MADE IN HAMILTON
20TH CENTURY
INDUSTRIAL TRAIL

SITE 36
CANADIAN OTIS ELEVATOR COMPANY LTD., 1902
TREBOR-ALLAN INC.

The Canadian Otis Elevator Company, a subsidiary of the Otis Elevator Company of New York, started in a small factory on this site in 1902. Three years later, it merged with the sizable Fensom elevator works of Toronto to become the Otis-Fensom Elevator Company. In 1949, it became the Otis Elevator Company Limited (Canada).

Workers at this plant produced all types of elevators and escalators. Forklifts also became an important product line. For many years, this was the largest elevator manufacturing facility under one roof in the world. During the Second World War, the company produced Bofors anti-aircraft guns and other military hardware. Wartime demand led the company to add a new 350,000 square foot facility to the east of the plant. After the war, the Studebaker Corporation of South Bend, Indiana bought this new addition. Otis bought back the Studebaker section of the plant in the early 1970s, but stopped all production in Hamilton in 1987. At present, the former Otis plant is one of three Hamilton facilities used by candy-maker Trebor-Allan Inc.

Twenty year old Harry Johnston stands in front of the hard-wired electrical elevator controller he built in 1953. Assembling this state-of-the-art piece of equipment was his first big job as an industrial wire-man. Harry was the last person to leave the plant and lock the doors in 1987.

Workers at this plant were organized as United Steelworkers of America Local 7062.