Some of us will never forget.
It was 30-years ago this month when many of us gathered somberly to watch as the iconic Goodyear Tire and Rubber Plant smokestack came crashing to the ground after 73-years as part of the New Toronto skyline.
Dozens of residents and onlookers of all ages ‘oohed’ and ‘aahed’ as the solid brick structure fell to the ground with a thud within seconds of explosives being lit at its base.
The Goodyear plant was built in 1917 on a 23-acre site north side of Lake Shore Blvd., between Ninth and Fourteenth Sts. Lakeshore Village, a number of condos, apartment buildings and townhouses now mark the spot.
New Toronto Council at the time lured Goodyear to the site by promising an unlimited water supply.
The plant for many years made tires for cars, trucks, logging, farm vehicles and industrial uses.
By 1927, the U.S.-based company was manufacturing 50% of all the auto tires in Canada. For more than 60-years the firm was a leader in the tire industry.
It all changed in the 1980s after Goodyear ran into financial difficulty as part of a threatened hostile takeover. Its U.S. executives as a result decided to close the New Toronto site because it ‘had the lowest productivity level of all their plants.’
The local community and hundreds of workers were devastated when the plant closed on May 31, 1987 and was subsequently demolished.
Goodyear in its prime had three shifts and 1,300 employees, which increased to 2,800 during the Second World War.
The company was a good corporate citizen and had its own cafeteria, bowling alleys, police force, internal newspaper and baseball team. Some 47 Goodyear employees were killed in World War II and the company donated a camp to the Boy Scouts in their memory.
Many New Toronto residents still have fond memories of the plant, which had its own musical band.
“My grandfather worked on the Goodyear Police force for over 20-years until he retired in the early 1960s,” wrote Kate Latham on social media.
“My grandfather Richard Thompson drove a team of horses during the excavation and site preparation for the plant,” recalls Wendy Gibson. “My father Raymond Thompson worked at the plant after his return from WWII until about 1970 in the shipping department.”
Barb Johnson MacDonald says her dad worked at the plant for 16-years until 1965.
“He was a shipper-receiver and he said it was hard work, but he enjoyed his job there,” she wrote. “He used to smell like rubber when he came home from work.”