Photos by Kathy & Jan

Seems that a fair-bit has changed down the old Lakeshore strip in Etobicoke over the past 3-4 years. Many of the great 1960’s motels that used to welcome people to Toronto for the night have been torn down to make way for condos. Shame really as they remained in business for almost 50 + years. Change is a good thing right?

I’m sure the new condo owners are going to pleased to be either hit with sugary and yeasty smells from the bakery next door, or the stench of sewage (yes it stinks) from the treatment plant nearby. Progress is great, no?

Images by jan and Kathy.

One evening, what seems like ages ago, we dropped by this place only to find the gate and building open which obviously experienced a flood.  Its was completely empty, and quite uninteresting but the shots that came back from the lab were amazing with the nearby flood lighting.  Apparently it was involved in rubber production but no one or nothing I have found has been able to substantiate that as fact (hence the ‘mystery’). The 3 or 4 dobermans who kept trying to get at us from the property next door, weren’t. But you win some and lose some. You didn’t think everything about exploring was like Spaulding Fibre or Beth Steel, did you?

Images by Kathy

Spaulding Fibre was definitely one of the best places we ever explored. Not only was the building accessibly and open, it was graffiti free and only showed signs of natural decay, unlike many other locations we have visited where everything was slowly looted. It was located in a particularly nasty part of Tonawanda NY near public town-home projects and giant liquor stores. It sat on 43 acres and occupied 860,00 sf of space in more than 24 separate buildings almost all of which had access to one another internally. You could walk in and not been seen for most of the day and move from the office tower, the laboratory, loading area, the press sections and so forth.

Images by Jan

Spaulding Fibre made all types of boards, weatherboards, transformer boards, Bakelite (as Spauldite) and vulcanized fibre and fibreglass tubes. Spaulding Fibre had its roots in Townsend Harbour, Massachusetts when Jonas and Waldo Spaulding formed the company in 1873. The company expanded in Milton and North Rochester, New Hampshire. In 1911 the brothers established a vulcanized fibre operation in Tonawanda (the one featured here) which was built on a farm at 310 Wheeler Street where production began April 1, 1912 with 40 employees. It was quite a large facility then as the daily capacity at the plant was 5 tons of fibre sheeting and one ton of fibre tubing per day. In 1924 a continuous vulcanized fibre making line was built. In  1927 the name of the company changed from J.Spaulding and Sons to the Spaulding Fibre Company. In the 1930’s the company introduced a pseudo bakelite product called Spauldite. Once the last Spaulding brother died in 1955, Spaulding Fibre Company became a part of a charitable trust set up by Huntley Spaulding and his only sister who died shortly afterwords. In 1956 another large expansion took place that doubled the size of the paper mill and the vulcanized fibre making capacity of the plant. The head office moved operations to the Wheeler street plant. Another product line was added sometime in the 1960’s called Filawound which was a fiberglass tube product. At this point the plant covered 610,000 sq feet (almost the size it was when we visited) and employed almost 1500 people.

In 1966 after the company enjoyed great profits and expansion the charitable trust sold off the company to Monogram industries and slowly the company started to decline. In 1984 Spaulding was sold again to Nortek and in 1988 Nortek changed the company name to Spaulding Composites. Spaulding Composites closed the Tonawanda plant  on August 24, 1992 and it subsequently sat empty suffering the ravages of time and the elements. Demolition work did not start until late 2006 shortly after we visited the space and spent a whole 12 hours inside. One of the more interesting highlights of the demolition was the “Spaulding Fibre” stack getting demolished here. A whole secondary industry has also developed around class action lawsuits for the former employees of the plant.

View Larger Map

Aerial View of Spaulding Fibre

Some other tasty highlights I found on the City of Tonawanda’s web page shed more light on the timing of the sale of the company as well as its bankruptcy…

1930 to 1972 - Sludge Settling Ponds were excavated into native soils to settle grinding waste from the Spauldite tube department.

1960s - A transformer allegedly exploded outside the northwest portion of the plant, releasing PCB transformer oil to the ground surface.

1960s to 1970s - The Therminol Building housed a Therminol heat exchange unit utilized during SpaulditeR production. Oil containing 85% PCBs was the heat exchange media of the Therminol Unit. At time of system failure, PCB oils were discharged to the grounds adjacent to the Therminol Building or to floor drains discharging to the K-Line storm sewer serving the northwest portion of the facility.  This oil contaminated the waste and fill in two of the sludge settling lagoons.

Fall of 1977 through September 1978 - The Laminant Dust Landfill was utilized by Spaulding for the disposal of approximately forty (40) tons of fiberglass, asbestos, cellulose and resin dusts.

February through September 1978 -  The Resin Drum Landfill was utilized by Spaulding for the disposal of 750 drums of resin wastes.

Between 1983 and 1986 - Wet paper sludge was spread over a 5,000 square feet area (the Paper Sludge Application Area) south of the plant building and allowed to dry prior to disposal. Contaminants released from this practice impacted area soils.

August 1985 - Spaulding excavated the Zinc Chloride Sludge and Drum Landfill. This area was a 60 cubic yard landfill located beneath the plant floor inside the main plant building and contained zinc chloride sludge contaminated with cadmium and lead, drummed lab chemicals and resin solvent mixtures. The pit was backfilled and a new concrete floor installed over it;

1985 - Spaulding removed lead contaminated zinc hydroxide sludge from the Zinc Hydroxide Sludge Storage Tank. The sludge was disposed of at a permitted off-site secure landfill. The storage tank and surrounding area were decontaminated with high pressure water.

In the late 1980s - A consultant under contract with the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) conducted a RCRA Facility Assessment (RFA) at the site. This assessment identified 36 Solid Waste Management Units (SWMUs) and several potential Areas of Concern (AOCs).

1992 - Manufacturing at the facility is terminated and the company files for bankruptcy;

September 1992 to February 1993 - Spaulding initiated decommissioning activities at the site in August 1992 following plant closure. The majority of these activities were completed by February 1993 with the remaining decommissioning activities completed by mid 1995. These activities are documented in the Plant Decommissioning Final Report dated August 1995;

Early 1993 - Spaulding constructed an on-site water treatment system to treat PCB contaminated water from the Spauldite basement sump, the on-site K-Line storm sewer and other waste waters generated on-site;

September 1994 - A permanent on-site water treatment system is moved into its current location;

October 1994 - The portion of the K-Line sewer impacted by PCB contamination was isolated from the remaining K-Line system and is pumped to the on-site water treatment system and discharged to an off-site storm sewer;

October 21, 1994 - An out-of-service transformer was vandalized, resulting in a spill of PCB transformer oil. The area was subsequently excavated, with the contaminated soils and concrete placed in roll-offs for off-site disposal;

July 21, 2004 - Phase 1 of the NYSDEC’s IRM PCB contaminated soil removal action in OU2 begins;

March 25, 2005 - Phase 1 of the NYSDEC’s IRM PCB contaminated soil removal action in OU2 is completed;

June 6, 2005 - Phase 2 of the IRM soil removal action in OU2 begins;

June 25, 2005 - The City of Tonawanda and Erie County submitted an application to the Department for funding under the ERP program.  The application requests $3,600,000 for the demolition of the plant buildings ($3,000,000) and remedial investigation ($600,000) of areas of the site not investigated as part of the previous work conducted by the Department and Spaulding;

March 2007 - NYSDEC completes Phase 2 of a IRM soil removal action to address highly contaminated PCB contaminated surface soils.  The work completed during this phase included: demolitions of concrete building pads, excavation and disposal of PCB contaminated soil, cleaning of storm sewer lines and removal of contaminated debris.  Total of cost of this work to date is approximately $3,000,000,

Additional reading

Tonawanda News; Spaulding Fibre: From Prosperity to Decline; Dave Hill; January 16, 2008 
ouster’s Daily Democrat; “Post Civil War Growth Sets Stage For Spaulding Fibre’s Huge Success”; Spaulding Fibre 100th Anniversary Supplement; 1873-1973

Images by Kathy

The TTC Greenwood yards hold a secret but we won’t be dealing with that today. The Greenwood shop is one of the TTC’s (Toronto Transit Commission, for those not local) two heavy repair facilities. The Greenwood shop, located at Greenwood and Danforth, and the Harvey shop (Bathurst & Davenport) which is located on the old MacNamara market garden, and where Taddle Creek now flows, underground are two locations where much of the TTC’s heavy maintenance work on trains and streetcars get done.

The two shops provide major vehicle overhaul work and component rebuilds (everything is made on site!)  for the Subway, LRT lines and the streetcars. Its quite a large complex at 31 acres and the shop covers  approximately  190,00 sq. ft of space and employs 200 people. The Greenwood complex is divided into 8 cost centres including Vehicle overhaul and body repair, truck/axle/gearbox/re-wheeling, millwrights/machinists/electricians, shop services, electrical repair, pneumatic repair and a work car section. The greenwood yards seems somewhat larger then the Harvey shops, but that is just because the greenwood yards also have a subway yard.

Images by Kathy

Sometimes having to go off the beaten path has its rewards. We were hungry and looking for a washroom break while on our way to another place, when we pulled over in Hastings and noticed this abandoned, half burnt down mill in the process. It was wide open, no one was around and it was filled with random bits of junk you would find in a house (if I were ever to get desperate and explore one). It had a boat, paintings, toilets, lawn furniture, appliances and even a heap of toxic waste barrels and water tower. A small creek flowed very close to the  building as well, so close that I wondered what would happen if there was ever flooding. Granted its not the most interesting location, although pretty photogenic, I’d love to hear from a local, or anyone else who knows the full story of the place.

Images by Kathy

CFB Downsview, Downsview airport (YZD) or Downsview Park as it is now known has had its days numbered for a while. It has gone through several reincarnations before becoming a private complex that has TTC service, skate parks, basketball courts, rock climbing centres and elite athlete schools. It was originally a military base, with an airport that still functions today and which will for the foreseeable future operate privately under the management of Bombardier.

Historical images from Virtual Museum Canada.

Downsview airport has been around since 1939 when the de Havilland Company operated it. It wasn’t until almost a decade later that the Department of Defense (DnD) purchased the property, and the area around it, which was all farmland to create Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) station Downsview to provide a local space for the RCAF. It became known as Canadian Forces base Toronto (Downsview) in 1968, when they dropped the RCAF designation to more accurately depict that the Army (now known as Land forces) was also on the base as well.

de Havilland facility, WWII Production.

I first heard about Downsview closing around 1995 and space became available for cadet groups to utilize the larger hangers on site for weekly meetings. Space was always an issue, and cadet groups were always being bumped from local community centres and schools because any of the spaces that were used had been decommissioned earlier, like  1140 Avenue road (now high end town homes and a catholic school) and Denison armories. Land force Central Area is still on the base, however they built a new facility closer to Sheppard and Dufferin Streets.

In 1998 a crown corporation (known as Downsview park took control of the former base and has slowly leased it out as sports/recreation space, with future housing and retail developments. Bombardier Aerospace still manufactures on the southern end of the property and tests their aircraft at the airport. The TTC Wilson subway yard is also on Downsview Park property.

There are several historically significant buildings on the property, one being the de Havilland Canada facility from 1929, and the CFB Downsview hangers which are in the process of being torn down. The downsview hangers currently have a 60-day reprieve from demolition, however no one really knows what will happen with them afterwards. This building was probably easier to single out for ‘redevelopment/demolition’ because it sits tucked into the back of the park, between the runway and the DRDC research facility, totally isolated from any other building, such as the group of hangers on the opposite side of the runway which all have found adaptive reuse.

The Downsview hangers actually played a larger role in the wartime production of aircraft as the original de Havilland facility was quite small. In 1992 the building was recognized as a heritage building by the federal government and the control tower actually operated until 3 years ago when the facility moved into the Bombardier plant. All the suggestions that people have made that the building is too old, unstable is unfounded. Apart from the control tower seeing use until a few years ago, the building was actually used by the military for urban warfare training. The other hangers were refurbished across the runway and they were from the same period. Anyhow, as of 3-4 weeks ago, the consoles and related equipment have been removed from the control room, the large doors have been ripped off and nothing remains inside the buildings themselves. Sneak a peek before they get knocked down for more generic condos that we cannot seem to get enough of in this city.

UPDATE Jan 4, 2010: The Department of Defense has pulled a cheap trick out of the standard playbook of getting around  their promise to consider adaptive reuse of the hangers. On Christmas eve they sent a letter to the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario demanding $20,000 a week to hold off demolition with payments required before the holidays. This was all the while they said the would consider reuse of the buildings as they have been designated a historic Federal Heritage Building Review Office,  Downsview Park was willing to discuss a land swap to take them over, and the Canadian Air and Space museum was interested in occupying the space. They even had a prominent Toronto Developer,  Paul Oberman of Woodcliffe Corporation willing to invest in the project, to say nothing of the public who I must say impressed me in actually attempting to stop this from happening. This is status quo around here, but this really doesn’t happen elsewhere with such precision.

Edit: March 8, 2010. The hangers will be torn down. Article here.

Images by Kathy & Jan

We here at Ntropy love our graffiti and street art. A City Renewal Project was a brilliant project hatched byDan Bergeron (Fauxreel) and Gabriel Reese (Specter). This installation collaboration recreates some of their personal landmarks in Toronto with a twist. In the Queen West area near Dovercourt, at Lisgar St, is the wall of a long blue warehouse complex that is supposed to come down for a condo project. It’s here that “A City Renewal Project” was installed, in an abandoned building.

At street level is a façade of a constructed storefront, “Mr Loogie”. A play on the “dollar store” Mr Loonie, itself a bit of Canadiana since the “loonie” is slang for a Canadian dollar. You enter through the store, to a city street, which is the installation itself. The streetscape is comprised of constructed storefronts on both sides. There are real and fake tags and graffiti on the walls and a real TTC shelter along with a bus stop post. Just past the stop is a Viacom billboard advertising “Condos for Babies” on the wall. Washrooms, street vendor stand, park bench and an accountant’s office are at the back of the warehouse. At the back, a wall is covered by an enormous print from car tire tracks made and contributed by artist Matt Janisse.

Some additional features of the exhibit include a zoo preservation sign, leaves, bins and bags of garbage accumulating on the cement floor.  The storefronts inside 39 Lisgar are near life-size scale black-and-white portraits of store fronts of closed or derelict stores from all over the city. The photographic interpretation is by Fauxreel / Dan Bergeron. The stores were constructed from recycled materials including condo placards. The actual signage was constructed by Gabriel Reese an urban artist who installs his work in locations to reinterpret the urban environment. The graffiti on the warehouse walls is by Bergeron, Reese, and countless other street artists and friends who helped with the installation over the four months of construction. Obviously Bergeron and Reese are totally comfortable with a table saws, cameras, and corporate sponsors

A City Renewal Project was described by Reese as “a work you look at more than once,” because there are “so many little subtle things.”  This warehouse was filled with the images of the city amassed by Bergeron and Reese. Everything in it is material that was used by them. Along with those who helped them was Bergeron’s dad Don who rolled up his sleeves to help in the construction of the space for the installation. .

Dan Bergeron is not against that change, but this latest project contains the ambivalence towards a changing city that his recent Luminato project of Regent Park portraits did. His concern is the ongoing life cycle of real estate in the city will keep producing “new ghettos” Bergeron sees the landscape’s uncontested demolition and reconstruction as proof that “we don’t do anything to ensure we remember our past.”

Gabriel Reese, a low profile artist who uses the nom of Specter has kept his identity secret. He splits time split between New York, working through a Canada Council grant, and Toronto, working on the”City Renewal Project” and believes in “restoration, not destruction” as the way to go. He views A City Renewal Project as a “monument, archive and validation” of the spaces that the two artists have fabricated. This piece provides the work’s name: “we’re renewing spaces using objects and artifacts that are on the street.”

The project was made possible, in part, with Red Bull sponsorship and Gallery 381. Some Toronto media have been critical on a personal level regarding the intent of the installation. There was discussion in the press that the project was compromised by corporate sponsorship however the artists’ view is all projects need money so receiving financial support from Red Bull, who provided the only detectable bit of branding, a Red Bull umbrella, at Bergeron’s initiative. They believe it is the same as receiving funding from the L’Oréal sponsored Luminato or Scotiabank’s Nuit Blanche.

Bergeron, is capable of navigating the rocky water that is a mix of art and business. His position is the project wouldn’t, have been possible without funding from Red Bull. The show’s other sponsors include Show & Tell Gallery and Grolsch. It should be appreciated that both men poured their own money into the exhibit so there is a piece of them in this commitment.

Bergeron and Reese are considering taking this to Vancouver. Bergeron says that he would like this for Vancouver which is undergoing similar changes to Toronto but which are being driven by the upcoming Olympic Games in 2010.

A City Renewal Project ran from , November 7—to November 23, 2008 and was taken apart shortly afterwords after the famous closing party where too many drunk hipsters had the police come out in full force. The building has now sat empty and quiet for a full year, but recent developments hint that it will be the next for the developers axe.

Images by Kathy

A nice long bridge that straddles a huge ravine, this bridge actually brought my friend and I refuge from one of the super storms that blew through this past summer when we were caught off guard nearby. Climbing up a 150′ hill you come to the edge of this bridge that has two conveniently placed walkways (one being a DIY affair) that is being utilized for the construction of extra lanes next to the existing section.

Nothing too spectacular other then my love of geometric forms and the awe inspiring vibration that shakes the whole structure encouraging you to hold on the further out you walk. Once you reach the middle you are a good 150′ above an active trail where can crack open a beverage and finish your lunch and go unnoticed to the people below.

Images by Kathy & Jan

About 4 years ago the Junction area of Toronto had alot of sites to offer one seeking to look at delicit industry. One had NRI also next door, and also down the street, Tower Automotive a bit further south and ‘Bunsmaster’ right next door.

There was a move to redevelop the land that the Sherwin Williams Company had a paint manufacturing plant on, but the city stepped in to prevent the development from going further. It was supposed to become a condominium, but its hard to believe anyone would  want to live on such contaminated soil, and next to a very active train line and yard, across from the very classy chain of Delta Bingo.

This was over three years ago, and nothing remains other then the hoarding around the site and some rubble. It was only  interesting and photogenic when half the building was already knocked down, but this building is what much of Junction areas ‘revitalization’ began with. We will have rest of the spaces up over the next few months as we get around to them.

Images by Kathy & Jan

Some first time nostalgia here on NTROPY. St.John’s convent is long gone from its 401 and Yonge area location, now relocated to Cummer. It was demolished almost three years ago, now only an empty field remains, soon to be a catholic school. It lies right on the edge of hogs hollow overlooking the 401 highway and the huge ravine underneath. I didn’t find this location all that interesting, except it was the first place we explored one Saturday afternoon during a particularly bad thunderstorm.  It was not a particularly large convent, you could find maybe 30 dorm rooms, a chapel, library, office which were in pretty good condition on our first visit. The second time I brought back someone with me to visit, the place was totally trashed, walls and ceiling ripped apart, not one remaining piece of copper found.  It was here I also learned not to invite anyone who might bring their dumb friends who would throw furniture around for amusement, scream and shout. Since the convent  was now wide open, several homeless people had moved into the rooms which still had locks. I believe it was demolished in later 2006, and haven’t heard of the place since.

Images by Kathy

What is this…a church post you ask? On Ntropy? I’m not a church goer, and as such when I found the opportunity to visit this place it was because I was waiting for someone nearby and had some time to kill. It was sold, with the intention of redeveloping it for lofts, but nothing has happened since the past three years these images was taken. It lies in the  Bloor and Dufferin area off a small street now boarded up, minus the wonderful windows which seem to have been removed sometime ago.

Nothing much more to say, this is a photo essay of sorts.

Images by Kathy & Jan

Bunsmaster is a large (50,000sq ft factory) in the Junction neighborhood that has sat empty since at least 1993 where we found some of the oldest graffiti around dated from that year. Its a somewhat triangle shaped building with an area where boxcars could be pulled into for loading and unloading of cargo since it sits right next to a very active rail line.  It doesn’t really have much else, but it seems to have preserved the past of Toronto’s graffiti scene well from the elements with pieces by Recka, Sec (MSK) Kwest, Teck and more. The neighborhood kids also seemed to have enjoyed the place setting up a make shift skate park inside with small ramps and rails from makeshift materials they swiped from the nearby big box parking lot. It also seems to function as a spot for the occasional rave since its in an area that is bounded by a loud and active railyard, the somewhat sketchy neighbourhood doesn’t probabily even notice a party is happening next door.

And the name you ask? One of the loading areas of the plant had a sign called Bunsmaster. The building is now owned by someone else, and is used a parking lot for dormant trucks but not much else seems to be happening here, unless the developer who is now putting up a condo on the other side of the tracks plans on expanding on this side.

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.

Images by Kathy

Lister Blockhappens to be on the top 10 list of the most endangered list  of Historical buildings. Its located right in derelict downtown Hamilton, conveniently placed between five other well known Hamilton abandonment’s within a 4 block radius, including the now demolished HMP (Hamilton Motor Products), the old Federal Building, Lyric/ Century theater, the Connaught hotel, and the Tivoli theatre, including a mysterious and oversized Hamilton Manhole from 1857!

This was, you see the middle of the city, and still is even though its filled with bums and crack heads that spill out from the bingo hall just across the street from Lister block ,this accounts for the unique flavor of the neighborhood.  Access, every time I have gone has been different, amusingly hampered by a stationed security guard in the back of the building who couldn’t have been posted in less strategically placed location. It’s also a commuter’s paradise, being a 3 block walk from the bus terminal, from where I walked down, grabbed a slice of pizza from the local joint and strolled right in the gaping hole someone knocked into the plywood boards.

Although this was more than 3 years ago, and I had seen every shot possible online, I genuinely liked the location, even though it wasn’t anything new, nor did it require any ingenuity to access either. The ‘arcade’ (which is an enclosed area of shops in an L shaped configuration) was a row of skylights which gave the hallway an otherworldly quality where now not only light, but rain, plaster and mould rained down from. I had never seen such a level of decay before, and was amazed when a portion of the ceiling fell down as a storm downpour was leaking into the area I was in. The rest of the building wasn’t in much better shape either, with the upper levels actually being in better shape than the ground level’s arcade. Each floor had small offices, for doctors, lawyers and accountants and similar professionals, and although the furniture was long gone, the remnant of junkie supplies in the form of needles riddled certain areas. Each of the floors were pretty similar, some broken doors, loads of peeling paint and enough mold to send those with allergies running. The roof offered a nice view and the place remained most unchanged until earlier this year when work finally started on restoring the building after a building next door ‘mysteriously’ collapsed one night. I’ve taken visitors through Lister including, a film crew and friends who enjoyed the charm it had.

Lister Block never really had it well as venture. When it was first completed in 1886 by Joseph Lister, there was a brief depression and the building wasn’t fully rented out. It did however have more modern methods of heating, a boiler house and an elevator for the 4 story tall building it was. In 1922 an arcade was integrated, however a fire ripped through Lister Block at 2:30 in the morning on Feb. 2, 1923. The fire was aided in part by the interior walls and floors being wooden. The fire, as it turned out did not even originate in Lister Block, but rather a small building next door. Quickly a new building was erected, in the size it is now known as, at 32,000sq. ft. The ‘new’ Lister Block remained faithful to the original classic renaissance design with terra cotta pilasters, the store fronts finished with copper and wrought iron grills, and arcade with three skylights with the outside finished with tapestry brick. The upper floors were identical to the lower level, minus the arcade. The basement also had a bowling alley, pool and billiard room, which even after being cleaned out and gutted I still couldn’t tolerate with my allergies.

In 1950, the city wanted to expropriate Lister Block as they were short on space in Hamilton’s city hall. City council ended up deciding to build a new city hall instead which sits not too far away from Lister Block. With the building of Lloyd D. Jackson Square an enclosed mall next door , many of the retail shops on James Street closed in the 1970’s. Things didn’t get much better from there. In 1984, a large 3 metre section broke off Lister Block and the building needed repair work as deferred maintenance work had been neglected for far too long.

In June of 1985, Sam Matsos, president of Corham Development, purchased five downtown properties whose total value was $5,000,000. The buildings included in the purchase were: the Lister Block, Zellers, and the Mills store. Only four years later, the complex was again sold to a large Toronto area developer, Metrus. The value of the sale was estimated at $1,000,000. In the early part of the 1990s, eviction notices were issued to all the tenants of the Lister Building (the beauty salon, the hearing aid shop, the drug store, the music store, and the optometrist), as well as to tenants in adjoining stores (Fabricland, Marvel Beauty Salon, and Pioneer Cleaners).

Interestingly in 1995 city council voted in favor of giving the Lister Block a special historical designation for the building, thus making it reasonably impossible to demolish the building.  Several interesting proposals were put forth which included turning it into student housing for McMaster and Mohawk college students. Lister Block rather turned into a squatting hole for the city’s many drug addicts and transient youth. Not surprisingly in 1996 there were three separate fires that damaged the Lister Block, all intentionally set to damage or destroy the building.

In 1999 it was purchased by L.I.U.N.A. (the Hamilton local of the Labourers International Union of North America) for $1, 600,000 again with plans to revitalize the building; however nothing was done until a decade later to restore the building.

This month I took someone back when we got rained out of draining plans, and not only has every level been gutted, including the infamous basement with the ’aids’ pool, it looks nothing like what it did three years ago when I first went, and how most remember this place. It bare, open and for once I must say the space feels smaller being open than when it had small rooms and had bits of strewn junk everywhere. Should look interesting again when it will be restored, and I will return to again to see what the finished project looks like.

A historical article below.

Images by Kathy & Jan

Elliot’s and Mineakers were two junk yards that we visited 4 years ago before we really did any UE. Although this isn’t necessarily the exploration type photography you see here, there sure is enough decay and rust to keep most of our visitors happy. Both junkyards were in the process of being cleaned up, and we visited Minakers as they were cleaning up and crushing cars in a huge open field where the had been keeping them for over 40 years. Seems like everything is being cleaned up these days. I wonder what we will have in the next 4 years locally to explore.

Images by Kathy & Jan

Seems like the rubber industry in Toronto has gone and all but vanished. Two years ago another rubber manufacturing operation, Viceroy Rubber, very close to this location (not yet posted) was converted to a self storage facility. National Rubber Industries / NRI also had another, small operation near this location which was also in the junction that closed before this Symington location.

This site was previously known as W.D.Beath & Son Ltd in the 1920’s and NRI was established in 1927. Before it was demolished this past winter it was a large 200,000 sq. ft facility that once produced several hundred different rubber based products and recycled a few million tires a year. Apparently NRI was a “green company” recycling tires into other products using a unique “tire recovery technology“. It was located next to an active rail line on Symington Avenue which has a mix of everything, industry, schools, commercial buildings, houses and artists’ lofts.

When you walked through the building it quickly became apparent that you were walking through several different buildings that were all connected together. each built in different time periods. The offices, lab, warehouse and loading area were all located adjacent to each other. At some point it came to be owned by National Rubber (NRI Industries) which was a substantially larger company with another small location in the “Junction” near Keele Street. This operation also closed when they moved operations to Mississauga at their Cawthra plant.

From public sources, it appears NRI had a dismal safety record in the early 1990’s which lead to the heftiest fine that could be leveled against a company by the Workers Compensation Board (WCB) for half a million dollars. We also found some nuclear warning signs up, but don’t really know how “Americum 241″ is related to manufacturing processes of rubber. If someone could clarify, that would be great.

Of the many locations in Toronto that sit and languish with demolition signs for years, this specific series of buildings came down quickly, in less than three months from when the first demolition signs were posted in late December, 2008. It’s the fastest I’ve ever seen a plant get demolished. It was abandoned in late 2007 and I remember going to look at it in 2006 when it was still active.  Symington isn’t a major roadway, so you can easily miss it. I explored NRI early New Years Eve in 2008 and by February, half the building was gone. Although the building had a few charms, and the loading dock reminded me of Tower Automotive, I’m not quite sure why everyone else seemed to be so crazy about this place.

These are images of the last visit in December 2008 taken by Jannx and myself. Here is a trade publication I found online.

Images by Kathy

There are parts of the city that are wastelands, and the Emery creek corridor is probabily the least attractive  of them all.  A hydro corridor runs close to a highway, and a rail line also runs North through the area into a light industrial area.  An abandoned mall sites empty on a huge lot next door as well. Emery creek also runs through the area and is partially buried as it runs underneath an apartment complex.  I’m not quite sure why the buildings are built right onto a watershed, but it accounts for the large size of the culvert, one of the largest in the city, and certainly the only one that  is made of corrugated metal at this size other then its big brother, ‘not so tough now‘ nearby.

I’ve visited this several times and have always found it photogenic and enjoyable. Its pretty short at around 700m but has a few changes in it where it goes from corrugated metal to a mix of concrete and cmp and concrete before going back to concrete and cmp again.  The scale of the culvert is what I liked about it the most. You don’t generally see something quite this short, and large very often. The first time I went in via the outfall and decided to leave via the inlet we emerged from the valley all we saw were dead logs, heavy machinery and random bits of junk.  We had no idea where we were! Another trip I took a friend of mine who had never been in a drain and she really enjoyed it. We even discovered that we had good cell phone reception and met up with some other drainers in the pipe. The city of York has a pretty interesting topography, and although I’ve never been found of seeing houses built right next to industry, or apartments directly on watersheds, it makes for some interesting photography.

The long bus ride back however, is a different subject altogether.

Images by Kathy & Jan

Birds eye view of slag dump.

Driving up to Sudbury, I get a call from a fellow explorer and friend, Jef. He was very happy to share his recommendations on accommodations and the best fried chicken in town with us (Deluxe restaurant) and insisted that regardless of what we had planned, we had to go watch the slag dump one night while we were in Sudbury. I had seen videos of this before, and it was a pretty surreal sight, molten metal being poured over the side of a hill, covered in slag which actually looks like coal from far away.  As far as you can see everything is black, there are no trees, grass or even weeds, with nothing living for miles. Do you see where I am going with this? It’s a lunar landscape, and one which I wasn’t going to miss after seeing such great images of Sudbury’s eerie landscape from other photographers.

Daytime slag watching (not our images)

We got directions the second night from another local who told us that access could not be easier to get to Inco’s slag dump. Climbing up a huge hill, the only thing stopping us was traffic and a road leading right up to the dump. Several levels of slag, with roads, lights and rail tracks were laid out in front of us. After climbing up a few hundred meters, we were at what appeared to be the top of the dump, but which dipped and meandered around over an area so extensive it felt as if you were walking on another planet. There was a full moon which provided enough light, but since everything was black you could not be seen. You could hear the slag train approach in the deafening silence. There were no birds or bugs flying about here, similar to Elliot Lake which we visited earlier in the day. Taking a break I sat down and looked over Sudbury.  When a loose piece of slag rolled down the hill, you heard it go clankity, clank CLANK  (!) as it made its way down the hill. Taking a break and looking around from the top of the hill I noticed a thick, nasty haze floating over the city, glowing from the city lights below. What most don’t realize (or wish to ignore) is that Sudbury’s ‘superstack’ really only gets going in the evening, coinciding nicely with the cover of darkness. As soon as it gets dark, it’s churning away. Interestingly it doesn’t smell quite as bad as say Hamilton does on a bad day, but you can see it. Sadly these images of mine never tuned out. We spent a few hours mulling about and decided to call it a night around 3AM.  We slowly made our way down and back to the truck where we had some sleeping to catch up on in the truck.

Slag dumps however should come with a warning label. Don’t wear shorts or t-shirts. The slag ‘bits’ themselves are pretty surreal too. They look like coal, sound like glass as you walk across them, and are deadly sharp. They form these ‘lumps’ as they cool and break off from the molten liquid slag that is poured out. They are byproducts from the refining process and are made up of silica and mostly iron.  I don’t even want to think about the hundreds of cuts I had (even through my pants) from that night which were similar to paper cuts accompanied by deep bruises that didn’t heal for at least 3 weeks.  Was a very cool place to experience but I did get some weird looks from people because my right leg looked like it had been through a meat grinder.

Deluxe restaurants chicken sandwich, fried chicken breast and INCO’s slag dumps are highly recommended to explorers if you ever find yourself in Sudbury with nothing to do.

Images by Kathy & Jan

Victoria Harbor or rather Port McNicholl (as it was renamed in 1912) was originally touted at the “Chicago of the North”. You might find this amusing if you had ever been to this small Hamlet of about 300 just outside of Midland Ontario. Not only is the town non-existent, there is only one small convenience store and nowhere to stop for a bite. We visited the silos twice, and both times we ran short on usable light as the first trip was a hasty weekday trip out before sunset and another was on a nice sunny day which went grey and bleak at our arrival.

What the town certainly lacks is made up for in the silo tenfold. We have visited quite a number of silos of different configurations but I liked this one best simply because of its size. This silo was huge. It was about half a kilometer long and almost 100 feet high. It doesn’t look quite this large in pictures because there is no other landmark around to provide proper scale. It also doesn’t look as old as it was because of the more modern use of steel reinforced concrete. When the first silo was built in 1910 by the Canadian Pacific Railway to store grain it was a smaller building with 63 bins. As far back as the 1880’s CPR had been looking for a more prime location to store and move wheat from the west. In 1905 the site was surveyed, and between 1909 and 1910 this site was built and in operation, capable of storing 2.2 million bushels. In 1912 a second building was built right next to the first elevator which had a total of 126 bins (4 million bushel capacity) and the site was finally expanded to its final size in 1927 to its current mammoth size and has an estimated 210 individual silos and 6.5 Million bushel capacity, just half of what was originally supposed to be a 12 million bushel capacity silo. During peak times, 165 people worked around the clock to keep everything moving along. The silo really started slowing down in 1956 when St.Lawrence seway opened up, however it managed to operate on reduced capacity until 1990 when it closed down once a rail subsidy was cancelled in 1989.

Access to the silo was from a basement area where one had to climb in over huge concrete remains of what was another structure on site that was somewhat effectively dumped along the base of the whole silo. There was only one way in and all of the ladders outside had been welded off long ago. Once inside you were hit with a damp skanky mist and an enveloping darkness. In the basement remained the rails used with smaller carts used to haul grain and equipment around, but the actual carts, machinery and related materials have been looted long ago. A super torch comes in handy when surveying the size of the space as you can actually see from one of the silo to the other (all 500’) end. I found the vastness of the space to be the most interesting feature, apart from the rooftop view which we could not access because we spent a good two hours looking around for a stable enough ladder to climb up. No one was willing to go up the sketchy, 7 or so story rusty ladder that actually broke off at one point when a friend put his full weight on it.

The silo was demolished almost 6 weeks ago to make way for a development that takes advantage of the deep water harbor.

Only time will tell if the development will be fully completed. Maybe Gil Blutrich’s $100 million bet will finally make Port McNicholl the Chicago of the North.

Our trip with Copy6 in January 2007, long ago.

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