Photolena
  • Test Tube
  • Red Scooper Sadness
  • Cherry Typhoon
  • Cinderella's Shoe Fetish
  • Seeing the Light
  • Them Rickety Stair
  • example
  • example
  • example
  • example
  • example
  • example
  • example
  • example
  • example
  • example
  • example
  • example
  • Archives

  • November29th

    Barber Paper Mill

    Posted in: Articles, General

    Nestled along the banks of the picturesque Credit River in Georgetown, Ontario, lie the ruins of a once bustling paper mill.

    The original structure was erected in 1823 by George Kennedy, a descendant of United Empire Loyalists, who recognized the importance of the abundant water supply from the Credit River. A small settlement called Hungry Hollow soon built up around the mill. In 1837, the Barber brothers purchased the mill and foundry from Mr. Kennedy and renamed the small settlement Georgetown.

    Originally, they worked a woolen mill, later switching to fine rag paper. The Barber brother’s papermaking business flourished along the banks of the Credit, and with the building of the Grand Trunk Railroad through Georgetown and Hamilton, the small settlement rapidly grew. By 1864, the population rose to 1250 citizens and the settlement became an official Village in December of that same year.

    In 1869, James Barber bought the paper business. Upon his death, his son John Roaf Barber took it over, changing it to wood pulp, and grew it into a large operation that employed hundreds of people. In 1888, he commissioned the Cleveland Brush Company in Ohio to build a dynamo to power his expanded manufacturing mill. It was built over 1 kilometre down river from the mill and the electric power was transmitted by wire back to the plant – the first long distance power transmission in North America.

    In 1911, John R. sold his interest in the paper mills to Provincial Paper Company and retired. The Ontario Heritage Foundation marked the site with a sign in 1977 but the buildings themselves are not safe from the wrecking ball as proposal were tabled as far back as 2004 to redevelop the site as a “14-storey condominium and 48-room country inn…with 245 condo suites.” The site makeover is estimated at $75 million.

    The Town of Halton Hills is still pursuing designation as a national heritage site – if it can get it, the buildings cannot be torn down and must be incorporated into the redevelopment plans. Considering the historical significance of this site to the region, this would seem the smartest option but with the mill sitting in complete ruin, with many of the buildings in need of structural support, most floors collapsed due to rot from rain and snow, and the roofing structure completely missing it may be too late for this structure.

  • November27th

    Bethlehem Steel North

    Posted in: Articles, General

    Originally founded by the Scranton family, the rise of Lackawanna Steel pig-iron manufacturer, had led to the creation of the city of Scranton, Pennsylvania but in 1902 they moved their enitre manufacturing operation to West Seneca, a suburb of Buffalo, New York.

    Lackawanna Steel Co. had a rocky relationship with the town of West Seneca. The company demanded large investments in sewer, water, gas and road improvements but refused to pay for them itself (even though the company was much wealthier than the city). The large influx of workers from the company’s old Pennsylvania site swelled the city’s population, leading to the creation of extensive tracts of extremely substandard housing and very bad public health problems (including outbreaks of cholera, typhoid and influenza). To save the city, West Senecans proposed spinning off the area around the steel mill as its own incorporated community. Lackawanna Steel originally opposed the incorporation of the proposed town but in 1909 Lackawanna was formed.

    Over the next several years, the Lackawanna plant continued to expand physically, its works now rambling over more than two miles of shoreline and spilling over into the nearby town of Hamburg. Lackawanna Steel paid about 75 percent of the taxes in the city of Lackawanna, effectively controlling city government. In 1922, Lackawanna Steel reported very large deficits, driven primarily by the huge New York steel mill’s aging equipment.

    In 1922, Lackawanna Steel Co. was acquired by the Bethlehem Steel Company, ending the company’s 62-year independence. Bethlehem Steel said it would spend $10 million improving the Lackawanna mills, which were described as “obsolete” due to a lack of investment. In the 1970s and 1980s, Bethlehem Steel allowed the Lackawanna Steel plant to become obsolete. Foreign competition made it financially impossible to continue to manufacture most of the products produced at Lackawanna. Bethlehem Steel also disliked the high tax rates of the state of New York, and did not want to spend the millions of dollars in air and water pollution abatement which were required by state and federal authorities. In 1982, Bethlehem Steel announced the closing of nearly all production at the Lackawanna Steel plant in New York. The plant was closed on October 15, 1982.

    Although declared a Superfund site by the EPA, a Class 2 Inactive Hazardous Waste Site, and brownsite, the city of Lackawanna redeveloped some of the former Lackawanna Steel Co. land into small business zones, bringing about 700 jobs back to the town in the late 1980s. In 1993, Veritas Capital, Inc., purchased one of the bar, rod and wire plants on the old Lackawanna site and added another 250 jobs (the workers made automobile steering columns). Bethlehem Steel ended coke production at the Lackawanna site in 2001, and as of 2008 only a galvanized steel finishing plant employing about 250 people remained. Today, the main office of Bethlehem Steel sits abandoned and in decay, awaiting either demolition or restoration.

    (This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article “Lackawanna Steel Company“)

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »
Return to the Homepage