Back in 2008 at a typical Toronto UE meet, we head out into the former Village of Leaside, now a part of the greater city of Toronto. The building in question was suggested by a member that was easily accessible and that we could get a decent number of people in without raising too much suspicion.
Meet the building in question:
Also nearby, the remains of what used to be a basement...
Fairly non-descript, symmetrical, looks like at one point it had windows in it. And it was old, but within the past 100 years at least. (1900s) I was guessing. The basement is noted having fluted columns, early 20th century, dead give-away for industrial. However there are no signs, or anything to indicate what it used to be. Upon entering, we're greeted by a wide open space, and on the second floor, the hunter's best friend...yes, documents.
So I grab one of these, which was a Purchase order with a Date (1973) and the name of the company (E.S. & A Robinson) and an address. Bingo. Also while I was walking to grab a bus (I had to split from the meet early because of a commitment in Whitby that night) I happen across several "Notice of Zoning Change" which included a few more addresses, I quickly pulled out my camera and fired off a few shots of the information.
Armed with this, I start in on the second part of the hunt, the Internet. As an employee at a college i have access to a ton of resources beyond that of Google, newspaper records dating back to the late 1970s even, it's come in handy to get histories pieced together.
So here's what I found.
Was built in 1919 as a locomotive shop for Northern Railroad's Eastern Line. It was part of a major switching/staging yard for the Railroad.
Northern Railway of Canada was formed in 1858 (an amalgamation of several smaller rail operators), by 1888 had been aquired by GTR (Grand Trunk Railway), GTR was absorbed into Canadian National Railway (CNR) in 1923.
The doors give the place away as a rail shop.
The basement part is what's left of a factory built in 1932 by the E. S. & A. Robinson (Canada) Ltd. they did paper products (packaging supplies). Their factory was built on the grounds that once housed the staging yard for the railroad, only the old locomotive shop remained. The locomotive shop was purchased by E. S. & A. Robinson (Canada) Ltd in 1941.
In 1966 E. S. & A. Robinson (Canada) Ltd along with all other ES&A companies merged with another paper mill and reformed as DRG Ltd. Operations at the Canada location continued, with the locomotive shop being used as offices, storage, and a carpentry shop.
In the 1980s DRG was acquired by Winpak technologies. The plant continued operations until 2005 when it was shut down and the property sold. The factory was demolished in 2006/2007. The Locomotive shop due to it's historical nature has been protected under Section IV of the Ontario Heritage Building Act. The property will soon be turned into 2-4 car dealerships, the locomotive shop will be preserved and used as a parts warehouse and car storage.
Currently the status of the this plan is unknown as I haven't visited the place since 2008, I really do need to get back.
The rest of my photos can be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/axle81401/sets/72157603756926890/
Author