These are notes I am writing to help me learn our industrial history. They are my best understanding, but that does not mean they are a correct understanding.
Monday, May 29, 2023
Toronto, ON: Victory Mills and Canada Malting Grain Elevators
Victory Mills: (3D Satellite) 1944-92, originally Sunsoy Products. It was bought by Central Soya in 1985.
Marine Historical Society of Detroit posted Another Paterson vessel, the Prescodoc (2) unloading grain at the Victory Mills elevator in Toronto. Unknown, but pre-1963 date. Capt. William Taylor photo/MHSD collection. Dennis DeBruler: It is nice to see what a marine leg looked like when it is in use. Self-unloading freighters made them obsolete.
The silos on the right is what is left of Victory Mills. It used to have more silos and several buildings. I included the scene on the left because it is going to be changing because of the Villers Island project. The red and white arch bridge is the new Cherry Street Bridge.
The silos in the middle are owned by Essroc Cement and were used to hold cement. [heritage, p32, Figure 29]
I wonder how long the powerplant in the left background of the above view is going to last. Because that land has a view of the marina and lake, I'll bet it is going to become condos.
[heritage, p32. This reference contains a lot of maps starting with 1793 that illustrate how the harbor area grew. Like Chicago, a lot of what we see today is landfill.]
Victory Mills
trainweb, this page has photos of more grain elevators in the vicinity Pic River, Quebec & Ontario Transportation Co.Ltd. 1959 R.L.Kennedy "When Victory Mills opened in December 1944, as Sunsoy Products, it was the largest soybean extraction and processing plant in Canada. Soy meal is animal feed and pet food products. It became Victory Mills in March 1946 and was owned by Canadian Breweries Ltd. until 1954 when it was acquired by Procter & Gamble becoming Victoria Soya Mills Ltd. until 1985 when it was acquired by Central Soya and was closed by new owners in March 1992 with operations being carried on at a Hamilton harbour location. Central Soya was acquired by CanAmera Foods which in turn were acquired by Bunge in 2002."
The facility had two grain elevators. The west elevator with the marine leg and mill buidings was the original one. The extant silos were part of the eastern elevator.
Canada Malting is now a global compnay, but their operations have moved further west in Canada. [CanadaMalting_about]
Another photo with an active marine leg.
March 2015: blogTO, cropped What's happening with Toronto's waterfront silos? 1928-87 [Not much] Also acotoronto, credit Metroneome Canada
acotoronto "Canada Malting silos shortly after construction in 1928. Notice the now-demolished original Toronto Star building in the background. (Image courtesy of the City of Toronto Archives.)"
acotoronto, photo by Jarold Dumouchel. This is one of several photos on this page [As with the Victory Mills, the support buildings have been torn down.]
acotoronto "1988. (Image courtesy of the City of Toronto Archives.)"
The city owns this property. The 2019 plans to make it an art center died. Now they are at least repairing the silos and landscaping the property so that the public can enjoy the waterfront. But I see the idea of putting an observation deck on top of the silos seems to have also died.
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