MADE IN HAMILTON
19TH CENTURY
INDUSTRIAL TRAIL

SITE 8
E. & C. GURNEY COMPANY, 1842

The E. & C. Gurney foundry once covered the whole block bounded by John, Rebecca, Catharine and King William Streets. Inside this hot, smoky complex, highly skilled workers moulded and assembled a wide array of iron products including stoves, fireplace grates, hot air furnaces and registers. All that remains of this historic foundry today is the one-storey stone building at the north-west corner of Catharine and King William Streets.

The growth of the Gurney's business was typical of many Hamilton industries in the mid-19^th century. The brothers, Edward and Charles Gurney, spent their youth learning the iron moulding trade at a Utica, New York foundry. They struck out on their own in 1842, setting up a small shop in the promising frontier community of Hamilton. At first the brothers did all the work themselves, producing only "a couple of stoves a day". They slowly added to their operations as demand increased. By the 1890s, the company had established branches in Dundas, Toronto, Montreal and Winnipeg.

It was in the sweat and din of foundries like the Gurneys' that Hamilton's first metal workers' union was organized. The Iron Molders' International Union (IMIU) No. 26. entered the city in the early 1860s. It was a driving force behind the city's labour movement for much of the rest of the 19th century.

The elegant 4-storey Second Empire building pictured here, designed by Hamilton architect William Leith, was built in 1875 to accommodate the company's office and showroom. It was attached to the company's foundry and shops, which took up much of the rest of this block.