Water St. S. 0155 - stone factory - former industrial site Cambridge

• Name	Water St. S. 0155 - stone factory - former industrial site Cambridge
  Born	constructed About 1875	155 Water St. South, Cambridge, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada
  Gender	Unknown
  Business	Canadian Machinery Corporation, Cambridge, Waterloo Region, Ontario
  	This company was one in a mesh of woodworking and metal working machinery makers in Galt, which is now part of Cambridge. The company was the result of the merger in 1910 of MacGregor, Gourlay & Co with John Ballantine & Co., Hespeler Machinery Co., part of Goldie & McCulloch Co. Ltd. and Sussex Machinery Co..
  Former Geographic Area	Galt
  Died	still standing 2011
  Person ID	I1055	Properties
  Last Modified	18 May 2012

  
  

• Notes

  155 Water Street South is an industrial site currently (2011) being converted to residential lofts. ______________________ Canada Machinery Corporation Ltd. can trace its origins back to the first wood-working tools Made in Canada- and to one of the workers who Made them, Alex G. Gourlay, who, together with Messrs. Cant, Laidlaw and Ross, founded the business in 1864. In 1872 the firm secured a new plant site, strategically located beside the depot for the then Great Western Railway. Construction of a 2 1/2 storey stone building took 4 years. It is still standing and, with many additions and modernizations, still serves as part of the company's engineering ring and administration offices. Shortly before the new plant was completed, Messrs. Ross and Laidlaw retired and the firm became known as Cant, Gourlay & Co.- the name that graced the new Galt Machine Works when the building was opened in 1876. 1880 saw another addition to the new plant and another name change, to MacGregor, Gourlay Co. Ltd. Two young men working for the company about this time, decided to branch out on their own to develop some original ideas for metalworking machinery. J. J. Stevens and R. M. Hamilton formed their own company and started manufacturing machine tools in 1886. The machine tool industry in Galt probably had its origins in this venture and it was subsequently noted in a 1927 journal that the design of some of the machines evolved by these two pioneers was afterwards followed by all machine tool builders in Canada. The firm of Stevens and Hamilton was absorbed by MacGregor, Gourlay in 1895. Hamilton stayed with the company for many years to become Works Manager with the machine tool business destined to play a dominant part in the Company's activities. By 1900 the firm was established as one of Galt's leading industries and it was about this time that they went into the pin business with the only pin factory in Canada. The present Canada Machinery Corporation was formed, by Dominion Charter in 1910, to consolidate MacGregor, Gourlay operations with those of four other companies - John Ballantine Co. of Preston; Hespeler Machinery Co., Hespeler; Sussex Machinery Co., Sussex, N.B.; and the wood-working machinery department of Goldie & McCulloch Co. of Galt.1a 1ahttps://www.lib.uwo.ca/programs/companyinformationcanada/ccc-canadamachinery.htm 2011

  
  

• Event Map

  Born - constructed About 1875 - 155 Water St. South, Cambridge, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  = Link to Google Earth