Heritage Guelph is recommending that the city designate buildings at 43 Arthur St. S. as a property of cultural heritage value or interest under the Ontario Heritage Act.
One of the buildings, which are currently part of the large Metalworks condominium project, were once the home to a distillery, built in 1835. The property was later purchased and the other factory buildings added in the late 1800s.
It was part of Guelph’s first industrial site. The current owners have plans to use the historic buildings for a craft distillery and office space.
“The subject property has design value or physical value as representative of 19th and 20th century vernacular industrial architecture in Guelph. The stone and brick buildings reflect multiple eras of growth and development on the site dating back to the 1830s,” the city says in describing the property’s cultural and heritage value.
“The property has contextual value in that the former Allan’s Mill property is a significant industrial landmark dating back to Guelph’s earliest period of industrial development. The buildings are physically, functionally, visually and historically linked to their immediate setting along the Speed River and visually define the east edge of the Speed River (the original town boundary) as a downtown landmark.”
“William Allan purchased the 'Mill Lands' in 1832 and by 1835 had erected a distillery on the east side of the river, and a carding house in 1841. The distillery was considerably enlarged during the late 1840s/early 1850s. A stone rectifying building was added in the 1860s, and the original façade is currently extant. The 1835 stone building remains on the site as well as part of the enlarged distillery of the 1840s.”
In 1882, a new stone factory adjoining the old distillery property was built with two large wings that were connected by a tower. A scouring house of stone was erected in 1883, followed by a brick smokestack in 1896.
