The Canadian Westinghouse Company was incorporated on July 9, 1903. Within 10 years the company had expanded their Canadian operations to include offices in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal and Winnipeg. There were over 3,000 employees by 1915.

The production factory was located on Sanford Avenue in Hamilton . Production was primarily air brakes but later included motors, generators, stoves, toasters, transformers, and turbines. In 1917, the company constructed a five-storey head office building across the street from the factory. A bridge connected the two buildings.

The head office featured large, arched windows and decorative keystones and cornices were key elements in the building’s design.

By 1957 there were 13 manufacturing locations, nine service shops and 18 sales offices across Canada. By 1955, the Hamilton location had 11,000 employees.
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The corporate diviosn moved downtown in 1983 while remaining Westinghouse staff moved out of the building by 1987.

In 2001, the City of Hamilton took possession of the building due to tax arrears. Repairs were estimated to be $5,000,000 and so the property was put up for sale as surplus. It was purchased in 2003 for $200,000. Today the building has been renovated and is home to new businesses including an architectural firm.

The plant was located at 286 Sanford Avenue North, Hamilton.

Studebaker was founded in 1852 as a manufacturer of carriages and harnesses for farmers, miners and the military. Beginning in 1904, the company began production of gasoline powered automobiles under the name of Studebaker Automobile Company.

The factory, located at 440 Victoria Avenue North in Hamilton, had previously been used by Otis Elevators in 1902. From 1914 until 1918 it was used to manufacture shells fror WWI. In 1940, the Federal Government built a gun plant on the Otis Elevator site for World War Two (WWII). Following the end of WWII , the Federal Government then sold the plant to Studebaker of Canada.

On August 18, 1948, the first vehicle, a blue Champion four-door sedan, rolled off the Studebaker assembly line surrounded by 400 employees and news reporters. The following year, the company exceeded both production and profit expectations.

In 1950 through to 1955, the Studebaker plant produced half-ton trucks.The plant was an enormous 740,000 square feet built on 7 and one half acres of land. Steel which was required for automobiles was in close proximity, given Hamilton’s primary industry as a steel producer.

By the 1960’s, the plant was producing Larks, Hawks and trucks. In 1963, the South Bend, Indiana plant closed and global production shifted to Hamilton. The production line was reduced to Daytona, Cruiser, Commander and Wagonaire vehicles.

Studebaker also imported cars for Volkswagen of Canada. They were able to take advantage of lower import duties due to their classification as a manufacturer. Volkswagens were imported from Germany and Studebaker sold them for a $150 profit apiece.

The last car to roll off the line was a turquoise Lark Cruiser on March 17, 1966. Studebaker ceased business the following day. 700 employees found themselves out of work. Otis Elevator purchased the proprty a few years later to use as a warehouse – which was in use until 1987. Following this, Allan Candy used the plant until 1997.

Most of the plant, which has been described as being the “size of three Home Depots”, has been demolished. From 2012 until 2013 more demolition and clean up took place but was not completed.

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The Holmes Foundry was located in the City of Sarnia, which contains 20% of Canada’s refineries. In 1918, John S. Blunt registered the Holmes Blunt Limited name for his business. The foundry produced engine casting blocks and brake linings for the Ford Motor Company. There were two other operations which were the Caposite and Insulation plant and the Holmes Foundry Plant.

Workers at the foundry were unionized under the Canadian Auto Workers however efforts to unionize Caposite Insulation workers were met with opposition from management.

Conditions in the asbestos insulation plant were unsafe and management often dismissing worker’s concerns. With little ventilation, the men finished shifts covered in up to half an inch of dust, but weren’t provided with showers. Meals were eaten in the same room as the toilets.

Violent Strike

On March 2, 1937 beween 30 to 50 of the European immigrant workers went on strike. They sat down in front of their machines and refused to work. The workers presented management with a list of demands: an eight-hour shift, a daily wage of 5 dollars, showers, toilets and a lunchroom, and recognition of their union committee. Superintendent W. B. Millholland refused to negotiate.

Approximately 300 Canadian-born men armed with blackjacks and bullwhips gathered outside the foundry and demanded the strikers step outside. Those who tried to enter the foundry were met with opposition from strikers on the roof. One man tried to escape the chaos and fell 30 feet to the ground, fracturing his spine, pelvis and ankle.A truck was used to break down a door, the mob rushed in and dragged the striking men outside.

The strike lasted 11 days. In the end, all of the striking workers were replaced.

Health Concerns

As early as 1952, Ministry of Health inspections conducted at Holmes Foundry raised concerns about “silica, noise and smoke”. Asbestos and silica sand would be left uncovered in the yard. One report stated that, “Asbestos was everywhere in the Holmes facilities. Former Holmes workers tell horror stories of asbestos in the air so thick they could hardly see, of asbestos on the floor that billowed up whenever anyone walked through, and of asbestos on machines and on shelves. There was asbestos dust on the workers, on clothing, on exposed skin and in their hair.”

In 1958, the Holmes Foundry and the Ministry of Health exchanged correspondance acknowledging that there were potential health hazards due to asbestos exposure. When the Ministry conducted air samples later that year, they found that levels were 28 times over the standard. Despite this, no orders were put into place by the Ministry.

Inspectors returned to the plant in 1967 where they estimated daily production of asbestos to be 10,000 pounds. 34 air samples were taken of which only five were below the legal limit. During the 16 years that the government conducted air sampling at the Caposite plant, asbestos counts were reported to be “the highest ever encountered by this Branch in any of the plants in Ontario.”

AMC Acquisition

In July of 1970, American Motors, Canada (AMC) acquired 100 per cent of the Holmes Foundry.

In the early 1970’s, when new chemicals were brought into the plant, the pigeons that roosted in the plant began to die. Former worker Clare Hall said, “They’d hit the floor. Sometimes they’d kick their feet but they’d be dead.” The women who washed their husband’s work clothes, may have suffered scarred lung cavities.

Between 1972 and 1973 the Ministry measured the asbestos levels to be as high as 852 fibers per cubic cemtimeter. They issued 29 orders to the foundry. In 1973, the Ministry of Health issued a “cease production” order. During a follow-up visit, inspectors found that the foundry had ignored that order.

In 1974, asbestos ceased to be used in the plant.

Present Day

On September 16, 1988 the Holmes Foundry was closed. A $7 million environmental cleanup was conducted. The Ministry of Environment issued a certificate indicating that the land had been decommissioned in accordance with all requirements.

In 1989 the land was purchased by a local realtor named John D’Andrea of the D’Andrea Group. The D’Andrea group was a group of Mr. D’Andrea’s friends and family. In 1999, D’Andrea said that he had a buyer offering $1.8 million for the property.

In 1999, the land was sold to a numbered Ontario company, identified as the Chippewas of the Thames First Nation near London. The Chippewas purchased the land with the intention to develop a casino. D’Andrea received $700,000 as he was the majority shareholder.

Things didn’t go as planned however. When D’Andrea claimed that he still had an interest in the land, police were called. It was determined that the property was actually worth $3.6 million and that D’Andrea had only sold half of the property interest.

The lawsuit was resolved in 2017. Demolition of the property began in 2020 at a cost of $840,000. The property was listed for sale again at a price of $7 million.

The Gneral Motors plant in St. Catharines is a 43 acre property with 1.2 million feet of square space. It began operations in March of 1929 after being purchased by McKinnon Industries, which became a subsidiary of General Motors.

The company was founded as McKinnon and Mitchell Hardware by Ebenezer McKinnon in 1878. The hardware company’s main production was carriages and wagons. In 1888, McKinnon took over the business and diversified into carriage dashes and fenders.

By 1900 the city had passed a special bylaw allowing McKinnon to start an operation on Ontario Street. The McKinnon Bylaw as it was named, provided the company with $4000 a year in grants and tax exemption for up to 15 years in return for guaranteed jobs.

The business expanded and became McKinnon Dash and Metal Work Limited. In 1901 a malleable iron foundry was added followed by a drop forge shop in 1905.

In 1916 McKinnon received military contracts to produce shells and fuses for the First World War. After the war ended, the company began producing radiators and transmission gears for automobiles. The company’s founder Ebenezer McKinnon died in 1923. Two years later, his heir Laughlin McKinnon formed McKinnon Industries, adding wrenches, hammers and small tools to their product lines.

In 1929 the radiator business was sold to make room for the gears division. As the gears division was responsible for supplying General Motors of Canada it was logical for the company to acquire McKinnon Industries. On March 29, 1929 McKinnon Industries became a subsidiary of GM Canada.

In 1930 a new DELCO plant was constructed on the property to produce Canadian made automotive components such as AC spark plugs, shock absorbers and wheel cylinders.

Contracts for equipment for the Second World War led to number of employees temporarily doubling 4,200 workers between 1939 and 1945. The company produced armcy trucks, percussion fuses, fire control mechanisms, gunsight motors and elevating units for guns.

In 1952 a foundry was built on the property.

In 1969, General Motors consolidated their engine, axle and foundry plants into one facility. Employment was now close to 10,000 workers.

In 1996 the foundry was closed and one of the engine operation lines was halted.

In early 2010 GM announced that they’d be closing the plant by the end of the year. Approximately 350 employees were working at the time. The financial impact was felt by the local community.

The property was sold on November 4th, 2014 to Bayshore Groups who are planning to build a $250 million housing and commercial development with technical trade school, apartment lofts and retirement residences. In December of 2014 much of the old GM equipment was sold off.

Photos from Octobver 2015

The GM Factory was located at 282 Ontario Street.

This was the John Deere Factory in Welland, Ontario.

The factory opened in 1911 after taking over The Dain Manufacturing Company, a producer of farming equipment. The company moved their headquarters to Welland in 1915 and in 1918 changed their name to John Deere Manufacturing Company.

Workers were unionized in 1989.

In the year 2000, two 14 year-old students attending the traditional Take Our Kids To Work Day, were killed when the Gator they were riding in crashed into a transport.

In 2008 the company announced that they’d be closing the plant next year, putting 800 people out of work. Production of Gator utility vehicles moved to the Horicon, Wisconsin plant. The reason for the closure was the strong Canadian dollar, which made selling to the United States less profitable.

The property was then purchased by 555 Canal Bank Developments CP Inc. 

As of 2018, the current property owners, King and Benton, have been slowly cleaned up the property.

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The history of this piece of property dates back to the 19th century when a wealthy family of political background purchased this adjoining parcel of land to expand their estate. The families didn’t live on the additional property, but rather leased it out to tenants.

The location was last used as a retreat that could accommodate up to two dozen guests. It featured a central in-ground pool that the building wrapped around. The architecture of the structure was based on Italian villa design.

With the building being 19th century, it was outdated compared to surrounding homes. Around 2015 the owners sought a demolition permit. The property was purchased by a developer to be demolished. A heritage assessment found no reason to designate it as a heritage property.

We were turned off from exploring this location due to workers across the road who could see the entrance to the house. They used the driveway for their vehicles. On my second visit to this property, we saw a vehicle in the driveway. The first instinct was to move on, but I was determined. I discreetly made my way down the driveway and to the rear of the property. The workers across the road didn’t see me, or if they did, paid me no attention. I called out “hello?” when I opened the door. I was alone… nervous but also quite certain that the vehicle belonged to a worker across the road.

The back of the property is overgrown but you can see that it had a basketball court and small guest building. There are no photos of the basement because it’s filled with several feet of water.

The Royal Brock was a 104-room Best Western brand hotel that operated in the City of Guelph. Prior to this, it had operated under different company names. The last of which was the College Motor Inn (est. 1970s to 1980s).

In 1987 the College Motor Inn underwent renovations to increase guest capacity and include a conference centre. The two separate buildings were combined into one during the construction.

The Royal Brock contained a conference center, outdoor swimming pool, workout gym and board rooms.

In 2013, the Ontario Municipal Board ruled that a Mississauga company named Abode Varsity Living (affiliated with Rise Real Estate) could build student housing on the property. This resulted in the land being rezoned for housing.

Rise Real Estate Inc. planned to build 26 housing units geared towards students in four connected towers that would be eleven, nine, six and four storeys respectively. They were to present a site plan to the City of Guelph in 2018, but due to some revisions in their project, it wasn’t until October of 2019 that the application was received. At that time the application still wasn’t complete, and so the application was further delayed until the missing information was obtained.

The University of Guelph used the hotel to house its overfill students, as part of a guarantee that all first year students would have student housing, For eight months the hotel was unable to take any guests in as 100 per cent of their rooms were being used by students.

In July of 2019 a man and a woman were arrested for breaking into the building which had been seeing several break and enters since closing. The building was also being used for drug use and by homeless people. Eventually the Guelph Fire Department stepped in and on April 30, 2020 issued a Fire Protection and Prevention Act order to demolish the unsafe building.

Demolition was underway as of July 2020.

The Lookout Inn is located just south of North Bay. It used to be a hotel with a dining area and patio overlooking Lake Nipissing. The business closed in the 1990s.

The hotel was supposed to be revived in 2005 but plans fell through. The two buildings became a popular destination for vandals over the next decade. In 2015

I could find very little information about the hotel itself except that new owners took over in 2016. They repaired one of the buildings and opened Terrace Suites Resort. There’s a golf course on the property which sits between the old and new buildings. It had become overgrown and required maintenance to be reopened along with Terrace Suites.

The new owners might repair the old Lookout Inn depending on the outcome of a structural survey. At this point I’d think it would be a write off.

Perhaps you can fill in some of the missing blanks?

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The Burgess Battery Company was formed on March 2nd, 1917 by Dr. Charles Burgess, a professor at University of Wisconsin. The company was a subsidiary of C.F. Burgess Laboratories. Burgess was a chemical engineer who developed dry cell batteries commonly known today as A, B, C and D cell batteries.

Burgess had also been working on developing a flashlight, which had already been invented in 1900 but had been dismissed by many as being impractical. Burgess was successful in selling his flashlight batteries and in 1913 resigned his position at the University.

Burgess expanded his business operations which grew to 2,000 employees. He built two production plants in Canada, one in Winnipeg and the other in Niagara Falls. The Niagara Falls production ran from 1923 until 1981.

Eveready had a 90% dominance of the battery market at the time and would attempt to run their competitors out of business by claiming patent infringements on a manganese battery component. Burgess went on to create a material superior to Eveready’s, who ended up licensing it from him.

Burgess was bought by Servel Inc. in December of 1958.

During the mid 1970s the company suffered financial difficulties including a government anti-monopoly suit. In 1989 the company’s assets were sold off and the business ceased. As of 2010 the Burgess company name was been purchased and still in use today.

After the Niagara factory closed, Vector Tooling took over operations,

Burgess hit financial difficulties in the 1970s with a large anti-monopoly law suit, and went under in 1989 after being bought out by Mallory Battery – now known as Duracell.

The Niagara Falls Memorial Arena was constructed in 1950 with a capacity of holding 3,056 patrons. The first opening hockey game took place on January 27, 1950 which featured the Niagara Falls Cataracts playing against the Hamilton Aerovox (a 6-4 loss for Niagara by the way).

Various hockey teams called the arena their home including the Niagara Falls Thunder, Niagara Falls Canucks and Niagara Falls Flyers.

The main floor offered a concession stand and ticket booths. On display was a portrait of the Queen and trophy case displaying trophies and memorabilia from the home teams. Stairs lead to the upstairs level which has its own concession stand and access to the top row seats.

The Memorial Arena closed in 2010 when the modernized Gale Centre was opened. In 2012 the arena was purchased by a Russian company named V2 Niagara. They made renovations to the heating and electrical of the old arena. This process of renovating the building to comply with safety standards took close to two years.

In August of 2013 a sand sculpture museum opened featuring life-like sand sculptures of various historical significance. Seventeen artists from Canada, Russia, Europe and the United States were commissioned to create sand sculptures. The artists took approximately four months to design the exhibits which used just over six million pounds of sand.

The fist exhibit was titled “Sand and History”.

The museum was met with financial difficulties and the Russian based owner put the property up for sale along with its contents. In 2014 the asking price was $3,000,000 which was later reduced to $1,700,000 in 2016.

Today the property’s vacant and there’s evidence of intravenous drug use and homeless people sleeping here. While visiting this location I observed several syringes, some with blood in them. There’s a tent pitched in the upstairs area where someone had once stayed. The main floor has an unmistakable stench of human waste. (This is mentioned as a precaution in the event others decide to visit. It’s not mean as judgement by any means)

The arena floor is quite dark as there are no working lights. Some photos were taken with long-exposure.

Demolition began in July of 2024.

Photos of the arena

Photos of the sand sculptures

Notable Mentions

1) In 1968 the Memorial Arena hosted four of five hockey games for the Memorial Cup which was won by the Niagara Falls Flyers on their home ice.

2) On October 8, 1976 an elderly woman watching a hockey game lost an eye when the hockey puck left the ice and went into the seating area.

3) Renovations to the arena took place in 1986 and new seating was installed.