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44. JAMES GOODERHAM MILL AND DISTILLERY
James Gooderham Mill and Brewery
On August 30, 1990, after 158 years in operation, the oldest industry in York/Toronto closed its doors(1). The mill and distillery had long since left the control of the original owners and had merged several times until its final owners, Allied Lyons of Britain, found the operation redundant(2).

Historically it all began when Norfolk miller James Worts (1792?-1834) emigrated to York in 1813(3). Worts had a flour mill built on the shore of the bay, between the eastern boundary of York and the river Don(4). He was joined by his brother-in-law William Gooderham (1790-1881), who invested 3 000 pounds sterling into the partnership(5).

The Worts and Gooderham Mill was easily identifiable by its 70 foot high brick windmill. Wind power ground stones, and through a series of gears, ground grain. As payment for use of the mill farmers would leave the millers with extra grain.

The mill ran smoothly until James Worts’ suicide in 1834(6). Upset over the death of his wife in childbirth, Worts drowned himself in the well of the windmill.  William, as the remaining patriarch of both families and the sole owner of the mill,
flourished under the pressure and became one of Toronto’s best-known and leastloved capitalists(7).

Known as James Gooderham’s Mill from 1834-1845, Gooderham made several strategic improvements to his property(8). The mill changed to steam power; and a company wharf was built as well as a grain elevator. Most importantly, Gooderham made the lucrative move to distilling the farmer’s grain payments into rye whiskey.  This was a very common and practical move made by many 19th-century millers, and proved to be very profitable(9).

In 1845 Gooderham made his nephew James Gooderham Worts (1818-1882) a full partner, thus creating the well known Gooderham and Worts partnership(10).  Building upon the work of his father and uncle, James saw that by 1877 their’s was the
largest distillery in the world(11).

It remains one of the best-preserved 19th-century industrial complexes, and a fine descendant of the early 19th-century English factories(12).
Notes
  1. Filey, p.86.
  2. Ibid.
  3. Firth, p.81.
  4. Filey, p.86.
  5. Firth, p.81.
  6. Ibid.
  7. Linda Shapiro ed., Yesterday’s Toronto 1870-1910, (Toronto: Coles Publishing Company Ltd., 1978), p.13.
  8. Dianne Newell and Ralph Greenhill, Survivals: Aspects of Industrial Archaeology in Ontario, (Boston: The Boston Mills Press, 1989),p. 85.
  9. Ibid.
  10. Firth, p.81.
  11. Filey, p.87.
  12. Patricia McHugh, Toronto Architecture, A City Guide, 2nd ed. (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart Inc., 1989), p.38.


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