MADE
IN HAMILTON
19TH CENTURY
INDUSTRIAL TRAIL
SITE
19
GARTSHORE & COWIE IRON WORKS, 1870
This
one-storey late Victorian brick building was erected around 1905 as the offices
for the Gartshore-Thomson Pipe and Foundry Company. It was originally located
at the south-west corner of Stuart and Caroline Streets, but was moved here
in 1992. It now serves as a multi-purpose waterfront park facility.
Alexander
then teamed with Thomas Cowie, who had been foreman at the Dundas factory for
the previous ten years, to open up a new foundry in Hamilton. Both men were
trained in the practical side of foundry work. They turned out heavy castings
for railway carriages from their new shop on Stuart Street between Caroline
and Hess Streets.
Gartshore reorganized production after assuming control of the company in 1875. Then called the Canada Pipe Foundry, it became the first Ontario firm to cast iron for water, gas and sewer pipes. They did a booming business across the country. The company became Gartshore-Thomson in 1904.
John Gartshore's Dundas foundry built the engines and machinery for the 1859 Hamilton Waterworks. The engines, machinery and buildings are now preserved as the Hamilton Museum of Steam and Technology.
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