The Small Boat Shed was originally a freight terminal located in Claiborne, Md. owned by the Baltimore, Chesapeake & Atlantic Railway Company, which operated rail and steamer service, beginning in the 1890s. In 1933, with the discontinuation of freight service, the structure was moved 6 miles and rebuilt on Navy Point in 1933 to be used in the growing local seafood packing industry, becoming a warehouse for the cannery operated by the St. Michaels Packing Company. Another packing company on the Navy Point site, Coulbourn & Jewett, was owned by two Black businessmen and became one of the first businesses to pack and ship Maryland blue crabs in one-pound cans. CBMM acquired the St. Michaels Packing Company building in 1971 and converted it to exhibition space.
