Canada Linseed Oil Mill

Images by Kathy & Jan

The Canada Linseed Oil mills is one of the buildings in Toronto that everyone seems to know about and has visited, but no one really knows anything substantial about. At three stories tall with 20+ ft ceilings and a flooded basement area, there is no trace left of the machinery or even what went on here almost 40 years ago.
It was a Linseed plant, built in 1915 where Linseed (flax seed) was pressed into oil and other uses, which has been abandonded for almost 40 years, since 1965. It hasn’t seen any other adaptive reuse, apart from the local graffiti artists painting inside and the occasional rave. In 2000, the city purchased the land for $2 million, but nothing was done with the site except occasional attempts at securing the location. Last year a small building next to the main plant was turned into a small meeting space and bathrooms for the park nearby. So far nothing much has happened, but the Wabash community Centre project has its own website with more details on the progress. If you have worked here or have historical pictures of the plant we would love to hear from you. We both happened to love the graffiti inside, because it looked like a time capule that had been reopening much like Bunsmaster, which probabily will be our next entry.

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You’re currently reading “Canada Linseed Oil Mill,” an entry on N*TROPY

Published:: 9.11.09 / 12pm

Category:: Manufacturing, general abandonment

Tags:: canada linseed mill, linseed, sororen, wabash, wabash community centre

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Scattered across the land there remain industrial and infrastructure related relics and treasures forgotten over the course of time. Most of what you will see featured on NTROPY is industrial in nature, with some focus on old military installations, mining and underground locations that are tucked away from common view.

The stories and photographs in this website are the joint work of friends Kathy And Jan who both happen to share a love of these spaces and who have an interest in researching and documenting them. Photography found here, and on our daily blogs has been taken with a variety of different cameras, digital and film, 35mm to large format. You will see a variety of photographs on our daily blogs, however this website is that main area where our industrial and infrastructure related work is alongside researched entries.

Please note, that if a location’s name or location has not been provided, it is for a good reason. Please don’t contact us asking for intimate knowledge of “location X” unless you are prepared to share locations and new information. Its not that we don’t like to share we just don’t feel like doing other people’s homework.

We are somewhat private, however if you would like to contact us in regards to anything else, we look forward to hearing from you.

Contact : talk {AT} ntropy {DOT} us

terrorkitten 9.14.09 / 5pm

Jan, this is another great series. They just hang together so beautifully when shown as a set. Top work

ohlenna 12.11.09 / 8am

Fantastic series - as usual. You asked about others shooting the site - a couple of us recently had permission to go in and shoot the building (December 8th) for Heritage Toronto’s Building Storeys 2010 exhibit that we’re putting on in February. It was a blast - amazingly freezing day with sleet, water raining in on the third floor flooding it a bit, flooded basement, and gorgeous light.

N*TROPY

Canada Linseed Oil Mill

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