NEW TORONTO
by Robert A. Given
The Toronto City Directory listed 135 firms and individuals
in the real estate business in 1887. There were 11 annexations
to Toronto in that decade including Parkdale on March 23, 1889,
the year the Toronto Belt Line Railway was chartered
to build a line around the city.
Thomas McDonald and some other Toronto manufacturers
were thinking as a group about establishing a new factory town.
They considered a number of situations and liked what was happening
at Rochester, NY. They established the New Toronto Manufacturers'
Company late in 1889. That was followed by the Mimico Real Estate
Security Co Ltd early in 1890, and by the Toronto and
Mimico Electric Railway and Light Co Ltd later that year.
Joseph Barrett, a real estate broker, was a director
of all 3 companies as well as the Interior Wood Decorating Co.
The first plan for the New Toronto was registered on January 16, 1890,
by Alexander McRoberts, managing director
of the Mimico Real Estate Security Co. It was Plan No. 1043
Etobicoke with no mention of the communities of Mimico or New Toronto.
It was for a subdivision from Lake Shore Road north to Commercial Street which was to be a continuation of Mimico's Van Every Street.
First Street to Seventh Street were for workers' homes
and both sides of Eighth Street were for industries.
Later a spur railway track went south on Eighth Street!
The City of Toronto never allowed freight trains on city streets.
Freight trains can't run on street railway gauge tracks.
The Toronto Globe on October 25, 1890,
published a 4-page section entitled "Toronto's Growing Suburb -
New Toronto - as it is and what it will be."
Joseph Barrett reported there were 10 factories established.
"All that are now being built must and will be running by December 1.
The balance of the 10 now secured must be completed not later than 1892.
They would be in shape now but for the fact that enough houses
cannot be secured for residences, and it is remarkable
but true that many workmen have been living in tents.
The syndicate reserved 3 blocks for parks
comprising 16 to 20 acres each."
Thomas McDonald was planning to move his stamping
and boiler making machinery from Sherbourne Street to New Toronto
and to employ hundreds of men.
John Townsend Sheridan and brother Joseph Bruideley established a foundry and worked with the Pease Furnace Co.
Alex Keith of the Eclipse Machine Works was busy producing boilers,
engines and chandeliers.
The Safety Barb Wire Co on 8th Street, C. Howland, manager
and T.F. Coffin manager of works.
James Morrison Brass Works established a branch
of the Adelaide Street facility to make
plumbing and engineers' supplies.
The Mimico Real Estate and Security Co was
declared insolvent in 1897.
Menzies' Wallpaper Factory was one of the really early companies
in New Toronto. Histories always mention that it was lighted
by oil lanterns. About 1903 it was purchased by Reg. N. Boxer
and later became the Canadian Wallpaper Manufacturing Limited
exporting to most countries around the world.
In 1946 its colour department became
the Dominion Colour Corporation supplying inks to many industries.
The Interior Wood Decorating Company was one of the original firms.
It had a solid brick 2-story building 100 X 41 ft with a wing 60 X 41 ft
and an engine and boiler house too. The structures alone cost $10,500.
It produced interior decorations of wood in elaborate styles for homes.
Hugh Silver of Lindsay had the patents for staining, pressing
and preparing the thin sheets of wood. In 1894 this facility was
taken over by Ritchie and Ramsay who began producing
coated papers for printers, coated boxboard for carton purposes,
coated bristols and photo mount board mostly for printers,
carton manufacturers and photographic stores. Ritchie & Ramsay
required much water so a pump house was built by the lake.
Smelly water was returned to the lake in a small stream.
The plant moved to Georgetown in 1928.
DuPont's Fabrikoid factory opened in 1915 in New Toronto.
Some 20 yards of cotton coated with rubber and pyxoxylin,
a cellulose nitrate jelly, were used in a single touring car's top,
side curtains and upholstery. Later it became a CIL company, and then General-Tower; it closed and the site is available in 1999 for?
Goodyear Tire opened its big plant on 20 acres in 1917
fronting on the 1916 Toronto-to-Hamilton Lakeshore concrete highway.
It had complete production facilities, lunchroom, offices
and hospital under one roof. Over the years the plant was modernized,
new product lines like Pliofilm packaging added, then on May 31, 1987,
the plant closed. On December 8, 1988, the Robert Daniels Group
with Michael Cohen as general manager acquired the site.
On June 10, 1992, a special celebration launched the start
of construction on 7 large buildings for the new Lakeshore Village
on the old Goodyear site, once the factory
where 1350 people were employed.
Back in 1918, the Donnell and Mudge tannery had its beginning
in the town and through the years it has grown
to a leading position in the industry turning out annually millions
of feet of leathers of all kinds. Reputedly one
of the largest sheepskin tanners in the Dominion,
the company by means of specialized processing,
embossing and spray painting can turn out any number
of beautifully-patterned leathers conforming with amazing
exactness to the skins of all manner of animals from the
shell-like rhino to the fine-grained pin seal leather.
From all corners of the world come the hides and skins
used by the company. In the modern three story building
equipped with the best machinery available, the evil-smelling hides
are transformed into the most ornate and beautiful designs
with many of the leather products eventually finding their way
to milady's dressing table. Charles H. Annable is the head
of this well-known firm. Davey, Clarke & Clarke and
Ontario Leather may have been predecessors or competitors.
During WWII Hun prisoners including merchant sailors spent time
at Donnell and Mudge as seen here in a newspaper writeup.
"HUN PRISONERS ARE EMPLOYED OVER PROTEST."
Authorized by Labor Minister to Work in New Toronto Plant
despite Council's Objection
New Toronto. September 22 (Staff Special)-- About a score
of German war prisoners are now employed in the
Donnell and Mudge tannery here.
Authorization for this employment was received from
Hon. Humphrey Mitchell, Minister of Labor,
over the protests of town council.
The prisoners are housed in internment camp "M"
in Etobicoke Township and are brought to the plant in company trucks.
They are dressed in blue uniforms much like those of invalided soldiers
with a large red patch on the back of their coat.
Original protest over hiring of the prisoners came
from Town Council because the tannery, located at Birmingham
and Eighth streets, is in the heart of the war industry section
of New Toronto. Close by is the municipal fire station,
and the public utilities workshop.
The prisoners, it is believed, are segregated from the other
employees while at work. Among these prisoners it is thought
there are German merchant marine sailors.
J.F. Brown's Copper and Brass Rolling Mills Limited
appeared on the scene about 1919. Brown had had a furniture store
on Yonge Street! He with Reg N Boxer and Ritchie and Ramsay
enlarged the pump house by the lake making it the
New Toronto Water Supply. Anaconda acquired the Rolling Mills in 1922.
Its last years of operation was as Arrowhead Metals Ltd.
New Toronto once boasted the highest value of manufacturing
per square mile in North America.
New Toronto weathered the Great Panic of 1893
when West-Toronto Junction had its tax sale.
After the Crash of 1929 Reeve W.E. MacDonald formed
the New Toronto Industrial Commission.
In 1931 Campbell's Soup arrived to become a great corporate citizen.
W. & A. Gilbey and George Williams Shoes came in 1933
and Continental Can in 1935.
The Globe's 1890 section on New Toronto showed
John Sheene's Almont Hotel on the Lake Shore at Kipling,
then called "Mimico Avenue, which is now and will be always
the main street running north from the lake".
It also featured a view of the Asylum. The site for the "Mimico" Asylum
was acquired in the late spring of 1888.
The December 31, 1889 report stated 2 cottages were completed,
1 being occupied by patients. They dug a deep well for water
but the water was bitter and there was also natural gas
so it was decided to obtain water from the lake.
Later in 1891 the syndicate sunk a well 1312 feet
on the west side of 7th Street. They found a little natural gas
and oil but not enough for heat or light.
The New Toronto Oil & Natural Gas Co Ltd was formed
in March 1892 and looked for fuel even in
Toronto Township which is now Mississauga.
In 1918 the New Toronto Housing Commission built
42 English Cottage style homes on 8th Street for factory workers.
Charles Lovejoy was chairman, Frank Longstaff, member,
and Thomas Staunton, secretary.
Herbert Baxter was the local builder and they had Pease furnaces!