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.
My grandfather, Bruce McMillan worked there before enlisting in the war. Great photos!
bruce roe wayne roe watched it all go to hell management near the end was a joke. them and us who can i nail suspend car went in ditch ice road right them up 50 in office on day shift 24 on floor working or less 8 camara s in lunch room it turned into a max prison two car plants firestone runs for usa never buy a tire from them again they hurt a lot of good peaple they are hurting now looks good on you give trump a big kiss oh no he is out old saying is if its not broke do not fix it 35 years working for firestone wish i was never there i would never treat peaple like that i should have worked for peaple who gave a shit about there workers
You sound very ignorant and uneducated. You should be thankful for having a job for 35 years.
mr firestone we lost our jobs to a new usa plant doing what we did front office killed out plant screw ups 12 hundred rolls not right end count 2016 plant 3 trying to run yarn that would never run natural and try to run over and over losing money like water when other yarn would run we all busted our ass to keep that plant open we all should still be there uneducated ignorant im thankful my house is paid for and i retired at 56 ps maybe you can retire at 65 mr firestone say hi to linda for me ha ha ha wayne
It is very interesting to see the pictures of the Firestone building. My Dad worked there, then I worked there for 37 years. Had a lot of very good times there met and worked with some very good people – that’s who I miss the most about the place.
The best year I personally had was 1984. When Firestone Textiles – Woodstock was honoured to receive The Canada Award of Excellence – in Labour/Management Co-operation. This was a federal Program to showcase originality in certain areas. Since 1985 all business cards could officially use the Award of Excellence Logo.
“You’ve got to Know When to Hold E’m, and Know When to Fold E’m” !!!
1968 – 1988 Section Manager Industrial Relations