Cannery Row exists because wealthy hotel guests complained about sardine smells drifting into their swimming pools. In the late 19th century, Charles Crocker of the Hotel Del Monte ordered the fishermen further up the coast, and a new industrial waterfront was born along what was then called Ocean View Avenue.

By the height of World War I, production had surged from 75,000 cases of sardines a year to 1.4 million. Then, in the late 1940s, the sardines were gone. John Steinbeck had already immortalised the Row in his 1945 novel, and in 1958, the city renamed the street after his book. The rebirth began in 1968 when two restaurant managers opened the Sardine Factory and saw potential in the ruins.

VoiceMap's dedicated walking tour traces the full arc of that story, from cannery workers earning twenty-five cents an hour to the real-life characters Steinbeck turned into literature.