By 1845, brothers Joseph Whitaker II (1789-1870) and George Price Whitaker (1803-1890) built two furnaces here on the Furnace Wharf. The brothers were the sons of Joseph Whitaker (1755-1838), a cavalryman in the British Army who on an expedition in 1777 deserted the British forces near Elkton and created the Principio Furnace. (It was on that expedition that the British first burned Havre de Grace.) It was known as the Havre Iron Company (and sometimes as the Havre de Grace Iron Works) as an adjunct to their iron foundry at Principio Furnace. In 1859 they divided their properties and the Havre Iron Company became the property of George P. Whitaker with a large blast furnace. Joseph lived in Pennsylvania and George in Maryland and, fearing the result of the Civil War, they divided properties by free and slave states. George held the Maryland property, which was located at the foot of Bourbon Street and reached up to Washington Street. And Joseph held the Pennsylvania property. They are said to have supplied metal for guns for the government during the Mexican-American and Civil Wars. George Whitaker subsequent to 1862 sold the iron works to members of the McCullough Iron Company. However, in 1866 the old Havre Iron Company was bought by Abram P. McCombs who in 1873 was granted a 10-year tax abatement for the furnace.

In the late 1890s, J. Osborn & Company’s floating fish sheds were on the water here at the foot of Bourbon Street and are shown on the 1899 Sanborn Map along with Abbott Coal and Wood Company. By the time of the 1930 Sanborn Map this location is also shown as the Charles B. Silver & Son Cannery. Charles Bartol Silver (1867-1947) and his wife, Fannie Silver, had bought the Spencer-Silver Mansion in 1917 and he also served as President of the First National Bank in 1918. After Charles B. Silver died intestate in 1947, and Fannie died in 1952, their heirs sold this property to Chas. B. Silver & Son, Inc. in 1954. Just five years later, with G. Bartol Silver (1900-1972 and Charles B’s son) at the helm, the Charles B. Silver & Son cannery sold this property to Alice Mackin Pensell (1919-2011) and George C. Pensell (1918-1998), and J. Leonard Rhinehart (1913-1982), trading as the Friendly Oil Company. The property stretched to the foot of Franklin Street (approximately where the Tidewater Grille is today). Alice was of the Mackin family who operated “Mackin’s Saloon” at 457 Franklin Street in the 1930s.

The Friendly Oil Company began in 1959, from which George Pensell and Leonard Rhinehart delivered heating oil to residents. They also had a wharf and pier here, where boats were kept. What the Pensells and Rhinehart also did during the 1960s was to gradually acquire a lot of the waterfront property between Bourbon and Fountain Streets (most of which had been canneries) until they had much of the eleven acres now owned by the Tidewater Marina. George and Alice were the parents of George Garrett “Gary” Pensell who began his working life making some of the oil deliveries. And Leonard Rhinehart developed a love for antique cars and collected them. He won prizes for entering them in competitions, particularly his 1927 Packard, and loved to display his 1909 Mitchell that he drove in a Havre de Grace 4th of July Parade. In 1959, Leonard became the National Director of the Antique Automobile Association, which held a parade of cars at the 12th Annual Delmarva Chicken Festival in Salisbury, Maryland.

After Friendly Oil moved to St. John Street and later out to Route 40, Gary Pensell (born 1941) and his wife, Barbara, saw an opportunity for a marina on the waterfront property. It took him five to six years in the 1950s of preparing for the marina. While dredging the area in 1953, they found a ship that had sunk on the bottom with its propeller sticking out of the water. Doug Burdette was there during the dredging when they latched onto and lifted the big propeller and shaft out, to the surprise of everyone around, says Doug. The propeller and shaft are now displayed on Lafayette Street alongside the Maritime Museum with a plaque:
A propeller uses the principle of the screw to convert rotational motion into forward thrust to power a boat or ship in the water. This propeller was manufactured in 1895, and installed on the 135 foot tug Sea King. The tug reported for War 1917 at Havre de Grace to have its steam boiler replaced, but the war ended before work was completed. There, it was abandoned and sank. In 1953, George Pensell cleared the wreck to build the Tidewater Marina. He saved the propeller and shaft and later donated them to the museum."

While George Pensell still owned the property, he left his son, Garrett Justin “Gary” Pensell to run the operations of the marina. Eventually, the younger Gary says, he bought his Dad out—but only after they got an appraisal which was the full price he paid his Dad. In 1972, Hurricane Agnes dealt them a severe blow from which they only slowly recovered. But getting into selling large sailboats helped them.

The Tidewater Marina property now includes several buildings and the three-story brick office building at 203 Market Street built more recently. That at first was the location of Tidewater Marina Outfitters in 2006 until the outfitters shop was moved down into the main Marina building. The Market Street building now contains rental offices. The Marina is now owned by the Pensell-Rhinehart Partnership No.1, LLP.

County Records
Built 1973. 55,460 sq ft, storage warehouse, 11.3-acre lot.