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Uniroyal |
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The factory originally at the corner of Metcalfe and Alice Streets (now 120 Huron Street - Metcalfe Street was renamed Huron in 1956) has a fascinating manufacturing history. In the early 1910s, City Councilors and local business leaders campaigned to bring large, industrial companies to Guelph. The Northern Rubber Company was one of several industrial companies in the Ward neighborhood that emerged from this campaign. The company purchased land from John Kennedy in 1919 and started construction on a state-of-the-art facility. The factory began production of rubber footwear in April 1920. Factory production was divided by floor - the first floor was the mill (where the rubber was produced), second floor was the cutting room, third floor was the shoe room, fourth floor was the curing room, and the fifth floor was for packing and shipping. After just five years of operation, Northern Rubber had become one of the top employing industries in Guelph with almost 600 employees by the end of the 1920s. Uniquely, much of the workforce at the factory was women. Business declined during World War Two and Northern Rubber closed in 1941. In 1958, the property was sold to the Dominion Tire Company. Uniroyal Chemical Limited took over the site in 1988. Uniroyal became Crompton Corporation in 1999 and Chemtura Canada in 2006. Chemtura vacated the property in 2014. Updated 2023 |
