This was the John Deere Factory in Welland, Ontario.
The factory opened in 1911 after taking over The Dain Manufacturing Company, a producer of farming equipment. The company moved their headquarters to Welland in 1915 and in 1918 changed their name to John Deere Manufacturing Company.
Workers were unionized in 1989.
In the year 2000, two 14 year-old students attending the traditional Take Our Kids To Work Day, were killed when the Gator they were riding in crashed into a transport.
In 2008 the company announced that they’d be closing the plant next year, putting 800 people out of work. Production of Gator utility vehicles moved to the Horicon, Wisconsin plant. The reason for the closure was the strong Canadian dollar, which made selling to the United States less profitable.
The property was then purchased by 555 Canal Bank Developments CP Inc.
As of 2018, the current property owners, King and Benton, have been slowly cleaned up the property.
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