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Cockshutt building’s history nears an end.
By: Michael-Allan Marion, Brantford Expositor
Saturday, March 31, 2012
The heritage Cockshutt office, warehouse and timekeeper"s building appears headed for a sad, ashen end after towering for more than a century over a bustling farm machinery enterprise and a neighbourhood of workers in Eagle Place.
Built in 1903 as the management hub for the operations of the rapidly expanding Cockshutt Plow Company, the office and timekeeper"s building co-ordinated the assembly line production of tractors by a workforce of thousands of employees at 66 Mohawk St.
While sending a succession of tractor models to dealerships and farms across Canada and the U.S., the company also supplied the Canadian, American and British armed force with equipment during the Second World War.
The factory operations were controlled by three generations of the Cockshutt family, until a hostile takeover in 1958 by English Transcontinental, a British mercantile bank buying on behalf of an American investment group.
The new owners busted up what had grown to into a North American empire, and sold the main part to White Motor Company in 1962.
Although White continued to sell Cockshutt tractors for awhile to take advantage of brand loyalty, it established White Farm Equipment in 1969, merged most of the operations and discontinued all previous brand names.
White Farm discontinued operations in the 1980s and the factory was taken over by Go Vacations, run by businessman Paul Doyle, which manufactured recreation vehicles for a time before it closed.
Histories from the Cockshutt family, the Heritage Canada Foundation and The Expositor"s files show how the mainstay of a once-mighty industrial juggernaut gradually deteriorated into a bleak edifice presiding over one of Brantford"s worst brownfield sites.
Here’s a brief snapshot:
– 1903: The Cockshutt Plow Company, under the control of Frank Cockshutt, carries of the construction of the office and timekeeper"s building. The Heritge Canada Foundation calls the edifice “representative of Brantford"s late 19th century industrial architecture.”
The office building displayed a high degree of craftsmanship in its ornamental brickwork, in particular, a distinctive semi-circular pattern of bricks below the roofline that contained a stone inscription of the company name.
A red brick facade was added to the timekeeper"s building in 1912 to match the office building. The exteriors of both parts remained intact to the present.
– 1920s: The Cockshutt company became the leader in the tillage tools sector.
– 1929: An arrangement is made to distribute Allis-Chalmers model 20-35 and United tractors.
– 1935: Cockshutt takes over a line of Oliver tractors originating in the U.S., changes the name of the model to its own and changes the paint to red.
– 1939-1945: Cockshutt sets up its Cockshutt Aircraft division to participate in the war effort. It manufactures undercarriages for British bombers, including the Avro Lancaster being assembled by Victory Aircraft in Malton. It also builds plywood fuselages and wings for the Avro Anson training aircraft and for Britain"s de Havilland Mosquito bomber.
Its Cockshutt Munitions division manufactures artillery trailers and artillery shells.
The total workforce reaches nearly 6,000 people.
While doing that, the plant also turns out its own Cockshutt 30 model tractor. Mass production begins in 1946.
– 1945: Cockshutt moves sale into the lucrative U.S market through deals with co-operatives, which bought the vehicles and sold them under their names. The arrangements spread sales of the; Cockshutt 30 and other models across the U.S. for more than a decade.
– 1958: English Transcontinental finances hostile takeover bid for an American investor group. The company name is changed to Cockshutt Farm Equipment Ltd.
– 1962: White Motor Co. buys out the entire operations but continues to manufacture and sell under the Cockshutt name.
– 1969: The owner set up White Farm Equipment and begins merging other acquired interests, Oliver Corp and Minneapolis-Moline. By 1975 the Cockshutt names disappears in the farm manufacturing sector, and all equipment bear the silver colour.
– 1985: White Farm is thrown into bankruptcy. The plant at 66 Mohawk is eventually taken over by Go Vacations run by businessman Paul Doyle. It operates for awhile but closes in the early 1990s.
– 1999/2000: City council begins work on a plan to clean up a growing number of brownfields. The Cockshutt-Go Vacations property is put on a list of 15 sites targeted for action. A group called the Canadian Industrial Heritage Centre forms to run a museum out of the building.
– 2001: The city moves to designate the office, warehouse and timekeeper"s building a heritage property without the owner"s consent. Later wins an appeal launched by a salvager who would demolish the structures for materials to resell.
– 2004: The city seizes 66 Mohawk in a tax sale and vests in the property.
– 2005: All buildings at 66 Mohawk are demolished except the office, warehouse and timekeeper"s building.
– 2005 to 2009: The city acquires the neighbouring, vacant Sternson property at 22 Mohawk and the former Massey complex at 347 Greenwich St., with a plan to amalgamate them into one 52-acre parcel, remediate and redevelop.
– 2009-2011: The city works on a plan to have Terrasan Corp undertake a complete remediation and redevelopment plan, including repurposing the Cockshutt building for a museum, but it falls apart as the company runs into financial problems. Council debates various alternative options over the next year.
Cockshutt building s history nears an end.
By: Michael-Allan Marion, Brantford Expositor
Saturday, March 31, 2012
The heritage Cockshutt office, warehouse and timekeeper"s building appears headed for a sad, ashen end after towering for more than a century over a bustling farm machinery enterprise and a neighbourhood of workers in Eagle Place.
Built in 1903 as the management hub for the operations of the rapidly expanding Cockshutt Plow Company, the office and timekeeper"s building co-ordinated the assembly line production of tractors by a workforce of thousands of employees at 66 Mohawk St.
While sending a succession of tractor models to dealerships and farms across Canada and the U.S., the company also supplied the Canadian, American and British armed force with equipment during the Second World War.
The factory operations were controlled by three generations of the Cockshutt family, until a hostile takeover in 1958 by English Transcontinental, a British mercantile bank buying on behalf of an American investment group.
The new owners busted up what had grown to into a North American empire, and sold the main part to White Motor Company in 1962.
Although White continued to sell Cockshutt tractors for awhile to take advantage of brand loyalty, it established White Farm Equipment in 1969, merged most of the operations and discontinued all previous brand names.
White Farm discontinued operations in the 1980s and the factory was taken over by Go Vacations, run by businessman Paul Doyle, which manufactured recreation vehicles for a time before it closed.
Histories from the Cockshutt family, the Heritage Canada Foundation and The Expositor"s files show how the mainstay of a once-mighty industrial juggernaut gradually deteriorated into a bleak edifice presiding over one of Brantford"s worst brownfield sites.
Here’s a brief snapshot:
– 1903: The Cockshutt Plow Company, under the control of Frank Cockshutt, carries of the construction of the office and timekeeper"s building. The Heritge Canada Foundation calls the edifice “representative of Brantford"s late 19th century industrial architecture.”
The office building displayed a high degree of craftsmanship in its ornamental brickwork, in particular, a distinctive semi-circular pattern of bricks below the roofline that contained a stone inscription of the company name.
A red brick facade was added to the timekeeper"s building in 1912 to match the office building. The exteriors of both parts remained intact to the present.
– 1920s: The Cockshutt company became the leader in the tillage tools sector.
– 1929: An arrangement is made to distribute Allis-Chalmers model 20-35 and United tractors.
– 1935: Cockshutt takes over a line of Oliver tractors originating in the U.S., changes the name of the model to its own and changes the paint to red.
– 1939-1945: Cockshutt sets up its Cockshutt Aircraft division to participate in the war effort. It manufactures undercarriages for British bombers, including the Avro Lancaster being assembled by Victory Aircraft in Malton. It also builds plywood fuselages and wings for the Avro Anson training aircraft and for Britain"s de Havilland Mosquito bomber.
Its Cockshutt Munitions division manufactures artillery trailers and artillery shells.
The total workforce reaches nearly 6,000 people.
While doing that, the plant also turns out its own Cockshutt 30 model tractor. Mass production begins in 1946.
– 1945: Cockshutt moves sale into the lucrative U.S market through deals with co-operatives, which bought the vehicles and sold them under their names. The arrangements spread sales of the; Cockshutt 30 and other models across the U.S. for more than a decade.
– 1958: English Transcontinental finances hostile takeover bid for an American investor group. The company name is changed to Cockshutt Farm Equipment Ltd.
– 1962: White Motor Co. buys out the entire operations but continues to manufacture and sell under the Cockshutt name.
– 1969: The owner set up White Farm Equipment and begins merging other acquired interests, Oliver Corp and Minneapolis-Moline. By 1975 the Cockshutt names disappears in the farm manufacturing sector, and all equipment bear the silver colour.
– 1985: White Farm is thrown into bankruptcy. The plant at 66 Mohawk is eventually taken over by Go Vacations run by businessman Paul Doyle. It operates for awhile but closes in the early 1990s.
– 1999/2000: City council begins work on a plan to clean up a growing number of brownfields. The Cockshutt-Go Vacations property is put on a list of 15 sites targeted for action. A group called the Canadian Industrial Heritage Centre forms to run a museum out of the building.
– 2001: The city moves to designate the office, warehouse and timekeeper"s building a heritage property without the owner"s consent. Later wins an appeal launched by a salvager who would demolish the structures for materials to resell.
– 2004: The city seizes 66 Mohawk in a tax sale and vests in the property.
– 2005: All buildings at 66 Mohawk are demolished except the office, warehouse and timekeeper"s building.
– 2005 to 2009: The city acquires the neighbouring, vacant Sternson property at 22 Mohawk and the former Massey complex at 347 Greenwich St., with a plan to amalgamate them into one 52-acre parcel, remediate and redevelop.
– 2009-2011: The city works on a plan to have Terrasan Corp undertake a complete remediation and redevelopment plan, including repurposing the Cockshutt building for a museum, but it falls apart as the company runs into financial problems. Council debates various alternative options over the next year.
Cockshutt building s history nears an end.