Canadian Foundry

I initially went to this location to take a photograph of a house that I remember as being abandoned back in the 70's. The property had been sold to a neighbouring business not too long ago, so I figured I would take some pictures at least for my own records just in case it gets demolished. When we investigated it as kids in the 70's the house was not much more than a 1 room office. There are basement windows, but I don't recall the basement or even stairs. But that was about 40 years ago & I probably wanted to get out of that "haunted" house ASAP. So please excuse my lack of recollection.

The house is locked up tight from the front & has been since our adventures in the 70's. There was an entrance to the rear if I recall correctly. They may have used that to access the building for the last 40 years, but nothing from the front would indicate it. The company that purchased the property has built a big green fence that hides the rear & one side of the house.

While photographing the house I was surprised to see that the adjoining factory was still not in use. I know it had been abandoned for at least the last 4 years, but I thought the neighbours that bought it would be using it. But after a little further investigating, they seemed to have purchased the property primarily for its extra parking space to park their additional concrete mix trucks.

They have also previously rented out the visible parking space of the factory for construction equipment last year & presently it has a bunch of movie style motor homes & trailers parked around the lot. The factory itself, still lays virtually empty with old equipment & some weird knick knacks.

I was holding off posting this, because I wanted to verify it's original use, but I couldn't seem to find anything that described it's initial use or year built. The factory & house were built somewhere between 1913 & 1924. The factory has the look of an old foundry, with foundry style fire doors. I remember a lot of train wheels being around the property when we were kids. We used to also borrow hand operated rail cars & race each other up & down the side tracks. Whatever the exact initial use was, my guess is it was probably making parts for the old Grand Trunk Railway & then CNR, as this is just about 100 yards away from the initial servicing & train yards in Mimico. Then low & behold, I finally found the evidence this afternoon in a 1955 historic photo. On the wall of the building is it's name, Canadian Foundry. If it's still written on the building, it is hidden behind the silos & not at an easily accessible part.

In the early 70's its use changed. All of a sudden there was a silo on the property. Prior to erecting it, they lay it on its side on the small back field, between the tracks & the factory. A whole bunch of us kids used them as giant logs as we log rolled them around the field. Lucky the field was uneven & had deep grass or there probably would have been a few crushed kids as we fell off & it rolled over top us. Luckily we just ended with a face full of dirt & some bruises.

The silo was eventually erected and plenty more followed over the years, as kids we had no knowledge of what was being made, but they were mixing something. American Colloid used these silos & mixed molding materials for the metalcasting industry, they mixed various products & individualized formulas for a number of foundries prior to leaving this location. I don't know exactly when this company left, but I believe it was between 2007 and 2009.

The concrete mix company that bought the property is not well liked in the community & has done some questionable things. The locals would happily run them out of town. They built a big green fence around their property & I think the purpose was more to hide what they are doing rather than security (I could easily double the length of this post). The neighbouring property is busy with their concrete mixing business, and depending on the week there may or may not be items parked in the foundry lot. Not sure if they plan on doing something with the foundry in the future, but so far nothing yet.

Sorry for the long winded post.

[u]EDIT[/u] Demolished