SHAFER, JACOB C. & CO. - (Most of the following information is taken from Gary Ruppert's website, Baltimore City Nineteeth-Century Photos.) Jacob Conrad Shafer (from Germany), learned the pork packing business from Peter Sweeney, eventually buying Sweeney out. Jacob then founded the Jacob C. Shafer & Co. - Pork Packers. Sweeney's old building was demolished and in 1870, at a cost of $250,000, the new plant was located on Louisiana (Lexington) and Diamond Streets (now a parking lot).
The building was noted for its 4-floor cellar depth for curing meat and its four floors above ground, as well as an adjacent curing plant on Clay St., both buildings connected by a tunnel. It had mechanical refrigeration, and advances in storing and handling meat, and was known in the trade as the "showplace of the East." There were three articles and photos in the Sun (1940, 1951, 1986) regarding the "Meat-Packing Plant's Four Floors of Cellar," the "Shafer's, Sweeney's Dispute - Origin of Tunnels," and the "Caverns of Greene St.," respectively. The image was submitted by Mary Bahr (mary.bahr@peoplepc.com). Jacob Conrad Shafer is the great grandfather of Mary Bahr. From the collection of Gary Ruppert. (MGS00002B)
