps coming back.

You know, and we talk about it.

We really do talk about it here and it is inspiring to us.

And I think it should be inspiring to America.

(rumble of cars on road).

(bright up-tempo music).

NARRATOR: Cambridge is a town built on adversity, resiliency, and hope, but throughout its history, Cambridge has always found a way forward.

Today, the long-awaited revitalization of The Packing House is bringing much-needed change to this community.

ROB ETGEN: In 2005, the town did a plan, you know, towns do plans and they called for the land behind The Packing House to be a park.

So, we were working on that park, which was envisioned by the town to be sort of a new Central Park.

And so, here's this big, hulking, broken window, falling in roof mess next to what was going to be a beautiful park.

And I said, "Bill, man, this would be an amazing complement to the park.

This could really be a hub of economic activity to really help with the resurgence in Cambridge."

BILL: So, that's what um, inspired us, to, um, take this on.

(buzz of electric tool).

ROB: I think he got it right then he's like, "Yes, this could be amazing.

Look at those smokestacks.

Look at the bones of this building.

Look at all the windows."

BILL: Yeah, my hope is that this will be a great connector, that the Cannery Park will be done and will connect into Pine Street neighborhood, Grey Street, you know, the waterfront, even Route 50.

ROB: You know, all of our small towns have historic districts.

You can't just knock down buildings because they're in the way.

They have historic meaning to the community.

And there's a richness there so if you can jump in and struggle against the prevailing winds on some of these buildings, you really have something special.

And that's clearly what's The Packing House is becoming.

BILL: It's a creative place and it's also bringing people together.

MARGARET: Just to quickly get to the crux of it.

It's not only the building, but it's the story behind the building.

And what the building why the building was so important to it, to a neighborhood, to a community.

The opportunity to take the building.

But also, it's not just the building.

It's really about what partners can we bring to the neighborhood, into this building, to then catalyze what the neighborhood is saying they want, they need.

(noise of passing cars on road).

MARGARET: That's what we love to do.

And we hope that we continue to always have this opportunity to make catalytic change.

BILL: It's that fabric and sense of place and people, traditions that really, you know, make these old buildings, um, come to life.

(construction noise, "beeping" of lift).

MARGARET: I'm sure people will laugh as how excited we get about the windows.

I mean, they were literally recreated from...

I mean, look at them... going really, really?

Y'all going to...you're going to restore this?

But they did and they're gorgeous.

When we restored the smokestacks, we had to take at least 30 feet of brick down on each one and we had to put new brick up in a lot of cases.

But we also had to match it.

So, we came up with six colors of brick that were hand-painted right there along Dorchester Avenue, but it's what makes the stacks look so beautiful and they'll last for another 100 years.

(slaps lap).

BILL: So, all you can do is think, you know, what can I, in my little way, make a difference?

Packing House makes a difference.

(more construction noise) (pounding of wood).

(sound of saw) (upbeat music).

NARRATOR: The Packing House represents an investment in building a community.

Its foundation is rooted in hope and real-life solutions to the problems that persisted here.

Today, they are meeting people where they are.

CESAR: The disparities, the problems, the issues that we have, like in a lot of America um, is, is racial issues and socio-economic opportunity.

You know, and when you give people an opportunity to, to move forward, they do.

They do.

And, so it's good for us in, in whatever part of Cambridge you live in to see other people in other part of Cambridge do well because it lifts us all up.

(sound of doorbell).

WOMAN: Good afternoon.

Maryland Department Housing Office, how can I help you?

SECRETARY HOLT: We are sort of the lead tenant in The Packing House.

And what are we going to have going on there?

We're going to have our housing voucher program, which basically provides housing support for families that need relief, as well as the Community Engagement Center, where people could come in and get medical services and advice, they could get legal counseling, they could get educational training, adult day care, all kinds of things that communities really need.

Unbelievable.

We'll be able to sort of further the activities that are going to go on throughout The Packing House.

MARGARET: When, uh, folks are upstairs going to DHCD they'll be passing along this way down a hallway that connects them immediately to the rest of the building.

MAN 2: But we're also going to do, uh, workforce development with the young individuals here as far as like training in more technical theater, digital animation, as well as audio production, and film production as well.

MAN 3: And the other piece of that animation program is its run by a fellow named Trevor Price, who's a retired Baltimore Raven.

To say this guy fills a room when he walks in with like enthusiasm and can-do and a motivator for kids.

And he challenges kids to say either you're in this or you're not.

Don't come around here and just think you're going to draw pretty pictures.

You're going to learn to do this as a trade, as a craft.

TREVOR: I remember a long time ago an agent told me one time, if you wind with a show on TV, it's a modern miracle and I wound up with two, so I have two.

And then now we're making four more.

SECRETARY HOLT: He was with the Denver Broncos and the Ravens and he wrote a book called "Kulipari," which Netflix picked up.

It was really a big hit and that sort of because he's so creative, planted the seed in his mind.

Uh, I can be an animation company, I can create an animation company like Pixar and compete with Disney's.

WALTER: I thought there was going to be variants of this guy?

STUDENT: Yeah, I think that too, so... WALTER: The Packing House starters...

They asked us to come in and pretty much help them start a education, not foundation, but academy of sorts where we can provide a set of machines and... and some audio equipment for people that are very curious about what does it take to have any of this creative stuff to work.

We can at least start to demystify some of that so they can have some hands-on experience.

So, Packing House eventually becomes a hub of learning.

TREVOR: We can put people in the water if we have more places to teach it, right?

So, I think that's The Packing House is going to help us do.

WALTER: The curiosity is there, um, it's just that the... the front door of getting your foot in the door isn't.

So, we're trying to provide that.

(uplifting music).

NARRATOR: Cambridge, Maryland surrounded by the bounty of the Chesapeake Bay and the lush farmland of the Eastern Shore, was once the engine that drove the region's economy as a national hub for food production and canning.

KATIE: Phillips Packing Company was founded in 1902 and so, if we think about what Cambridge was like around the turn of the century, there were a million bushels of oysters shucked annually in Cambridge.

Second only nationwide to Baltimore.

So, there's this really thriving economy and then the Phillips Packing Company is founded and very quickly grew and at one point, we believe employed about a quarter of the population of the city.

MITCH ANDERSON: Phillips was started by three gentlemen.

Uh, that was GW Winterbottom, Albanus Phillips, and Levi Phillips.

In 1902, they started the company.

They were very smart businessmen, they started off with one factory and it built up to several all over the entire county.

KATIE: We talk about the impact of the Phillips Packing Company as it relates to the jobs that the company provided, but there was also a wonderful trickling effects into other industries.

So, they were buying produce from Delmarva farmers and we know in 1937 they bought $1 million of produce and so if we escalate that or if we, take inflation up through today, it's like buying $19 million.

One company buying $19 million from producers today.

MITCH: Oh, it was huge.

It was the livelihood of thousands of folks in Dorchester County.

Our watermen became very dependent on who they could sell their product to, and along with that would be our farmers.

But it was a central focal point, I think, of Dorchester County, during its day.

KATIE: There's prominent and significant national history related to the Phillips Packing Company.

They supplied K rations to the, for the United States during World War I and they were the largest supplier of K rations for the US during World War II, which is significant.

MITCH: Anything that you could put in a can... (laughs).

As far as food wise to feed the troops, ah, that's what it was.

KATIE: So very much it was the economic backbone and factory "F" is significant in that it is the last remaining factory from what was a 60-acre campus of the Phillips Packing Company.

(din of people talking in factory).

MITCH: Well.

My goodness.

If you walked in, it would depend.

One, what plant you walked into.

Everything was in-house.

Everything was done.

Everything from the packing boxes ah, were made.

You had people who would put labels for the shipping boxes.

You had people who were picking tomatoes, dividing up the tomatoes, getting rid of the bad tomatoes.

It was all done in-house.

It was just your average working folks.

KATIE: Almost everyone in Cambridge that has been there for a period of time or has family... has a story, might not be their story, but it might be the grandmother's story.

Or my dad told me once that... and generally, there's a connection, there's a positive affiliation that they're making.

(din of busy street, people talking).

MITCH: So, it was just very much a community.

Everybody knew everybody.

Everybody grew up with each other and everybody worked together.

We're talking generations after generations.

It was total mixture.

Ah, you could be a man, you could be a woman.

Ah, you could be Black.

You could be White.

People just needed a job.

And that was the best place to work at the time.

KATIE: But you get in there and there's... so there's a second-story catwalk.

And I spent many a days taking people through the building and I'd stand up on the catwalk and it overlooks the 3 to 4-story atrium area.

And it's all brick and steel, and the windows go up for the entirety of that space.

And I would sit there and think about what it must have been like when the factory was running.

And there are pictures in the archives, and we can't identify which factory they are, but the workers are all in white uniforms.

They're in lines and they're canning and cooking and they're... and stand there and think about the energy that that place must have embodied during that time and the ability to stand there again and see that energy.

Um, but in a way that supports the community in the building today, I think it's going to be a really special moment.

(Bird chirping).

MITCH: Welcome to Dorchester County Historical Society.

MARGARET: As you know, we're working on the Phillips Packing House.

MITCH: Yes.

MARGARET: And we heard that you had all the treasures, so... (laughs).

MITCH: You're right.

MARGARET: And I have no idea what you have, but I'm so excited to see.

MITCH: Well, come on back and I'll show you.

MARGARET: Ok. Oh, my gosh.

Oh my gosh.

MITCH: I think it's amazing.

MARGARET: It is.

It's incredible.

Tell me a little bit about the coins and everything, Mitch.

MITCH: They used to use these in place of currency.

You would get a token for each one of those jobs that you performed.

You could use these at some of the merchants in town, but a lot of people saved them till the end of the week and exchange them for money.

Everything was done in-house.

I mean, everything from the packing for making the cans, making the labels, making the soups and the beans and whatnot.

MARGARET: And all the produce came from the counties that surround.... MITCH: And all the produce came from the counties.

MARGARET: So Mitch, looking at these different cans, do you know, the different eras... Like which ones were the earliest ones and?

MITCH: The more ornate ones were the earlier ones for sure.

MARGARET: This is extremely ornate.

MITCH: That's beautiful.

MARGARET: It is beautiful.

Oh, my goodness.

And then this one.. is kind of almost like contemporary in terms, um, of the colors... MITCH: They were still on the shelves up to 1972, you could find them.

MARGARET: Wow.

MITCH: Phillips also did some of their cans similar to the colors of these other companies.

So, if they were standing... sitting side by side on... on a shelf, you may just reach up and say, "oh, this is the one I want."

It could be Phillips or it could be Hunts.

People collect these labels, but it was just in the art itself.

MARGARET: Mmm-hmm.

Sure.

This is, it just blows my mind completely.

I can't believe you have all these treasures.

This is the mural, but it's also kind of a consolidated piece.

Correct?

Right.

And so, when we're looking at factory "F," we're looking right over here.

These are the smokestacks that we just.... MITCH: Exactly.

MARGARET: ...Brought back, which is so exciting.

And then, of course, the boiler house is no longer there.

It's really, the only composite that exists, um, that we've been able to see or find.

So, we would love to figure out a way to digitize, um.... MITCH: That would be wonderful... MARGARET: This incredible piece..... MITCH: It's amazing.

It was pure luck that this was found in the trash.

It was being thrown away.

MARGARET: Oh, gosh, you're kidding.

Well, thank you so much for sharing this.

Um, we can't wait to be back.

Might ask you, you know, can we come and camp out and take the spirit in?

MITCH: Of course, you can.

(both laugh).

MITCH: Come back anytime we're here.

MARGARET: Holler any time you find something else amazing.

MITCH: I certainly will.

MARGARET: Or you think of something, that would be great.

(uplifting, bright music).

NARRATOR: They called Cambridge a factory town.

During its heyday, Phillips Packing House was the largest cannery in the world.

The hum of the factory was ever present, and unlike other parts of America, times were prosperous for all.

DION: Every African American had a job.

If you wanted a job.

Every White person here had a job.

If you wanted a job.

It was that powerful here when it came to economics.

Everybody thinks, hey, we can all come here and get a job regardless of what color you are.

Because now you have a town that's providing 10,000 jobs in a town with about 10,000 people.

It was a mecca here.

So regardless of what you look like, regardless of what color you were, they needed the body here.

(church bells ringing, congregation clapping).

DION: You think about safe spaces.

We think about churches.

You think about places like The Packing House because they had to create a welcoming environment to make sure everyone felt some kind of way equal so that they could all get the job done.

(Factory noises, clanking, etc).

DION: So, a lot of the local people, Black and White, who lived during segregation while they were working here... are still friends because they built authentic relationships in this, created safe space.

KATIE: At the time when the Phillips Packing Company was thriving, there were essentially two downtowns in Cambridge.

(jazzy "Bourbon Street" type of music).

KATIE: What we know... Of the main walkable core of downtown Cambridge today on Race Street existed.

But Pine Street, which is the African American community, was lively and vibrant and had... See the residential and a lot of commerce.

CESAR: The Black community in this area got together and built sort of a separate downtown area on the Pine Street corridor.

(jazzy music continues).

DION: African Americans in Cambridge were able to make a way out of no way because of the Packing House.

They became an independent, self-sustaining community because of the economics, because of the jobs that the Packing House provided to everybody in the county.

MAYOR JACKSON-STANLEY: You're talking about Cambridge being two communities in one town.

There was the Cambridge that was on Pine Street in the Second Ward if you will.

And then there was the Cambridge, the dividing line of Race Street and we were a thriving community on both sides of the street.

The Black community was alive with doctors and dentists and lawyers and restaurants and theaters and all kinds of things that sustain the Black community.

The dollar turned over four times in Cambridge during those days because people had money.

They were segregated in their own community.

Therefore, their money was spent in their community.

CESAR: You didn't need to leave Pine Street.

And so that community had it.

You know, they had it really good.

They did an incredible job of... of building something for themselves.

KATIE: The historic Pine Street neighborhood is made up of factory housing.

And so, it's all this two-story, narrow gable front.

Many of the workers lived ah, in that community.

So, it was essentially factory housing and about 90% of those homes were owned.

And so that's a significant, you know, portion of the African American community-owned homes, um, in the Pine Street neighborhood.

KISHA: Here in Cambridge, small, you know, working class town, but it was very progressive in a lot of ways.

Black people could vote, only in their district, but they could vote.

We had schools.

One of the first African American high schools was here.

("Big band" style jazz music).

MAYOR JACKSON-STANLEY: We were referred to as a "New York" because all of the entertainers of that day, the Ella Fitzgeralds and the James Brown's and the Duke Ellingtons, would come through Cambridge to travel south, the "Chitlin Circuit."

I'm sure you've heard that phrase.

It was a wonderful time for our community.

CESAR: And then in the fifties, the jobs that had fueled that success in Pine Street, those jobs started to go away.

And when the jobs started to go away, then that's when there was this, ah, fight between the White and the Black communities as to who was going to keep the remaining jobs.

MAYOR JACKSON-STANLEY: But the change of Cambridge after the gradual closing of the Packing House changed the economy, directly.

My grandmother lost her job.

She was a little old Black lady raising her children, but she was one of the first fired.

And that changed her feeling of providing for her, her family.

KISHA: The Packing House, ah, I believe, shut down because, um, Phillips was way too reliant on government contracts; didn't diversify.

When the contracts dried up, so did the jobs.

And there became this movement to protect White jobs and nobody cared if Black people were working.

We, here, had an unemployment rate of more than 50% for Black people during the fifties and sixties.

MAYOR JACKSON-STANLEY: But when the Packing House closed, that was like a major bomb that just hit the community and said, there are no more jobs and there are no jobs to go to once this place closed.

And it was a ripple effect that took years and years and years to overcome, and we're still overcoming that ripple effect.

So, the closing of this mammoth building changed economically, educationally, and emotionally the lives of all the people that lived here.

KISHA: When the jobs dry up, so does that kind of sense of robust community.

REPORTER: Even the name of a main street in Cambridge, Maryland: Race Street, symbolizes the gulf between Negroes and Whites.

This narrow main street divides the two communities geographically.

KISHA: And so, that's what pushed us into the movement, because we had two self-sustaining communities that were doing just fine.

And when the jobs dried up, the Black community suffered.

And we said, "wait a minute, we've got to do something."

MAYOR JACKSON-STANLEY: And the people of that era, as I said, I was a young girl at the time.

The people of that era were angry.

I'm not sure angry at Phillips, I can't speak to that.

But they were angry that there were very few resources that they could use to... to help their families grow.

NEWSREEL ANNOUNCER: And throughout the nation, even in Canada, there were marches through the streets of towns and cities.

DION: Now, interestingly enough, all around us, the world had already been, although our country was already in the civil rights movement.

Cambridge wasn't there, yet.

You know, Cambridge, a lot of people say... things were okay here because everyone was making money.

But when you cut off that money, then how do you pay your rent?

How do you pay your bills?

How do you take care of your children?

Ah, so, what happens is Black people are now trying to say, "hey, this is unfair, unequal treatment.

You know, we want jobs.

We want better housing.

We want to be focusing on our education."

KATIE: And we talk about the number of jobs and how significant the packing companies were to the economy.

It kind of led to depressed conditions, widespread unemployment, and really contribute that in many ways to what became the Cambridge movement, which was the civil rights movement.

And the economic conditions became so severe, that it started to kind of fuel these other growing elements of the civil rights movement in Cambridge and subsequently the social unrest in 1967 with the riots and the fires.

(Police sirens).

KATIE: So, it was, in many ways... of a glue or a stability.

MAYOR JACKSON-STANLEY: The unspoken word was that we don't want to talk about race.

The Blacks stayed on their side of the street.

The Whites sit on their side.

And then when we got together, there was a clash.

REPORTER: These demonstrations, studded with violence, have driven them further apart racially.

KISHA: The feelings of what happened during the civil rights movement are still very visceral here.

REPORTER: The demonstrations and the violence brought the Maryland National Guard here in force to maintain order.

KISHA: We had the longest occupation here of National Guard anywhere in the country, 18 months.

And so this was definitely a culmination.

MAYOR JACKSON-STANLEY: My father was also a civil rights lieutenant for Gloria Richardson Dandridge.

I want to call out my she-ro, Gloria Richardson Dandridge, a woman I knew as a young girl.

And she was this tall, beautiful, powerful woman.

KISHA: Gloria was a little bit of Martin and a little bit of Malcolm.

So, she believed in nonviolence until you shot at her or her people.

And then she thought, "Well, you're shooting at me.

I get...

I have the right to shoot back."

DION: What she does is she starts meeting with the locals and she says, "Hey, you know, what do we want?"

And it was health care, housing, education.

She wanted the basic things that everyone else had.

She just wanted a better quality of life.

NARRATOR: Richardson's request echo in the heart of The Packing House redevelopment today, addressing the very needs that Cambridge is still seeking for their community.

ANNOUNCER: The Desegregation campaign was organized by the so-called Cambridge Nonviolent Action Committee with total integration as its goal.

It was headed by Gloria Richardson.

KISHA: So, she led the movement here and was able to take our desires to Washington to ah, Robert Kennedy, who was then the Attorney General, and she brokered the Treaty of Cambridge.

ANNOUNCER: After long hours of hard bargaining directed by Attorney General Robert Kennedy, it called for completion of desegregation in public schools, formation of a biracial committee, construction of a federally sponsored housing project.

KISHA: There were no other communities across the country that were able to broker something like that with Washington.

The idea is we want better and we got better, but we still got separate.

(Police sirens).

ANNOUNCER: Along the way, nonviolent action too often became violent.

The first explosion came in June.

KISHA: And then we get to the fire of '67, and it totally dismantled the robust African American community here.

BROWN: I come back a few years later and I still find race speeches about that, divide in the community.

DION: That night, H. Rapp Brown came to Cambridge and he gave a clichéd speech that he's given all over the country.

And one of the lines in his speech was, "if this town don't come around, burn it down."

BROWN: Ain't no need in the world for me to come to Cambridge.

when I see all them stage set up there.. White folks built America..

If America don't come around, we should burn it down, brother.

(crowd cheers).

DION: One of the officer's guns misfired.

It ricocheted, and it struck H. Rapp Brown on the side of his head.

And from there, people say it was a riot... (Glass breaking, noise of people rioting).

DION: ...But people just were like up in arms.

That night was simmering, simmering with energy.

Um, later that night, um, someone had set the fire to the elementary school, which was on Pine Street.

When the fire started at the school, it hit the power lines and jumped across the street, and then burnt down probably the majority of the business section of Pine Street.

The fire chief was actually called.

He parked the fire trucks and just watched the fire burn.

They didn't come in to put the fire out.

KISHA: The pictures are just devastating.

It looks like a war zone and the police just let it.

I mean, the firemen just let it burn.

KATIE: And so, it burned a significant amount of what was the downtown in Pine Street, and that commerce has never returned in that way.

And that helps lead, unfortunately, to those conditions that it's experiencing today.

(slow atmospheric music).

KISHA: And so after that fire, the city did nothing to rebuild.

And it wasn't until like the early 2000s maybe that the White Cambridge began to see a resurgence; while the Black Cambridge was still very much struggling.

NARRATOR: The remnants of the fire, the tensions from the closing of the Packing House, and the subsequent economic and social downturn remain.

But now, more, a half-century later, something is coming along.

The Packing House redevelopment is poised to bridge the economic and racial divide.

(construction noise).

AMANDA: I'm very honored to be immersed into this project and the times that we are in now with the divide, with all of the different components of the community.

I think it's just a beautiful testament to the future and what we can do as a community when we come together.

MARGARET: And that draws people in...

The important part about the project and working with the community and continuing to work with the community.

It's not to get in front of the community.

So, it's-it's to is to work alongside.

We can't do it without them.

AMANDA: Hi, Kiara.

KIARA MARTINEZ: Hi Amanda, how are you?

I'm coming out.

AMANDA: What you got for me?

KIARA: I have a mango pineapple lemonade for you right now.

AMANDA: Awesome.

Thank you.

KIARA: Yes.

AMANDA: Miss Martin is a local mom.

Her name is Kiara Martinez, and ah, she has been doing her baking as long as I've known her.

So, I've known her about ten years.

This is awesome.

Beautiful day for some lemonade and cookies.

KIARA: Yes, it is.

It is.

AMANDA: With our kitchen, we definitely look to break the barrier and bringing at-home kitchen cooks out into the community, really being able to bring their creativity and the foods that they hold near and dear to their families and make it more accessible and available for the community.

We are excited to have you part of the Four Eleven Kitchen family and so looking forward to you coming in the kitchen and expanding your business.

KIARA: I'm just excited to be a part of something like this.

AMANDA: Yes, and our space is going to be definitely outfitted for you to be able to come in and expand and utilize the commercial space.

That's what the kitchen would offer.

We would be able to assist them with getting that new product out to market.

KIARA: All right.

It will be seven even.

Lemme grab your cookies.

AMANDA: I'm just looking forward to seeing her business expand and grow.

And I try not to get emotional about it, but there are so many different ethnicities that are in our community.

And to be able to see us flourish together to support one another in a very positive way, it means the world to me to have Four Eleven as a forerunner, you know, for those barriers to be broken and, you know, make those dreams a reality.

KIARA: Yeah.

AMANDA: Because we want to see you thrive.

We want to see you to be able to expand beyond the borders of Dorchester County.

So, we are excited for you.

KIARA: As soon as possible.

You let me know when the doors is ready to open and I'll be there.

I'm excited about this.

AMANDA: Yes.

And it brings hope.

KIARA: Thank you, guys.

AMANDA: A lot of our food businesses start, but then something stops them and they say, what's the use?

And we look forward to being, you know, a beacon of hope.

MAN: Super proud of you, babe.

KIARA: Super proud of you.

MAN: All right.

I got to get back to work.

KIARA: All right.

I'm at work.

(laughs).

(folksy guitar music).

(din of people talking).

NARRATOR: The Packing House is evolving as a hub of economic opportunity.

Four Eleven Kitchen is fueling the entrepreneurial spirit, and digital technology is spurring creative endeavors.

It's also evolving as a place for tourism.

Blue Oyster Environmental is the brainchild of fifth-generation waterman, Johnny Shockley and his son, Jordan.

The plan is to bring the once ubiquitous bivalve back to the Bay by the millions using modern methods that will put watermen back to work.

And with all those oysters, you just might need a place to shuck them.

JOHNNY SHOCKLEY: Down at The Packing House is going to be a what we're calling a tasting room that will provide a space for us to be able to celebrate everything that we're doing with Blue Oyster and the aquaculture industry and the watermen of the Chesapeake; and a place to bring the community together.

The Oyster Bar is going to be right here where the break is on the floor.

JORDAN: Yeah.

So the Oyster Bar is a big part of our vision there because when they visit there, we want them to feel like they're walking back into 1885 into what the industry used to be; and to be able to celebrate the oyster there and learn about the history of the Bay and celebrate the watermen that are... that are part of it and now are part of the solution to bringing the oyster back.

And so that building, when you walk in there, that's really the focus of that as walking back in time and to see a new future for the Bay and for this community... To utilize and maximizing the space is what we've been talking about is how the flow of oysters comes from out of this room through... Cambridge in a lot of ways was built on, um, on the oyster industry.

So, that's when we were harvesting 20 million bushels of oysters annually just in the Bay and that's just a tremendous resource that's not here anymore.

JOHNNY: The oyster is tremendously important, um, to this community, not only from the economic standpoint, but also from the environmental standpoint.

JORDAN: It's hard for the Bay to maintain natural levels of nitrogen and phosphorus.

It's been a battle to get back to the point where we're removing enough of those nutrients to have, you know, improved water quality.

JOHNNY: What we've got now is, an infrastructure that's coming out of the ground that can provide that seed and that larvae and everything needed to start building this oyster mill.

(Slow atmospheric music).

(Rumble of boat).

WYLIE: To us, this is what we do.

My people, our people, come from the Indians, so my people have been here for 1,000 years, so we've been here a long time.

So that's watermen.

That's watermen.

That's all we've ever done.

That's all we've ever done.

Don't miss it, Joe!

WYLIE: The aquaculture is the process of actually being a farmer.

It's where you buy your seed, you grow your seed, plant your seed, and then you harvest your crop when it's big enough.

That's basically aquaculture, in a nutshell.

Right under here, is our underwater farm.

We got approximately 900 cages under the water.

We'll put those oysters in this cage when they're about this size.

These oysters here are probably about a year... that's harvest size there.

That's actually what the market really want for a box oyster... We're just taken out the ones we're going to take to harvest.... JORDAN: We can see an industry, an aquaculture industry that grows 100 million oysters a year and a wild fishery that harvests, you know, 10 million oysters a year.

Those are significantly higher than we're at now.

That's the idea of growing the industry can actually help improve water quality.

WYLIE: See what happens is, you see that bill up on that oyster, that transparent at the top?

That's, that's its growth.

JORDAN: With this type of approach that does allow the watermen to be the champions of the environmental recovery of the Chesapeake Bay.

WYLIE: These cages are like little miniature reefs because they... what they do is they have a lot of life, you see it down here, you see 'em, the shrimp, worms, eels, fish, crabs, all are feeding off the stuff off the foul on the side of the cages It's a winner, winner, chicken dinner for everybody.

Yeah, we're helping the environment.

So, we got a couple million oysters out here filtering the water for nutrients.

So, they're in those bags starving, man.

We got to get them up top.

JORDAN: Yeah.

WYLIE: But we'll get them up there in the next few weeks, next week, yeah.

So you know, there's a program for nutrient credits that's going to materialize at some point.

Which is going to add a little bit of money to shore operations, a little bit of a cash cow.

JORDAN: Most exciting thing is to work with watermen and show them a way that you can maintain your roots from harvesting oysters, um, but it's in a new way that's sustainable.

And it can be passed on to those families to maintain that, that is incredibly exciting to me.

WYLIE: These old shoulders, they get wore out.

So, we need some young blood.

You know, we need young blood.

These are what they call triploids.

That water gets warmer, they start pumping and they grow fast, I mean, really fast.

We're going to meet Greg, Greg Cheeseman is going to come here.

He's going to do a measurement of survey of our oysters for the nutrient credit program.

JORDAN: We're using the new nutrient credit trading markets to help kind of incentivize oyster production while providing additional capital that will be infused back into the industry.

You know, we're putting hundreds of people back into, not just farming the oyster, but the processing as well.

By us bringing that back, we're bringing back those jobs that were once here that aren't here anymore.

JOHNNY: So I'm super stoked about this space out here.

It's really going to be a great addition to our Oyster Bar.

JORDAN: Yeah, it's a tremendous amount of potential.

JOHNNY: My goal is, is to have the entire community rally around this idea and to around oyster bars and around that incredible animal that we all love to consume and to celebrate around.

You can have our oysters and eat them, too.

JORDAN: It's just a good way to connect the building as a whole to the town also.

NARRATOR: Honoring history by framing a prosperous future for the region is at the foundation of The Packing House.

A creative tide is rising and the Eastern Shore is ready for this innovative wave to flow.

The Packing House will be the centerpiece for film and animation production, giving the region's youth the tools, they need to imagine to create their future.

TREVOR: Outlook Company is a media company that specializes in intellectual property and youth, um, media.

WALTER: We make movies in short, but we do a little bit of everything.

We do a combination of 3D animation, 2D animation, and we've even got a VR game development team.

So, we get really busy here.

TREVOR: The thesis behind the company is how do you create a media company in a place that's never had one?

WALTER: We've started it here in Baltimore about two years ago.

We have enough talent base here that we figured it would be worth the gamble to really start and try something here.

That's a little... that's a little different.

TREVOR: The Packing House was not a small idea, but you start with something.

There's no secrets in this business.

There's no secrets whatsoever.

Whatever we teach, whatever we do here will be taught at The Packing House is being taught at Pixar, is being taught at Marvel.

It's all the same.

It's what you do with it.

It's a creative process you put it through.

WALTER: So I have ability to... to say, hey, we have an academy here for people that really want to figure out how this creative environment works and then be able to give them a foot in to the opportunity to do it.

Yeah, that's it's pretty cool.

TREVOR: The Disney's and the Netflix's of the world and those big production companies are looking for new places and new talent and new faces to do what we do.

WALTER: So, we're shooting a ray first and then doing that or no?

STUDENT: EQS runs it all.

WALTER: Oh wow.

TREVOR: We need to teach it.

And I know we're doing it right because, you know, the companies we work with, um, have told us you all doing the right thing.

STUDENT 2: 90 degrees to its rotation.... TREVOR: With The Packing House, at first, it's going to be very little instruction.

And let's see who shows up.

Here somewhere in Cambridge, there's a kid here, knows how to do it.

There is one.

And then we find the one, it's a success, right?

WALTER: Yeah, there is a bit of "build it, they will come."

But you know, the thing about it is that we're in this generation of...of learning what they call the age of information, so to speak.

TREVOR: What we realized very quickly was this has to be less about teaching and more about accessibility... Access.

WALTER: I hate using the term state of the art, but that's what they are.

We use a lot of top-end computers, high-end graphics cards, really, um, good processors.

We use some really Hollywood end hardware.

INSTRUCTOR: More of a playful color.... What if the woods on the arc are different?

TREVOR: That's my thing is who can we expose to this?

Where they take it?

You never know.

WALTER: You typically don't have access to people like us... Film wise.

That's not going to show up on screen unless you're right up on it.

WALTER: You know, that can answer a question for you and be able to point you in the right direction.

TREVOR: As long as there's a place for the best ones to show up, the skill will start to rise a little bit.

I think.

WALTER: A large talent base, that's what I'm hoping we can get.

A larger talent base of people that realize that that this type of work is not only doable, but we are doing it and we're doing it well.

TREVOR: They're going to spend three months where there's going to be a team of ten people at this shot.

It's the spark.

That's what I hope Packing House is, is a spark for, a spark for a place that people kind of forgot about.

WALTER: That would be a huge reward to be able to say, "Oh yeah, you guys are in California.

We don't have to go out there.

We can do this all right here."

TREVOR: But I know there's one.

And it's like I've always wanted to try that, but I don't have the computer that does it.

And you say gaming, everybody shows up, you say, "Oh, you want to do feature animation."

Some of them know what it is, but I promise you that somebody down there does and they're like, "I would have never had access to this stuff or access to that world if we didn't show up at Cambridge."

You know, they're there somewhere right?

(hip music).

NARRATOR: Today, The Packing House is emerging as a glistening centerpiece to Cambridge, standing as a place to celebrate its resiliency and a place create its own path forward.

SECRETARY HOLT: Charlie, Katie Parks, this is Charlie... BILL: This is, are places that, you know, are kind of the "go-to" of people coming together and creating place and community.

I feel this... this is going to be the place.

ROB: It's been a labor of love that has taken quite a while.

But it's, it's here.

KISHA: A central location like this is something that this town has been missing.... MAYOR JACKSON-STANLEY: I love this guy.

GOVERNOR LARRY HOGAN: I love this girl.

MAYOR JACKSON-STANLEY: You know, it's like the phoenix.

We are coming up from the ashes.

This building is older than I am.

And to think that it can be reborn, redone, or revitalized is exciting.

KATIE: It's been such a culmination of many.

It's a proverbial village, right?

It takes a village.

There's so many amazing partners that have worked for so many years.

SECRETARY HOLT: And I welcome you here to The Packing House.

As many of you know, for decades it had been abandoned.

It was a wasting industrial asset.

And I think some of the beginning of the turnaround was Governor Larry Hogan deciding to make a commitment to rural Maryland and focusing on community engagement.

(audience applause).

GOVERNOR HOGAN: Good morning.

Thank you very much, Secretary Holt.

Can you tell that Secretary Holt is passionate about this project?

I can.

I mean, I really want to sincerely thank everyone who has in anyway been involved in making this very exciting project a reality.

(Crowd clap and cheer as Governor Hogan cuts ribbon).

KATIE: We talk about preserving place.

There's always the element of the tangible and preserving elements of the building, but the intangible, the history, you know, the heritage and culture, the things that you can feel but you can't necessarily see, are equally as important.

I think this project demonstrates that.

GOVERNOR HOGAN: I can't wait to come back when the kitchen is humming.

AMANDA: Yes, yes, I'm looking forward.... MARGARET: I don't know, you just start watching these things unfold and, and watch their joy.

They see, you know, the opportunity for change in their hand.

And I think that's just what it is all about.

(uplifting music).

NARRATOR: The emergence of the long-anticipated Packing House signals, the rebirth, and reconciliation of a community.

Cambridge's story is truly unique, but at the same time, this is the story of any town in rural America filled with struggles, endurance, and hope for the future.

KATIE: It was sitting there and deteriorating, right, just reminding everybody of who we were and what we are now.

And I think that in itself it can stand again, you know, the ability for The Packing House to stand again and supporting of similar industries but in a more modern, you know, relevant way for what the community and the region needs now.

Is, that makes it very special.

AMANDA: Creating a sustainable community and you know, a community that is going to live beyond, you know, just our imprint, is the ultimate goal.

CESAR: Come and eat our food, come and learn our history.

Come and talk to our people.

That's, that's the future of Cambridge.

KISHA: If this space is used to its fullest potential, it could certainly be the heart.

The beginning of long-lasting change of this community.

KATIE: In some deeper sense, it changes the way people interface with their communities.

It changes the way citizens and, you know, planning staff and elected officials make decisions moving forward.

They understand that it's not just saving an old building.

It's the future of Cambridge.

(uplifting music continues and builds).

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪