The J.C. Lore & Sons Oyster House
Hours CLOSED FOR THE SEASON FOR RENOVATIONS. J.C. LORE & SONS OYSTER HOUSE DESIGNATED A NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK
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Read about it in the Bugeye Times
Exhibit Located six-tenths of a mile south of the main museum complex on State Route 2, this 1934 seafood packing house has been restored and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It now houses two major exhibits: "Seasons of Abundance, Seasons of Want: Making a Living from the Waters of the Patuxent", and "Built to Work: Building Deadrise Workboats in Southern Maryland." The first presents the history and traditions of the region's commercial finfish, crab, oyster, eel, and clam fisheries. The boat-building exhibit is located on the second floor of the oyster house and portrays the present traditions of wooden workboat building in the region.
History J.C. Lore and Sons of Solomons was one of the largest and most successful seafood packing companies in Southern Maryland. Founded by Joseph C. Lore, Sr. at the height of the Chesapeake oyster industry in 1888, the company specialized in packing and shipping Patuxent River fish, crabs, and oysters. Pay scale for oyster shuckers at the J. C. Lore Oyster House: 1924 - 25 cents per gallon
1941 - 35 cents per gallon
1952 - $1 per gallon
1974 - $1.50 per gallon Oyster shuckers were paid a set rate for each gallon of oysters they opened. An experienced shucker can open about ten to twelve gallons of oysters per day. Many seafood packing house workers and watermen left the oyster industry because they were able to get better paying jobs with the military when WWII began to influence Southern Maryland. A combination of pollution, disease, and over-harvesting caused the region’s oyster population to crash in the late twentieth century and led to the closure of many of the local seafood processing and packing businesses..
Oyster Facts Did you know........ In 1607 oysters were so numerous in Chesapeake Bay, that it took them 3 to five days to filter all of the water. Today it takes the population of oysters over a year to complete the task. Each oyster filters nearly 50 gallons of water a day. Oysters can live in waters with salinity levels between 5 and 35 parts per thousand. The Patuxent River is a perfect location for oysters with average salinity levels from 10 to 18 parts per thousand. Oysters may live up to 20 years. They become legal for harvest when they reach 3 inches in length or are about three years of age. Enemies of oysters include oyster drills, cow-nosed rays, crabs, "MSX", "Dermo", silt run-off, nutrient pollution, and of course man's desire for the delicacy. No two oysters are the same and the type of benthic location can help determine its shape. If an oyster is partly covered by silt on a soft bottom it becomes elongated in shape. Harder surface bottoms tend to make the shape more rounded. | 
