My Hometown: Wallaceburg, Ontario

[flar]

**EDIT: Check page 2 of this thread to see the "modern day ghosttown" phototour I posted a couple years ago**


Wallaceburg is an industrial town in Southwestern Ontario. It has fallen on hard times in recent years. The black and white photos were taken with a Nikon FG (film) I picked up at a flea market last week.

edit: check the bottom of the thread for a picture of the Glass Factory Tower (demolished circa 2000)

This is where I grew up:
































































This was my house:


This was my school:




















































































This is what surrounds Wallaceburg:

[salvius]

Wow, that is some hard-core decay. I had no idea.

[boden]

Well....you've done it again flar!
BTW did you scan the black and whites?

[Evergrey]

i love this house

[HomeInMyShoes]

Thanks for the brutal honesty flar. I appreciate your non-touristy views.

[flar]

Boden: I had the photo lab scan the negatives after they developed the film. Pretty much any 1hr photo lab does this and they will give you a CD with nice high-resolution jpeg files.

[psychosomatic]

is that school in Paris ontario?

[flar]

You mean this school?


That is D.A. Gordon Public School in Wallaceburg. All these pictures are in Wallaceburg. There are lots of schools that look like this one in Ontario though.

[Boris]

I love how you show all aspects of the town or city you happen to be shooting. Even of your hometown.

Very cool hometown by the way.

[softee]

I was also born in Wallaceburg, but we moved away when I was still a baby.

[the dude]

who was the big employer in wallaceburg? i'm assuming they're gone now.

[flar]

There is/was no single largest employer. Industry in Wallaceburg was very diverse, with many large factories. Wallaceburg was known as "The Glasstown" for many years. The Glass factory wasn't the largest employer, but it had a huge tower (over 250ft I believe) that was visible for miles. The tower and the factory were demolished around 2000, a huge blow to the town's identity. An earlier major industry was a sugar refinery. Now it's mostly auto parts. Interestingly Wallaceburg workers remain part of the United Auto Workers union rather than the Canadian Auto Workers.

You have definitely used products from Wallaceburg. Glassware (variously known as Dominion, Domglass, Libbey-St.Clair), Faucets and bathroom fixtures from Waltec (all the old urinals used to say Wallaceburg), Louisville slugger baseball bats, hockey sticks and golf clubs from Hillerich & Bradsby, Food from Nestle, furnaces from Olsen, and auto parts for nearly every N. American car.


Here is a list of major factories in Wallaceburg that I compiled for a high school project around 1990, with updates that I know of:

Name, Employees (1990), Current Status

Waltec, 652, all three plants closed or closing
Eaton Yale, 603, became Oxford Automotive and then closed
North American Plastics, 515, closed
Libbey St. Clair Glass, 427, closed
Benn Iron Foundary, 419, still operating as WABCO
St. Clair Tool & Die, 400, two factories closed, but HQ still in Wallaceburg
Accurcast, 323, still operating
Nestle Foods, 234, closed
H.E. Vannatter Tool & Die, 135, unknown
Solus Tool & Die, 130, unknown
Hillerich & Bradsby, 100, still operating
Venture Industries, 100, closed
Aar-Kel Moulds, 73, closing
Five Star Tool & Die, 52, unknown
Mylar 2 Moulds, 52, still operating
Active Burgess, 50, closing
Many other smaller tool & die shops

This equals more than 3000 jobs lost since 1990!

[keninhalifax]

A very interesting homeward-looking retrospective, Flar. It's too bad that so many retail establishments in the town have closed down. Are there any signs of hope for the downtown businesses?

By the way, I love the visual irony in that Tim Horton's picture. Do you know what the story is behind that store?

[Jularc]

Nice photos. Yeah looks like the town is dying out.

[CanadianCentaur]

What's the population of Wallaceburg, and if it's declining, when did it peak at?

[flar]

Originally Posted by keninottawa

A very interesting homeward-looking retrospective, Flar. It's too bad that so many retail establishments in the town have closed down. Are there any signs of hope for the downtown businesses?

By the way, I love the visual irony in that Tim Horton's picture. Do you know what the story is behind that store?

I doubt there's much hope for retail. They just tore down most of the mall, and now a Wal-Mart is being built. I didn't think Wal-Mart would come, but they did. On the other hand, a new oil refinery will be located about midway between Wallaceburg and Sarnia, so maybe there's a little hope.

I don't know the story behind Tim Horton's, they did the same thing in another part of town (in that case the old Tim's became a Harvey's).

Originally Posted by CanadianCentaur

What's the population of Wallaceburg, and if it's declining, when did it peak at?

Wallaceburg has been about the same size since the 1960's. The population has been slowly declining since 1990, obviously due to the job losses.

From the Census:
2006: 10,703
2001: 11,114
1996: 11,772
1991: 11,846

Where did all the factory jobs go?

[Hozay]

interesting thread

[flar]

Thanks all!

@InfillJunkie: one word: globalization


Here's an old picture of the Glass Factory, with the tower in the background. The Glass Factory's tower was the tallest building in the region:


Photo credit: Spencer Thorton, courtesy of the Wallaceburg & District Museum

[roofire]

Walmart will totally kill what's left of the once beautiful downtown. What a shame it's so rundown ! It's so sad to see cities dying