"Phillips
Crab House - 1967" by Paul McGehee. This nostalgic scene from the late
1960's shows Ocean City, Maryland's famous crab house by the light of
the setting sun. Lines of hungry people have formed around the block
anticipating dinner at one of the beach resort's most popular
restaurants. Shirley and Brice Phillips opened their first seafood
restaurant back in 1956...a small "crab shack" from which they could
sell surplus crabs from the family's seafood processing plant at
Hooper's Island. Soon, the little crab shack proved so popular that it
evolved into the first Phillips seafood restaurant, known as "Phillips
Crab House." Located at 21st Street and Philadelphia Avenue, the
English Tudor-style building quickly became a fixture of Ocean City's
dining scene. Phillips' succulent crab cakes, crab soup, fresh fish and
oyster dishes made it enormously popular amongst visitors and locals
alike. The interior of the original "Crab House" was decorated with
colorful lights, hand-carved carousel horses and antiques (such as
Tiffany-style lampshades) at every twist and turn of the ten dining
rooms. Most interesting of all was what your food would be served on:
repurposed treadle sewing machine tables with the foot treadle still in
place! The original "Phillips Crab House" could seat 1,200 guests...an
enormous structure for its day. The restaurant expanded into an even
larger building in the 1970's and 80's. Eventually Phillips Seafood
opened up several other restaurants on the East Coast, as well as
spreading their business overseas. The restaurants are now in their
third generation of family ownership, and are one of the greatest
success stories of Ocean City...and it all started with a little crab
shack! "Phillips Crab House - 1967" is faithfully reproduced
as an archival-quality print from
McGehee's original color pencil drawing, each hand-signed by the artist. |