Historic Factories

The part of the Tidbits project I learned the most from was the content on old factories, because this was all new to me.  I'm well aware that Meaford was once a manufacturing hub, although this has died away in recent decades.  For a brief period it was also a minor port for shipping grain, though that ended when the grain elevator burned down in 1913.

But as we head down Nelson toward the harbour we first come to the old Fire Hall, right behind Meaford Hall.  It's currently under renovation and I'm told will be finished 'soon'.  All those boardings have been taken away, cedars planted around the patio, and it's starting to look finished, at least on the outside.  I dropped over to see it today and found it appeared totally wheelchair accessible, so I'm looking forward to it!  It's supposed to open as a restaurant.

At the bottom of Nelson Street is this vacant parcel of land that I've always wondered about. obviously the site of an old building, given all the cement.  And there's the little Tidbits sign.

This is the site of the old planing mill.  The manufacturing in Meaford was heavily based on the lumber industry with furniture, wheelbarrows and hardwood flooring the main products.

Over a block is another Tidbits sign for a different old factory, the foundry.

And this is the site of the condos we locals know as the 'blue box'  We have a friend who lives here, over-looking the harbour..

And one leftover from the old foundry is the Meaford cannon.  This sits three blocks away to the north, overlooking the outer harbour (ready to fend off any pirates)!

Across the inner harbour, which was regularly dredged in those years to keep it deep enough, was the grain elevator.  Though only built in 1901, it burned down in 1913 and was never replaced.

And this is the old train station, built after the railway was re-routed down around the harbour.  It would have been in what its now a gravel parking lot where there is no trace of it today.