Cornwall Works

Canadian Industries Limited — Cornwall, Ontario

1935 — 2015 · In the shadow of the bridge

images/hero-plant-bridge.pngHero — the plant under the bridge

For the better part of a century, the orange oval was just part of Cornwall — on the paint, on the shells, on the plant down by the river. This is for the place, and the people who ran it.

I · The Plant

Down by the river

C·I·L came to Cornwall in 1935, setting up on two parcels of land between the canal and Brookdale Avenue. The company flourished and became one of the city's busiest places to work — chemicals, and later the products that made the orange oval a household name.

In 1941 a new plant opened on the north end of the property dedicated to chlorine, run as a subsidiary called Cornwall Chemicals. The works handled serious materials, and ran its own inter-plant switching engines around the clock to keep the tank cars moving.

It all sat in the shadow of the high-level bridge — the landmark that frames nearly every photograph anyone ever took of the place. Tank farms, distillation columns, the drum yards stacked in red, green and blue: this was the plant in its working prime.

Drums and cylinders, sorted by the acre and ready to ship.Ref. 03

The yard from above — drums stacked, tank cars waiting on the rail.Ref. 04

The office block, trucks loading beneath the high-level bridge.Ref. 05

Stanchem trailers backed up to the loading dock.Ref. 06

Cylinders and drums stacked in rows — green, red and blue.Ref. 07

Process buildings and tank cars, under the bridge.Ref. 08

One of the plant's inter-plant switching engines, working the rail.Ref. 09

II · The Brand

The orange oval, on everything

To most of Canada the oval meant paint — the C·I·L Paints sign hung outside every hardware store, the bilingual billboards lined the highways. To hunters it meant shells: the Canuck and Dominion boxes that sat on a shelf in half the garages in the country. Same oval, same Cornwall lineage.

images/brand-sign.pngEnamel Paints sign

The C·I·L Paints dealer sign.Brand · 01

images/brand-billboard.pngPaints billboard

"Peintures / Paints" — the bilingual billboard.Brand · 02

images/brand-ammo.pngCanuck shells

Canuck shotgun shells.Brand · 03

III · The Collection

What people kept

A C·I·L Cornwall Works commemorative lighter.From the collection

The "Safety First" promotional lighter.Memorabilia

Cornwall Fire Rescue crest with the C·I·L oval.Memorabilia

A presentation tie bar bearing the oval.Memorabilia

A C·I·L hard hat signed by the whole crew — names in every colour, "this side up" across the brim.From the collection

An orange C·I·L oval patch, dated 1987.From the collection

IV · The Line of Years

From start to finish

1935

C·I·L comes to Cornwall

Established on two parcels between the canal and Brookdale Avenue.

1941

Cornwall Chemicals

A chlorine plant opens on the north end of the property.

1988

ICI takes over

Imperial Chemical Industries absorbs C·I·L; the Canadian company becomes ICI Canada in 1990.

2015

The plant closes

The Cornwall Works shuts down, and the buildings come down.

Today

The oval endures

The plant is gone, but the brand lived on — ICI → AkzoNobel → PPG — and the orange oval is still on a paint can today.

V · The End

What's left is the land

There were fires over the years — one in the 1980s bad enough that a whole building was filled with sand to the roofline, visible to anyone crossing the bridge. In the end the recession and the corporate moves did what the fires couldn't. The buildings came down, and the prime riverfront land went quiet — overgrown field grass where the orange oval used to stand.