Firestone Cotton Mills of Canada began operations in 1936 in a building purchased from the Oxford Knitting Mills in Woodstock, Ontario.

The building was known as Plant Number 1, located at the corner of Oxford and Ingersoll Streets. Plant #1 manufactured cotton for tire cord cotton reinforced tires. The cotton was used until the 1940’s when rayon was introduced. Today tires are reinforced using a mixture of nylon and polyester.

During the Second World War, many of the positions at Firestone were held by women. Firestone was also the first job for many immigrants arriving to Canada during the 1950’s.

In 1965 Plant Number Two opened at 1200 Dundas Street East. It allowed for expanded tire cord production using larger, cost-effective spools. In 1984, a $6 million expansion took place and gradually integrated employees from Plant #1 into Plant #2. Plant #1 became a warehouse.

In 1967, Plant Number Three was built for the production of Nylon 6.
Firestone employed 170 employees (35 salaried and 135 hourly) from the Woodstock area. On October 4th, 2017 an emergency meeting was held to announce that production would be gradually scaled back and production would cease entirely by the end of 2018.

Today the property is vacant and stripped of everything inside. During my visit there was electricity. If you visit, exercise caution as some of the doors will lock behind you and you could trap yourself in between them.

In the early 1900s, the McCormick family had controlling interest of the (Chicago) Tribune Company which produced newspapers. In 1910, Robert McCormick started working in the family’s business and the following year was elected president of the Tribune Company.

The Tribune’s main competition was a newspaper out of Hearst which was able to obtain newsprint at lower cost. McCormick developed a plan to build his own newsprint mill in order to have better control over the price of his most important raw material. In winter of 1911, he chose a location in Thorold, Ontario which was at the time a cow pasture along the bank of the Welland Canal.

Two engineers were brought in from Chicago to design the plant.  The mill building was completed by  1913, and the first production at the newly-formed Ontario Paper Company started on September 15, 1913. The second paper machine started a few weeks later. In 1914 the mill was able to meet 93% of the Tribune’s paper needs.

Closure

The Resolute Paper Mill was another statistic in the industries lost due to increasing operating costs and decreased sales. In 2016, the company announced a $15 million dollar loss. A decline in the demand for newsprint was the primary reason for the closure. In March of 2017 Resolute Forest Products was closed and approximately 120 workers were laid off.

Exploration

The building is quite large and took several hours to see it all. I didn’t take enough photos to do it justice. There’s a separate industrial building that we didn’t get to see.

The medical rooms are the most interesting. There are various medical equipment, a doctor’s examination table and several containers of old medicine.

In a span of less than 48 hours after first visiting this location, the doors had been chained back up. Several of my photos didn’t turn out clear – a casualty of the manual focus lens I was using 🙂

November of 2018 Photos

Caddy’s Strip Club was located in Scarborough, Ontario. Part of the adult entertainment experience of course was the availability of lap dances. This was a private area where dancers would provide dances for men often with unwanted physical contact taking place.

Caddy’s Strib Club joins many others that have closed across Canada as fewer people utilize them. With the availability of adult material, who’d want to pay $8 a beer to see what you could see naked women at home? If the walls could talk, they’d probably moan.

Above the steps to the building was a Cadillac car.

There is no electricity so lighting proved challenging during our visit.

There’s now extensive graffiti covering the mirrors on the wall, the coolers shown above and several other areas of the bar. 

In 2014 two men were shot outside of the establishment.

Despite power being on in various parts of the building, I was unable to turn on any of the stage lighting.

The basement contained dressing rooms and a backstage room for the live bands that played in the Rockpile East next door. The door was signed by many bands (photo: Motleykiwi)

 

The basement is beginning to flood though you can walk through it with shoes on.

The property will be demolished to make room for 184 townhouses.

According to Osgoode Hall professor Alan Young, strip clubs began to decline when the Harper era government placed VISA restrictions on women entering Canada from Eastern Europe to work in strip clubs.

I think that the decline is due to the availability of online porn and cheaper beer to be found at home.

Rockpile East

The Rockpile East was part of the Caddy’s building. It opened in 2013 and featured The Killer Dwarfs as the debut band.

The cover fee ranged from $15 to as high as $30 per person.

The Tivoli Theatre in Hamilton dates back to 1875 when it began as a carriage factory. The carriage factory closed six years later and the building remained vacant for the next 26 years.

In 1908 the factory was converted to a theatre with 200 seats and named the Wonderland, followed by the Colonial (1910 to 1912) and the Princess (1913-1923).

The theatre showed live vaudeville acts and movies. It was the first cinema in Hamilton to feature soundtracks.

In 1924 a man named Andrew Ross took over and converted the store theatre into an auditorium which was named The Tivoli. It opened on September 29th, 1924.

On Feb. 1, 1926, the Tivoli Theatre introduced “talkies” (talking movies). Only two other Canadian theatres offered talking movies at this time.

In 1950 the theatre began showing movies full time and was operated by Famous Players Corporation. The building was remodeled in 1943, 1947 and 1954.

Improvements made in 1954 included 1,300 flashing lights on the marquee sign and the, auditorium walls were covered in silk damask.

The theatre was the first in its city to feature soundtracks. It changed ownership several times until being purchased by Famous Players Corporation. Famous Players renovated the theatre.

September 28th, 1989 was the final day the building was used as a movie theatre. The final movie played was “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” with 42 people in attendance.

The theatre was last used between 1998 and 2004, rented out by the current owners, the Snidermans (Sam the Record Man), to a local theatre company called the Tivoli Renaissance Project.

The former lobby was damaged on June 29th, 2004 and subsequently demolished after contractors determined the wall was dangerous. The City of Hamilton took over the property, secured it and removed the third floor, front wall, cupola and the marquee sign. The following year the Sniderman family applied for a demolition permit to demolition the 750-seat structure.

The property was then sold to the CEO of the Canadian Ballet Youth Ensemble for $2.

The dance company was unable to keep up with the repairs on the aging structure and in 2013 it was sold to the CEO’s husband Domenic Diamante. Diamante is head of Diamante Investments.

Diamante Investments plans to build a new lobby that will lead to a restored auditorium. In addition a 22-storey condo tower will be built on the site. The tower would supply the revenue required to restore the theatre. The plaster work and mouldings would be preserved and restored as part of the heritage process. Diamante Investments would then donate the completed theatre back to the Ballet Ensemble in a partnership plan that would have to be arranged. The City of Hamilton approved the developer’s proposal to build the condo tower and restore the theatre.

In 2015 their proposal was approved with the condition that the theatre open before the condos.

After the theatre closed, it was sold to the CEO of a dance company. The company wasn’t able to maintain the aging building and the building sold to the husband of the CEO. 

Plans for a condo tower have been proposed which include restoring the theatre.

As with many other explorers, entry into this location took repeated visits to check for a way inside. What might be locked one day, could be open the next. Sometimes kids leave a door open, other times it might be a forgetful employee. I waited over a year to get into this location and it did not disappoint.

Demolition

In September of 2025, Aventus Group began preparing the building for conversion into new condos. This involved tearing down an interior wall. They claimed that it wasn’t ‘demolition’, the City of Hamilton disagreed. Aventus was required to obtain a demolition permit before they could continue.

The Bowmanville Zoo opened in 1919 on the grounds of the Cream of Barley Mill (also on my website as location 5947). The attraction was known as “The Cream of Barley Campground”. The owner of the mill created a campground and park attraction for tourists. A petting zoo was added later. 

By 1946 there were tennis courts where the pear orchards once stood. As time progressed the campground area and cabins were turned into animal shelters. Some of the animals on site included a jaguar, camels, African lion and Bengal tigers. 

Many of the animals were used in American made films.

In 1964 the park’s name was changed to the Bowmanville Zoo. When new management took over in 1988, the name was changed to Bowmanville Zoological Park. 

This is an abandoned zoo located in Bowmanville, Ontario.

In December of 2015 the animal activist group PETA released a video that allegedly showed the zoo’s owner swearing at, and cracking a whip numerous times at a Siberian tiger named Uno. The footage was filmed by an undercover PETA member who had begun working at the zoo.

After these allegations, attendance at the zoo fell by more than 65 per cent. 

On June 23, 2016 the Bowmanville Zoo announced that it was closing at the end of the year. Had it remained open until 2019, it would have been open for 100 years. 

At the time of closure there were approximately 300 animals in the zoo.

The business rebranded in 2017 as the Clarington Family Outdoor Adventure Park. The existing animals were slowly relocated to other homes.

A pair of lions was shipped to Cherry Brook Zoo in Saint John, New Brunswick. Two camels were shipped to Oaklawn Farm zoo in Aylesford, Nova Scotia.

The property will reopen again in the near future as a green space park. The land will be transferred to Clarington and the grounds cleaned up.

Video

Martin’s Bowling Alley is located in the city of Hamilton. This style of bowling alley has been obsolete for many years. The location was in operation for over fifty years. It consisted of 12 lanes with manual scoring (pencil and paper). There were six lanes on two different levels of the building. 

The benches were hand carved. Some of the signage dates back to the 1950’s. 

The business was popular for weekend birthday parties, bachelor parties and bridal showers. It served as a social hub for seniors, many of whom had been in the same bowling league for years. 

 

 

 

 

The bowling alley served Labatt’s 50, a non-common brand of beer for any licensed establishment.  Jimmy was the name of the owner and had been so for over thirty years.

 The owner was offered a substantial amount of money to vacate the building. It won’t be new housing that will take the building’s place, but light rail transit.

 

The bowling alley sits vacant with all of the equipment left behind. Several pairs of bowling shoes collect dust waiting for the day they may be worn once again.

I was provided information on a supposed former bed and breakfast in Southern Ontario. I parked down the road at a recreational business and walked in the driveway to the property. A large tree has been placed across the entrance to keep vehicles out. The land adjacent to the house is used for farming.

 

 

 

 

A somewhat inexplicable view. A toilet and wash basin set in a large room with at least two entrances. There is plenty of peeling paint.

 

 

This would have been the main kitchen area for the guests – if this was a bed and breakfast. I can’t find any mention of such a business operating in this area of Ontario. 

 

 

Looking in the mirror of the upstairs washroom. This doesn’t lend itself to being items that guests would leave behind does it? 

 

 

 

If I learn any more details about this location, I’ll be sure to update this post. 

 

The history of Hotel Europa dates back several decades to a time when it was named the “Columbia Hotel”. The Columbia was later town down and the Trennick was built on the grounds. It opened on June 13, 1910 with Mr. Charles R. Newman as the proprietor. Rates for one of the 40 rooms ranged from $2.50 to $3.00 and an American meal plan was 50 cents.

Mr. Newman lived in the hotel until 1916 when he moved into his own home. In 1920, Newman purchased the hotel. He became mayor of Niagara Falls in 1922, a position which he held until 1924. Newman passed away in 1928.

A billiard room was built in the basement as well as sample rooms. Sample rooms were rooms where travelling salesmen could display their products to the public. A 150 person dining hall was on the main floor.

During this era, hotel owners were discouraged from offering music and dancing as it was seen as having a negative effect on the morals of young people.

The LCBO also didn’t approve of using dancing to promote drink sales. The LCBO felt that hotels shouldn’t be focusing on selling drinks. As Niagara Falls was a tourist destination, hotel owners were facing pressure from guests to provide some enjoyment. Music in beverage rooms was not permitted yet many hotel proprietors ignored the rule.

Dining rooms however could have a record player, piano or small band.

When a liquor inspector found a piano in the ladies and escorts room of the Trennick, the manager explained that the piano was, “placed in this room to provide necessary music to a tap dancing class or school.”

The hotel underwent further name changes, becoming the Metropole in 1942 and underwent renovations. Ivan Popvich was the manager according to my research. It then became the Mohawk Hotel and in 1967, the Lord Nelson Hotel.

The City Lights Night Club operated out of the main floor.

The hotel has been abandoned since the early 2000’s.

See also Abandoned Mansions Ontario Wiki

Video

The history of McCormicks begins in 1849.

In 1849 Thomas McCormick emigrated to Canada from Ireland. In 1858 McCormick begun the manufacturing of candy in a factory located on Clarence Street in London, Ontario. The company was incorporated under the name of McCormick Manufacturing Company in July of 1879.

When McCormick passed away in 1906 his sons took over the business. By 1912 a larger and more efficient plant was needed. Thomas McCormick Jr. visited over one hundred biscuit and candy factories to observe their architecture. With the assistance of the London architectural firm Watt & Blackwell, they created what was considered one of the most sanitary and fireproof factories in North America. 

The plant opened in East London on more than 100 acres of farm land known as Priest’s Swamp. 

McCormicks contained 1.5 million bricks, 800 tons of steel, 100,000 bags of cement and 45,000 square feet of glass. 68% of the exterior walls were glass to allow sunlight inside. A company brochure described the factory as a “sunshine palace”. 

The McCormick’s factory could produce 135,000 pounds of candy and 100,000 pounds of biscuits on a daily basis. As many as 1,000 workers were employed inside the factory. 

Prior to the First World War public concern about the purity of processed food prompted the government to increase its scrutiny of food manufacturing. McCormick’s was focused on maintaining a hygienic manufacturing process.

Employee amenities included large dining rooms, gymnasium, library, locker rooms, medical facilities and rest rooms. Outdoor tennis courts and a baseball diamond were part of the employee experience.

March 2013 Photos

January 25, 2015 Photos

When the London factory shut down in the summer of 2008 it was still being operated by Beta Brands. At that time approximately 100 employees lost their jobs. 

Present Day

Today the four-storey McCormick’s factory located at 1156 Dundas Street lies vacant, dark, with a lot to see and explore. There are several stories of homeless people living here and syringes to be found on the ground. I’ve yet to encounter anyone on my visits. Also the roof is quite soft, so be warned.

The first floor was usually accessible from one of the garage door entrances. The floor contained sugar silos, administrative offices and conveyor belt ovens. 

The second floor was used for the production of crackers. There was a laboratory on this floor as well. 

The third floor was for the production of chocolate and also contained the employee cafeteria. 

The fourth floor was for the production of candy. The fifth floor was used for producing jelly beans and also contained the executive offices and boardroom. 

The property was purchased by Sierra Construction of Woodstock for $1. The property will require approximately $8 million to clean it up. A portion of the rear of the property has already been torn down.

As of 2019 most of the rear of the factory has been demolished. Work is under way to convert the front of the building into housing.

Depending on the time of year, you might encounter homeless or drug users inside.

Further information regarding the McCormick Villages project, click here.