The Beginning of the Glass Industry in Wallaceburg

In the image photos include: Captain William Taylor (source Wallaceburg and District Museum), Captain J.A. Steinhott (source Commemorative Biographical Record of the County of Kent. J.H. Beers. 1904) David Alexander Gordon the founding director of the Glass Factory and Managing Director (Source Wallaceburg and District Museum)

The Decline of the Lumber Trade

During the late 1800's, the lumber trade that had made Wallaceburg a thriving community began to collapse. New industries were needed to keep the local economy alive. Capitain William Taylor, a local resident who had been raised near a glass factory in England, envisioned a similar industry using the plentiful sand deposits along the banks of the Sydenham and Snye Rivers to manufacture glass. The town rallied around the idea, and the company was incorporated as the Sydenham Glass Company. Property was acquired and building of the factory began. A major setback was suffered when the local sand was found to be unsuitable for glass manufacture. The company decided to import the sand from deposits in Southeastern Michigan, were the deposits are among the best in North America for glass making.

A False Start

The company hired Richard Davis to manufacture the glass furnace and the buildings. Unbeknownst to the company, Davis had already swindled money out of the several other groups involved in the glass ventures. The monies promised to the company by Davis, as part of the start-up capital, never materialized and the company found themselves short ^$10,000. The board of the Sydenham Glass Company requested public funding for the shortfall. The town of Wallaceburg invested in the factory after the townspeople overwhelmingly approved by public vote. Davis completed the furnace and in April 1895, the fires were lit and production was to begin within a few days. Before production could begin, the furnace cracked and molten glass poured out into the factory. After this disaster, the company hired another firm to rebuild the furnace and production finally began in September 1895.

The Location

Map of Glass Factory property, 1913

As seen on the map above, many buildings were needed to support the glass industry such as warehouses, packaging, maintenance, power plant and offices, among others. The first buildings were built mainly of wood and were susceptible to fires. The greenhouse suffered a total loss in 1901, the flint house in 1903 and a large portion of the property burned in 1909. The buildings were rebuilt in short order after each loss with concrete and steel structures to better prevent these losses again.

The Sydenham Glass factory sat on a parcel of land, approximately 7 hectares in size. The railroad formed its northeastern border and the Sydenham River was on its South East side. Garnet street is on the south end of the property and Forhan Street was the west border of the property. The site eventually grew to about 14 hectares when the company expanded to the other side of Forhan Street. River access made this an ideal location for such an industry as raw materials, such as sand, coal, soda ash and lime were often brought in by the shipload and finished products could be sent out to the far reaches of the market. The railroad was also handy to supply the plant with other local materials that were needed and to export the finished products.

Several other local individuals other than Capt. William Taylor were also heavily involved in the success of the Sydenham Glass Company including Dr. George Mitchell, Dr. William Hay, Capt. J. W. Steinhoff and D. A. Gordon.

Main Buildings

In the image photos include: A photo of the original Green House. The Flint House shown with the original board and batten wooden siding. The New House soon after it was built. A hand tinted image of the Batch House c. 1930. A photo of the batch tower nearing completion c. 1960. A map created for the city of Wallaceburg to use in the event of an air raid during the Second World War, May 1936.

Green House

The first structure built for glassmaking on the factory site was the original Greenhouse, which was completed in 1895. The factory received its name due to the aqua green glass that was used to produce the earliest glassware. The original building was a wooden structure covered with galvanized iron. The engine house and lehr ovens were solid brick using over half a million bricks in their manufacture. The total construction cost was $35,000, all of which was raised in Wallaceburg.

The large lettering on the side of the main building could be seen for miles around the factory and was painted by local sign artist Sam Martin, who had to stand on the shoulders of Hugh Blake McDougall as he shuffled along the side of the building, since a ladder could not be used due to the round shape of the roof. Like many 19th-century glass houses, the original Greenhouse was completely destroyed by fire in February of 1901, as reported in the Wallaceburg News. After the fire, the Greenhouse was quickly replaced with a new building. This new Greenhouse would eventually contain 3 continuous tank furnaces and would remain in one form or another until the closure of the plant in 1999. 

Flint House

In 1898, due to the success of the glass venture and the need to increase output, the company built a second factory on the site known as the Flinthouse. The manufacturer of flintglass items, flintglass was a better quality clear glass that was used mainly for lamp chimneys as well as quality pressed tableware. The building was built around a gas-fired furnace, which allowed several teams of glassblowers to work at individual workstations around the furnace’s circumference.

The initial building was constructed of wood and was destroyed by fire just a few years later. The factory was quickly replaced with a fire-proof metal building. The Flinthouse was in operation until 1916 when it was shut down due to the automation of the glass industry and a decreased need for kerosene lamps and lamp chimneys due to the introduction of electricity in many Canadian homes. The building was converted into a warehouse and stood until the 1940s.

New House

In 1908, Michael Owens, of the Libbey Glass Co., in Toledo, Ohio, introduced the Owens Automatic Gathering and Blowing Machine, the first fully automated glass blowing machine. The management of the Sydenham Glass Company was quick to seize on this opportunity and arranged for the leasing of several of Owens’ new machines.

The Owens machine required a new type of glass furnace for its operations, and so the company began the construction of a third factory on the site to be used mainly for production on the Owens machine. This new factory was referred to as The New House (it was sometimes referred to as The Amber House). The H.L. Dixon Company of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, a supplier of the Owens machine, was contracted to build the new factory. This new building was built entirely of steel and brick to ensure that it was fireproof.

The furnace was a special continuous tank that had a revolving chain arrangement at the front from which the molten glass would draw the molten glass during manufacture. Production began in the new factory in early 1909 and lasted until the mid-1970s. Even though it was one of the oldest buildings on the site, it was still referred to as The New House at the time of the factory closing in 1999.

Batch House

The batch house was built in the 1920s to centralize the mixing of all the ingredients needed for the various continuous tanks in use at the glass works. All the ingredients necessary for the production of glass were shipped to the batch house where they were mixed into a batch specific to what type of glass was required; the batch was then transported by conveyor belt to the individual furnaces on the factory site.

Batch Tower

The batch house was replaced by the batch tower in 1960. The tower allowed the mixing of the glass to be done by push button on the third control room. A Norwegian engineer, Niels Andersen, was brought in to complete the project. 

The piles for the building went down to the bedrock and during construction each load of concrete brought on the site had to meet the engineer’s specifications or it was sent back. The elevator in the building went only to the top floors, from there, a ladder was used to reach the top.

There were four compartments on the top of the tower that held the main ingredients of glass; crushed glass sand from Amherstburg, sand from Rockwell Michigan, and broke glass from the factory. This tower became a Wallaceburg landmark, and could be seen from several miles away. The tower was lit up at Christmas time as the Dominion Glass batch tower was lit up and green for the season.

Name Changes

The Sydenham Glass Company was merged in 1913 with other glass companies in Montreal, Toronto & Hamilton to form the Dominion Glass Company Limited. It kept this name until 1976 when it changed to Dom Glass until 1978, Libbey St. Clair from 1978 to 1993 and Libbey from 1993 to closing in 1999. The plant was shuttered in 1999 and the buildings levelled shortly after with the iconic Batch Tower coming down on March 5, 2000.

The early years of glass making was very labour intensive and required many skilled glassblowers to produce large quantities of glass items for the market. Many youth were also hired to move the product to and from the various stages of manufacture. Above depicts a typical station with a glassblower prepared to blow molten glass into a mold for a lamp chimney. Various tools can be seen in this display as well as a collection of cullet taken from the furnace. This display and other information can be seen at the Wallaceburg Museum. The Glass Factory has employed thousands of men women and boys over its long history.

The Wallaceburg Museum has an entire level dedicated to the history of the plant and its people. Retirees were gifted with a box of tumblers with their name and retirement date as a parting gift.

The executives of the company also had liquor bottles made with their face and information embossed in the bottle.

A sad day for Wallaceburg as the Iconic landmark for many years was toppled by explosive on March 20, 2000. All that remains of this long lived industry are the main office and warehouse buildings on the west side of the property.

Information about The Wallaceburg Glass Factory was taken from the files of the Wallaceburg and District Museum and put together by:

Henry Van Haren,

President of the Wallaceburg & District Historical Society and

Kaelyn Gregory,

Curator of Wallaceburg & District Museum