In 1912, the Westinghouse Company built a foundry and lamp-manufacturing plant here on this site, they made iron castings there until WWI, when the building was used as a barracks for the military.
The 1930s saw the beginning of an extremely successful venture for Westinghouse with the manufacturing of household appliances.
The company continued to expand and produce during the 1940s and '50s. During WWII, Westinghouse made gun barrels and produced artillery shells for the armed forces, and participated in the research and development of a uranium derivative for use in atomic bombs.
In the 1970s, the Westinghouse factory became the property of Camco, joining plants in Montreal, Weston, London, and Orangeville. With the Westinghouse acquisition, Camco became the largest manufacturer of major appliances in Canada, holding 30% of the Canadian market. The company began by investing more than $1 million dollars in new equipment for the plant, in order to be able to manufacture parts that would otherwise have to be imported.
In 1984, a worker at the plant died after being hit in the chest by a metal bar; the first and only death at the plant.
Camco continued to operate on the property and saw profits at the plant rise until the late 1980's, when things began to fall apart. The company reacted slowly to sluggish sales from the plant, which led to a surplus of inventory. While Camco managed to survive for another 15 years, ultimately it was shut down in December of 2004 as it could no longer compete with newer manufacturing centers.
It was announced in December of 2003 that Camco would be ceasing operations at the plant and that it would be closing, ending many decades of production and jobs at the site.
Back in 2010, the property was being considered as a site to build a stadium for the PanAm games, but this never came to be.
As recently as around 2016, the factory was being used as a metal recycling plant
In February 2020, police responded to calls of a body that was found inside the factory. It was the body of a scrapper who was attempting to remove copper from an area where there was live power.
The property, I’ve been told, was purchased years ago by the local university and would be incorporated into their large-scale Innovation Park concept on the surrounding lands. The plans are to convert this into a multi-use space, laboratory and research labs for global pandemic and biological threats, as well as a community center.
The proposed lab and research center would feature 300,000 square feet of research and meeting space as well as amenities from dining and more. Described by someone involved as the equivalent of a 30 storey skyscraper, but horizontal.
The original plans for this innovation park stated that it would be operational by December 2024, but seeing as we are now in November 2024, I think it’s safe to assume that there have been unexpected delays!
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What's up guys? Welcome to another Freaktography abandoned industrial factory adventure.
As you can see behind me, I'm in a huge abandoned factory. Massive. Now there's a couple things to
know before we get started. Number one, I'm not alone. There's probably 10 scrappers in this
building working away, hacking away at copper and pieces of metal and stuff that they can sell
at a scrapyard and make money off of. Now scrappers are typically not very friendly,
but it comes with explorers. So we're going to have to see what happens. I am personally not
threatened or intimidated by scrappers. So I'm here. I'm going to do my thing.
They're not supposed to be here and neither am I. So I'm going to leave them alone. Hopefully
they're going to leave me alone. Next, this place has been closed off for many years because quite
a few years ago, a dead body was found inside this factory. Anyways, it was very well sealed
off. It had cameras and it was very hard to get into for the longest time. Looks like that's not
the case anymore. And hopefully I don't run into any dead bodies. And next I'm not going to do a
lot of talking because I just want to explore. I want to check this place out. I'm going to film
while I go. I'll do a little bit of talking. I also don't want to disturb the scrappers that
are here. So, but before that guys, I've had a lot of requests to bring the intro back. So
you guys know what to do. Cue the music, cue the intro. See you guys on the other side.
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code and use the code 10Dave to save 10% on your very own bearskin hoodie 4.0. In 1912, the George
Westinghouse company built a foundry and lamp manufacturing plant here on this site. They made
iron castings there until World War I when the building was used as a barracks for the 120th
battalion. The 1930s saw the beginning of an extremely successful venture for Westinghouse
with the manufacturing of household appliances. The company continued to expand and produce
during the 1940s and 50s. During World War II, Westinghouse made gun barrels and produced
artillery shells for the armed forces and participated in the research and development
of a uranium derivative for use in atomic bombs. In the 1970s, the Westinghouse factory became the
joining plants in Montreal, Weston, London, and Orangeville. With the Westinghouse acquisition,
Camco became the largest manufacturer of major appliances in Canada, holding 30% of the Canadian
market. Camco continued to operate on the property until the late 1980s when things began to fall
apart. The company reacted slowly to sluggish sales from the plant, which led to a surplus of
inventory. Super quiet in here guys. It's early in the morning. As you can probably still hear it
in my voice, I'm still half asleep. Super quiet in here. Sun's just coming up. This place is huge
guys. Wow, so much growth in here guys. This is crazy. There's a pile of rocks right here,
part of this huge factory and it's not even the biggest part.
Bicycle right there. You can probably notice the sunrise light starting to come in if you
look close enough there. I think I'm shooting this in 4k so it should be nice and detailed.
It's getting nice and bright in here and the orange light coming in. I don't know if you
guys like this kind of stuff, this industrial stuff, but I absolutely love it. It's so huge
you see every day, eh? Is that a bowling ball? There's a bowling ball in here guys.
Oh, that's a basketball I think. Never mind. Or a soccer ball. That's what it is.
Looks like a bowling ball.
Okay, so I'm not alone in here. I heard some voices earlier and somebody was kicking some
metal on the other side of the building from where I am now, so I'm going to stay on this side.
Let them do their thing and then maybe we'll run into them, maybe we won't. I prefer not to run
into people while I'm here, so just letting you know that's where we're at. There's somebody else
here with us. It's so quiet and what's crazy guys is as the sun comes up the color, the light,
and everything in here just changes. Like it's constantly changing.
All you hear is like the distant sound of traffic and birds. Something just made a big noise.
And a pretty cool view from up here guys. The crane's right above me right there.
All right, let's go see what's in here.
Nice and bright in here.
All right, so I'm up on the top floor at the front of the building and scrapper dudes are on the,
I think the third floor. I've run into them a couple of times. They don't seem too bad. They
seem pretty harmless, which is good. I'm not bugging them, so hopefully they won't bug me.
for 12 years, almost 13 years, and every time I've come here it's been completely sealed up.
A couple years ago some friends of mine got in and they were instantly intercepted by the owner
who had a camera set up somewhere, but I'm guessing that that doesn't happen anymore
because I've been here for a while. Nobody's shown up. The scrappers have definitely been
here for quite a while, so I'm happy to finally be in here guys. There's a train going by pretty
loud, so I'm going to move down now to the next floor from the top floor. So I thought I'd show
you guys what's going on up here. Quick walk around. Oh, there's one more floor up I think.
Okay, that might be the roof. So nice and bright in here. Let's see what's in here.
Holy crap. That is cool. What's up man? You a guy or a girl? Oh, okay. Sorry, I called you a man.
While Camco managed to survive for another 15 years, ultimately it was shut down in December
of 2004 as it could no longer compete with newer manufacturing centers. It was announced in
December of 2003 that Camco would be ceasing operations at the plant and that it would be
closing, ending many decades of production and jobs at the site. As recently as around 2016,
the factory was being used as a metal recycling plant. In February 2020, police responded to
calls of a body that was found inside the factory. It was the body of a scrapper who
was attempting to remove copper from an area where there was live power. The property,
I've been told, was purchased years ago by the local university and would be incorporated into
their large-scale innovation park concept on the surrounding lands. The plans are to convert this
into a multi-use space, laboratory and research labs for global pandemic and biological threats,
as well as a community center. The proposed lab and research center would feature 300,000
square feet of research and meeting space, as well as amenities from dining and more.
Described by someone involved as the equivalent of a 30-story skyscraper but horizontal,
the original plans for this innovation park stated that it would be operational by December 2024.
But seeing as we are now in November 2024, I think it's safe to assume that there have been
unexpected delays and the innovation center won't be opening anytime soon.
All right, guys, that's a wrap. We made it, saw the whole place. Very happy to finally get a chance
to explore this huge factory that's been on my mind for 12 years, guys, that I've been wanting
to get inside and see it. Thankfully, the scrappers inside were pretty friendly, left me alone,
talked a little bit, asked each other some questions, but basically left each other alone
and had no problems. So that's good. I know people that have had really bad problems running into
scrappers in these places. But yeah, I mean, basically be friendly, don't bother them,
stay out of their way. That's it. So anyways, guys, why don't we call it a wrap there? You
guys know what to do. Please drop me a comment down below. Let me know what you think about
these industrial videos. If you like the industrial ones, make sure you like the video.
If you know someone who you think will like this kind of stuff, share it with them, show it to your
friends, show it to your family. And lastly, if you're here for the first time, you've never seen
my videos before, hit that subscribe button, go back and check out my most popular videos,
scroll through my videos, check out the ones that you think you might like.
That's about it. Gotta go, guys. See you next time. Peace.
