The early Welland Canals had helped set St. Catharines up as a manufacturing powerhouse in the mid 1800s. But by the turn of the 20^th century, a new era of industry was emerging. Sometimes called the Second Industrial Revolution, this period saw major advancements like automobiles, electric power grids, and mass steel production. And St. Catharines was once again ready. Sean heads to the Yale and Towne Manufacturing Company, one of the largest factories in the working-class Queenston neighbourhood and a symbol of possibility, progress, hardship, and resilience. This is History from Here: a video series presented by the St. Catharines Museum and Welland Canals Centre.   

The Canadian division of lock manufacturers Yale and Towne opened in St. Catharines in 1911. The company was founded in 1868 in Connecticut and quickly became the world’s leading lock brand. Co-founder Linus Yale Jr. invented the modern pin-tumbler cylinder lock which, today, is often simply referred to as a Yale lock. He was also a talented portrait painter, and his artistic skills came in handy when sketching out creative designs for complex locks. Sadly, 47-year-old Yale died of a heart attack the same year his company was founded. Partner Henry Towne carried on the business and oversaw decades of major growth and international expansion.  

The move to St. Catharines was part of a broader trend of American companies establishing satellite plants in Canada to avoid border tariffs and tap into Commonwealth markets. Local governments were only happy to support this trend as it provided jobs for a growing population. The City enticed Yale & Towne with 9 acres of land, as well as free water and a ten-year property tax exemption. This facility went on to employ over 300 people, manufacturing locks and related hardware, as well as the city’s ceremonial presentation keys!  

The plant’s product line evolved frequently over the years and went on to include things like chain hoists and hand lift trucks. During the Second World War, they produced hand grenades and firearm magazines – as well as up to 12,000 padlocks a week for military purposes. Finally, by the 1960s, Yale & Towne was making motorized forklifts and front-end loaders – an evolution that came out of a takeover by Cleveland-based Eaton Manufacturing Co., who were already involved in automotives. 

After years of success, production in St. Catharines came to a screeching halt in 1974. The plant had experienced three major strikes in seven years. When the last strike hit and neither side was willing to budge on wage, Yale and Towne opted to close the factory rather than concede, ending more than 60 years of lock manufacturing in the Queenston neighbourhood. 

The Yale and Towne building has several architectural features that are representative of early-20^th-century industrial design. The building has two stories, a holdover from earlier factory designs from a time when space was at a premium and it was still considered easier to move heavy materials vertically, using gravity and pulleys, rather than horizontally. Yale and Towne, however, had a large lot at their disposal and were able to take advantage of new inventions like conveyor belts, so the facility also had a sizable footprint. The plant also featured nearly wall-to-wall windows which were essential to let natural light in at a time when electric lighting was still poor. The building’s clever sawtooth roof was also designed to maximize light while minimizing a greenhouse effect. Offset ridges featured windows on the steeper sides, which were built to face away from the equator. 

Yale and Towne was built as part of a larger industrial zone which also included companies like Steel and Radiation Ltd., The Jenckes Machine Company, and Lord and Burnham Greenhouse Manufacturers. Grout’s Silk, which also still stands today, opened around the corner in 1923. This manufacturing block may seem strangely located, since the city’s best-known era of industry was centred around downtown and the Old Welland Canal. Yale and Towne and the other factories in this complex in fact were built adjacent to the Third Welland Canal, which passed right along the north end of this complex until 1932. But much like today’s canal, the Third Canal was designed as an expressway and there were no wharves or mill raceways here.  

Instead, these factories were built to take advantage of another key piece of infrastructure: the railway. The south end of this complex was a spiderweb of service lines linking to the Grand Trunk Railway and the rest of the continent. There were two NS&T streetcar lines in the vicinity too, making employees commutes easy, and the area an obvious choice for residential development. This still largely agricultural outskirt of the city was in for an explosion of growth and the forging of a new identity – one that can still be seen and felt today. New jobs and new housing meant that other infrastructure soon followed. Connaught Public School, built in 1915, is almost as old as the lock factory and can be seen from where I am standing. 

The Queenston neighbourhood is no longer the hub of industry it was a century ago, but reminders still dot the landscape and contribute to the area’s unique feel. In the half-century of production at Yale and Towne, this neighbourhood developed into what it has continued to be a half century since the last lock came off the line: a place to live, work, and grow.