Cheltenham Brickworks Gallery

THE ERA OF CHELTENHAM BRICKWORKS GALLERY

A decade later the town could boast of having a mill, three hotels, two general stores, four shoemakers, a tailor, a dressmaker, and a milliner.

In 1866 the town consisted of three mills, a trunk and saddle maker, a stove dealer, wagon maker, cabinet maker, blind maker and upholsterer, two bonnet makers, carpenter, insurance maker, Baptist church, and Orange Lodge.

In 1887 Haines added a store, hotel, and two-story house after a fire in 1886, destroyed an entire block of original buildings including Henry's hotel. Many of those reconstructed buildings remain to this day. The town received telephone service in 1910 and has 124 subscribers.

In 1914, the Interprovincial Brick Company took over the brick-making operations on Mississauga Road to expand their brick-making operations. Six downdraft kilns and one continuously firing kiln allowed the company to produce 90,000 bricks at once.

To provide accommodation for their workers, the company established a small town on the site. Rent was $13 a month which was cheaper than nearby Terra Cotta.

The downfall of the gallery

A fire in 1948 destroyed the grist mill. It is not known if it was rebuilt or not.

The town's population began to decline in the 1950s. The brick-making continued until 1958 when the Interprovincial Brick Company ceased operations. Domtar took over the site and demolished the worker's homes.

In 1993 Brampton Brick reopened the brickyards for shale extraction. They have preserved the original brickworks behind a chain-link fence.