We’ve talked about the sardine canneries in Ferry Village where many of the local neighborhood women worked in the early- to mid-1900s. When a herring boat came in, the horn at the factory would blow and it was a common sight to see doors opening and women walking down to the cannery.
The Outfitting Building, known as Building 15, was built during World War II at the South Portland Shipyards. The site would later be home to Forster Manufacturing from 1947 to 1956, and to Quality House Specialties Corp. from 1947 to 1954. South Portland Historical Society photo
There were two long factory buildings on the waterfront before World War II came to South Portland and changed the landscape. We’ve talked previously about those canneries – E.W. Brown, Portland Products and Seaboard Packing. E.W. Brown’s packing plant was in the way when they were constructing the South Portland Shipbuilding yard (also known as the West Yard), so that factory building was removed in 1941.
One subject we haven’t covered, however, is the large number of seafood companies that moved into the former shipyard after the war.
This week, we look at yet another South Portland sardine cannery – Quality House Specialties Corporation.
I’ve seen the name of the company kicking around at the historical society for years, but haven’t ever come across any written recording that mentioned exactly what the company did. With my friend Jackie Dunham’s help, we’ve recently taken on the research of Quality House and the many other seafood processors that existed in the post-war shipyard.
Quality House Specialties Corp. was one of the first seafood companies on the scene after the war. They moved into Building 15 – the same building that we talked about last week in our story about Forster Manufacturing. This very large building was constructed during the war as the “Outfitting Building,” located just adjacent to the outfitting piers at the West Yard. Forster opened a clothespin assembly plant in a 12,000-square-foot portion of the building in January, 1947. Also in 1947, Victor N. Cory leased space in the building.
In this April 1942 image, a Liberty Ship is pulled up next to one of the outfitting piers at South Portland Shipbuilding Corporation (also known as the West Yard, and later known as New England Shipbuilding). The long building just above and between the two outfitting piers, is Building 15, the Outfitting Building. Building 15 was later home to Forster Manufacturing and Quality House Specialties Corp. South Portland Historical Society photo
Cory is an elusive character. He was born in Turkey in 1903 and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1907. The Cory family settled in New York City. Around 1940, he was operating the Victor Cory Company, a food importer in Lower Manhattan. We also know that he had prior experience in the sardine canning industry. In the early 1940s, Cory was an investor in Riviera Packing Company, a fish cannery in Eastport, Maine.
When he first leased the space in South Portland in 1947, the newspapers were using the name Victor N. Cory Company. He incorporated a new company in New York, however, in October, 1947, under the name Quality House Specialties Corporation. By 1948, about $400,000 had been invested in the company’s South Portland plant.
An article in the Portland Evening Express on May 24, 1948, announced that Quality House Specialties was ready for its first herring run: “Victor N. Cory, head of the firm, said the plant will employ 200 persons at the start of operations and will ship its products, including fish cake patties, to all parts of the Country. Two former Coast Guard 83-footers are being converted to sardine carriers for use by the latest addition to the West Yard development.”
Around this same time, the company was advertising for “experienced sardine packers, also women, experienced or inexperienced, for general hour-work – labeling, cutting, testing, etc. … free bus transportation to workers to and from Yarmouth, Freeport, Falmouth, Westbrook.”
At the South Portland plant, the company packed sardines under the brand “Cory Brand Quality Sardines.” The company also made cod fish cakes, which they packed and sold under the brand “Cory’s all ready fried codfish cakes.”
Arrows on this 1953 Sanborn map point to Quality House’s use of both a portion of Building 15, as well as the short pier between the original two long outfitting piers. On the short pier, Quality House operated a cutting shed. Courtesy image
The first sign of trouble that we found was an article in a Memphis, Tennessee, paper in October, 1951, saying that a civil suit had been filed against Quality House Specialties, South Portland, for condemnation of 1,600 cans that were shipped to Memphis in June, 1950, that were found to contain decomposed fish. A similar FDA notice of judgment was filed against Quality House Specialties Corp., New York, New York, for “adulteration of canned sardines.” In that case, around Nov. 9, 1951, a shipment of canned sardines by Quality House Specialties, New York, arrived in North Carolina. There were 49 cases of Cory-brand sardines, each case containing 100 cans, and the cans had not been sealed correctly so that they contained decomposed fish. In May, 1952, the shipment was condemned and destroyed, and the judgment against the company was issued in May, 1953.
Meanwhile, the South Portland location of Quality House filed a $137,000 lawsuit against American Can Company in February, 1953. In the suit, they alleged that American Can had leased them a machine that didn’t seal cans correctly. During an inspection, agents from the U.S. FDA declared the contents of about 424,000 cans to be unfit for human consumption. The cans and lids had reportedly been purchased from American Can in 1948.
In the fall of 1953, Quality House Specialties ordered two loads of potatoes (used in the manufacture of cod fish cakes) from a company in New York. Although both orders were delivered to and accepted by the South Portland plant, the company failed to pay for them. The supplier made an informal complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in December, 1953, followed up by a formal complaint filed in February, 1954. Quality House never responded to the complaint and didn’t show up for the hearing.
The official end of Quality House came about in 1954 when the company was foreclosed upon. Quality House had owned and operated two 83-foot fishing draggers, known as the Marietta and the Dracula. The company had already received a first mortgage from Casco Bank & Trust, using its South Portland plant and its fishing vessels as collateral. In August, 1953, Deep Sea Products had also loaned $44,000 to Quality House (with the two fishing draggers as collateral). In June, 1954, Deep Sea Products foreclosed on the loans and a federal judge ruled in Deep Sea’s favor, ordering the two vessels to be auctioned off.
Around the same time, the IRS filed a tax lien of about $40,000 against the Quality House Specialties “headquarters” in New York.
In August, 1954, Casco Bank & Trust had the contents of the South Portland plant auctioned off – all plant equipment, machinery, furniture, fixtures and product inventory.
Note: If you have any photographs, documents, artifacts or other information related to Quality House Specialties Corp., we would love to hear from you. South Portland Historical Society can be reached at 207-767-7299, by email at sphistory04106@gmail.com, or by mail at 55 Bug Light Park, South Portland, ME 04106. The society offers a free Online Museum with over 16,000 images available for viewing with a keyword search. You can find it at https://sphistory.pastperfectonline.com and, if you appreciate what we do, feel free to make a donation by using the donation button on the home page.
Kathryn Onos DiPhilippo is executive director of the South Portland Historical Society. She can be reached at sphistory04106@gmail.com.
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