Gooderham and Worts – over 153 years of history
When James Worts arrived from England in 1931 to set up a
wind-powered gristmill, he settled on a portion of Toronto’s
original marsh lands (Port Lands). His windmill literally sat
at the edge of Lake Ontario in an area that was considered
“wilderness”. Joined by his brother-in-law, William Gooderham,
a year later, the two soon were distilling alcohol from surplus
and low-grade grain. Wind power replaced steam, and by 1837,
they added a distillery on a small plot of land on the west side of
Trinity Street (today’s Distillery District).
As the area was infilled with land to make room for railways,
the shoreline in front of the distillery changed. When the
Gooderham and Worts Distillery was rebuilt in 1856 (after
burning to the ground a few years earlier), the new Grand Trunk
Railway went in front of the building, cutting the distillery off
from the harbour.
Business continued to expand for the company. First a new
mill and distillery buildings filled the site, followed by a
malt house and company office, then numerous warehouses
required to support the company’s massive output. By 1871, the
Gooderham and Worts Distillery's annual whiskey and spirits
production totaled a whopping 2.1 million gallons - close to
half of the total spirits production in all of Ontario. Six years
later, Gooderham and Worts Distillery had become the largest
distillery in the world.
Even though the area was a mass of rail tracks and yards, the
Gooderham family actually lived in a large residence on Mill
Street immediately north of the distillery!
Over the years, the many warehouses and buildings in the
Distillery District have also been leased out for various uses,
i.e. storage, paper recycling, lumberyards, etc. By the 1990s the
main distillery had ceased operations.
Today we know the area as “The Distillery District”. Its more
than 40 buildings have been transformed into a pedestrian-only
village entirely dedicated to arts, culture and entertainment.
It is considered the largest and best preserved collection of
Victorian Industrial Architecture in North America. The Stone
Distillery is the oldest remaining building on site, constructed
between 1859-1860.
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