The cannery's surviving buildings are among the best-preserved of the period, and provide a window into the labor practices of the cannery operators, which emphasized production over working conditions, and made significant use of immigrant contract workers.

The complex includes 18 buildings, out of an estimated 21 that were built by the cannery's owners and operators during its period of use.

There are two bunkhouses, one which was specifically designated for Japanese and Filipino workers, and another for whites.

During this time, the operators used generally race-based division of labor, assigning positions of responsibility to white men, and various lower-level menial tasks to immigrants from China, Japan, and elsewhere.

Most of this labor was hired through contractor middlemen, who were responsible for housing and feeding the workers.

It was sold in 1949 to a Native corporation, and operated as the Keku Cannery, but its packing operation was limited by the reduced fishery, and the eventual banning of the use of traps by the state Alaska after statehood.