Kingston's Hanley Spur: Inner Harbour Smelters

There were two major smelting operations east of Orchard Street along Kingston's Inner Harbour. Clustered together with the Davis Tannery and Woolen Mill, the smelters took advantage of nearby railway sidings and the nearby waterfront - taking in water for plant operations and discharging waste into the harbour. Local sources of ore made smelters attractive, but with the advent of other ore sources and improved rail transportation, the smelters lasted only a few decades at best.

SPECULATIVE SCHEMES

Just as there were land speculators, railway speculators and just plain hucksters, there were smelter speculators at the turn of the century! The Meyer Brothers, (their principal Leopold Meyer), Messrs. Terrill and Phelps from Chicago proposed an iron smelter and rollers in 1900-01. A major delay was securing the Cataraqui Mining and Developing Co. Their plan included construction in 1901 and operation by October of that year. Meyer even promised to run in a siding and dump some ore as a sign of good faith! The scheme included a dredged 14-foot harbour and a $300,000 plant. Limestone needed for fluxing was right at their door here in Kingston, and coke from Oswego would be not far away! But there was a certain amount of mild intimidation in their dealings, threatening to take the smelter to Hamilton. In the end, Phelps and Terrill declined to complete the agreement with the city, deciding instead to site their smelter in the United States. One could speculate that the Meyer plan was mainly about obtaining a contract with the city that could be exploited later.

In March, 1907 Mr. May of Toronto was proposing a cobalt smelter be located in Kingston. With cheap coal available at Sodus and Oswego, NY the cobalt being mined in Canada could be smelted here, instead of being shipped outside of Canada for refinement. Within a day, a zinc smelter was being proposed by Guelph interests. By July of 1907, Messrs. Grey and Hadley were now getting stock and promoting their zinc smelter. Their company had capital of $500,000 and organized a meeting of directors at the Wellington Hotel at which N.L. Stewart of the Guelph Stove Co. was elected president. The takeover of zinc mines near Kingston was part of their plan that did not come to fruition.

THE FIRST 20th CENTURY SMELTER: NORTH AMERICAN

Whig photo of the North American Smelting Company, 1913

At the north end of Orchard Street, on water lots 7, 8, 9 and 10 along the Cataraqui River, an early lead smelter here in 1879 had intended to smelt lead mined near Loughborough Lake and Indian Lake. The land and the lead mine came from the Gunn, Machar and Romanes estates. Operated first by an English company, a succession of owners at the site into the 20th century: Frontenac Lead Mining and Smelting, Stanley Smelting Works, Canadian Lead Mining and Smelting. The amount of ore mined was not enough, and the markets were poor. The smelter had a somewhat unsatisfactory period of operation, and the property eventually reverted to city ownership.

As part of a 1907 city by-law, Stanley Smelting of New York was given a tax exemption, if they would employ 50 men with weekly wages of $750, their buildings valued at $40,000 and the city laying a rail siding along Orchard Street to the site with its tall chimney. The old smelting furnaces and buildings would be pulled down, and smoke would once again pour from that same chimney.

As of July, 1907 only one carload of plant machinery from Bannockburn had arrived by rail in Kingston. By December, Mr. W.M. Weigel was in Kingston to supervise the erection of the lead smelter under General Manager Robert Cushman, doing business from an office built on the smelter site. Weigel had previously supervised the National smelter in St. Louis, MO. Their plan was to have the smelter in operation by June 1, 1908.

In December, 1909 Canadian Lead Mining and Smelting applied to purchase the city's smelter site at the eastern end of the harbour. Perhaps the 11 acres of the site was too large for just one company, but it represented the last water lot avaiable in the city for manufacturing purposes.

In May of 1910, now-President Cushman threatened to take the now-named North American Smelting elsewhere - perhaps to Deseronto, accusing the city of dilly-dallying! The city was hedging on construction of the railway siding to serve the smelter. Deseronto reportedly offered a free site, tax exemption and rail access. A payment of $2,700 was made by North American to the city in February, 1911. Construction of the smelter was planned for July, 1911 at a cost of $36,000

At a board of directors' meeting in early January, 1912 a rush was put on installing the furnaces and power plant at the smelter. The contract to build the smelter buildings was completed by J.W. Litton. North American entered into contracts for ore and to buy by-products from manufacturing plants: white lead tailings, old lead scrap and tea scrap. In March of that year, miners' salaries of $2.50-3.00 per day were advertised, though only experienced drill runners and shaft men were invited to apply at the Perth Road mine directly. The company vacated their present office on Wellington Street in March, and it was then occupied by the Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) agent, M.C. Dunn.

In March, 1912 the company asked the city for gas supply, recognizing that the distance was 1,600 feet from existing lines with no customers en route foreseen! Finally in September, 1912 the North American smelter opened for business. Delays were due to the city not supplying electricity nor the railway siding! Without the siding, mined ore had to be carted from the railhead to the smelter. That month, a directors' meeting heard that an 18-foot vein of lead with a streak three feet wide had been discovered, with 100 miners working at the Perth Road mine. A railway siding there had been held up by a protest, but eventually was laid. The first week of operation saw $2,000 worth of mined ore handled at the smelter.

Perhaps indicative of the smelter's success, Mr. Cookson of the Cookson Lead Refining Company of Newcastle, England approached Mr. Cushman with an offer to buy. The Cookson company controlled the lead market there.

Pig metal was being made from scrap, pending the construction of a concentrator adjacent to the CNoR line near the mine. Calcite, from which the ore was extracted, was at first a waste products, but was soon in demand and being shipped to Montreal to produce carbide. Lead mined was washed and rolled, changing it from 6% lead to 70% lead before being sent to Kingston was a marketable product, worth $110 per ton. Planned production with the concentrator built would be 400 tons of ore per day. (The final shipment of machinery for construction of the concentrator did not arrive until September, 1913.)

In October, 1912 the 2,000-foot smelter siding was completed from the Kingston & Pembroke (K&P) line near Cataraqui Street. After three weeks' operation, $37,000 of pig lead was produced, sold and shipped, including one carload going to the locomotive works on Ontario Street. By November, production was at 20 tons per day. The old stack was a monument of failure but now had 600 feet of brick flues for treatment of fumes from the furnace, and the smelter was occupying seven acres of land. It was hoped that with a dredged harbour access, the smelter could take advantage of cheaper transportation by shipping. With recent additions, the smelter's buildings were now valued at $100,000. Raw ore was dumped from cars into a concrete bin facing the two Scotch-hearth furnaces. Similar bins were used to hold raw ore, coal coke, and iron ore used for flux. Finished bars weighed 100 pounds.

November, a sinkhole near the Perth Road mine delayed CNoR siding construction there. The company thought of building a road around the sinkhole in order to get more ore to the smelter. No ore would reach the smelter in 1912. By May, 1913 smelting was ongoing but the siding was not complete at the mine. Until the siding was available, large quantities of ore were accumulating at the site. In the mean time, ore from British Columbia, Quebec and the United States were brought to the smelter instead. Power supply to the smelter by the city was erratic at times.

At a directors' meeting in June, 1913 the capital of the smelter operation was raised from $500,000 to $1 million. Interestingly, at an October, 1913 railway commissioners' meeting in Vancouver, the subject of Kingston's smelter was a main topic of discussion. North American asked for a reduction in Canadian Pacific (CP, now the owner of the K&P) freight rates for lead ores and silver ores being sent from British Columbia, for pig lead being sent by CP to Montreal, Toronto and other eastern points. The smelter company believed that the high rates were set in favour of the smelter at Trail, BC that was practically owned by CP.

In October, 1915 the smelter and mine passed into the hands of New York parties, having been in the hands of a note-holders' protective committee. In November the smelter was being repaired and incorporated as the Kingston Smelting Co., on a lease basis with option to purchase. The CP siding was laid to Kingston Smelting by June, 1917. Twenty-five men were working on repairs, with 50-60 required for operation. Capacity was expected to be 20 tons of lead per day from concentrates by December, and no new equipment needed. Concentrates were coming from British Columbia and Illinois at the time. The smelter was treating this ore in April, 1917. However, by 1922, the smelter site was only being used for storage by the adjacent Davis Tannery.

Two images showing the tall smokestack and smelting buildings located to the east of the Davis Tannery site.

Remnants of the North American smelter buildings at centre right of this 1949 aerial photo (above - Queen's University Archives).

THE SECOND 20th CENTURY SMELTER: BUFFALO-ONTARIO

Whig photo of the Buffalo-Ontario Smelting Company, 1913

A zinc smelter was proposed in May, 1907, to be located on the upper portion of the city's old smelter site. Machinery was to come from Germany, steel shafts would be used instead of the brick tannery chimney already on the site. The promoters had their choice of both smelter sites, but chose the one near the Woolen Mill. As part of the city's 1907 smelter by-law, a zinc smelter on water lots 5 and 6 (some accounts say 2, 4 and 5) at Cataraqui and Orchard Streets had buildings valued at $100,000 and, like the lead smelter, promised to employ 50 men. Cojtruction was to be of concrete, with a main building measuring 300x60 feet. Rented for $280 per month in 1912, If operating for two years, the land could be purchased for $3,000.

In February, 1912 A.M. Thompson of Buffalo, NY promoted the Buffalo-Ontario Smelting and Refining Co., having purchased the old Ford Tannery property (above, Whig image - 1896). The tannery was shown on a 1911 fire insurance map as "Tannery John McLeod, silent [19]'11" and had been ravaged by fire in 1896 and again in 1900. The main building was 132x50 feet, built of brick.

With several mining properties near Cobalt, Lindsay and Sharbot Lake, Thompson also considered Tweed and Lindsay as smelter sites. Cost of construction was estimated at $300,000, with 250-300 men working in the smelter within two years. Work began on existing buildings later in February, with masons repairing the buildings, and local firm McKelvey & Birch securing the contract to fix the furnaces on the site. Construction was to begin in early 1913.

Down on Market Street in March, the Buffalo-Ontario company took over offices formerly occupied by John McDonald Mowat. New smelter furnaces were installed in May, 1912. In April, 1913 a revised by-law included an additional cause regarding railway rights.

Buffalo-Ontario cancelled asked to cancel its lease in November, 1914. By October of 1914, the A. Davis Company was buying and removing office furnishings at the smelter site for their own use. The buildings are shown on a 1924 fire insurance map but no longer in operation, denoted "Old & Dil". The buildings are at the bottom-right of this harbour view also showing the Woolen Mill (below and top photo - 'Billy Bishop Air Services', 1920).