Kodak Heights

Kodak Mount Dennis Campus, also known as Kodak Heights, was an industrial park in the Mount Dennis neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.[1][2][3] It was owned and operated by the Eastman Kodak Company as a major camera manufacturing factory since its opening in 1912, peaking at 900 employees in 1925,[4] 3,000 in the 1970s,[5] falling to about 800 before it ceased the plant's operations in 2006.[1]

Kodak Heights under construction in 1914
Kodak Mount Dennis Campus, circa 1915
The abandoned and vandalized Kodak Building 9, circa 2013

Kodak had opened its Canadian operations on 8 November 1899, first on Colborne Street and then King Street in the downtown core. By 1912 the company was growing so rapidly that a new corporate campus was needed. George Eastman personally visited Toronto to view potential sites, eventually selecting the Mount Dennis area, which at that time was farmland. In 1913 the company purchased 10 hectares (25 acres) at $12,000 per hectare ($5,000/acre) and began construction as soon as the deed was transferred. A series of seven buildings were initially constructed, including two that were connected by an enclosed bridge. The first to be completed, Building 1, was the power plant, which connected to the Canadian Pacific Railway just south of the plant with a spur that ended inside the building. It burned about 500 tonnes of coal a day. The move from the King Street facilities began in 1916, completed the next year.[6]

The 19-hectare (48-acre) campus once contained over a dozen buildings, of which only Kodak Building 9 remains standing.[1][2][7] The building was abandoned until 2013 when the land was acquired by Metrolinx to construct the Eglinton Crosstown line. It will be the location of the Mount Dennis LRT station main entrance with a bus terminal, and the Eglinton Maintenance and Storage Facility nearby.[2] Corporate offices moved to 200 Monogram Place in Etobicoke.

References
  1. Shaddock, Ken (2013-05-06). "Memories of a former Kodak employee: Ken Shaddock started in the order department at Kodak in 1967 and worked his way up to sales and marketing operations before he retired in 2001". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on 2013-09-16. Kodak came to Canada in 1899 and moved twice in Toronto due to rapid growth before the company bought 48 acres in Mt. Dennis in 1912 — the site that would become known as Kodak Heights and become one of the largest employers in the area.
  2. Mendleson, Rachel (2013-10-02). "Crosstown LRT project reveals — and respects — Eglinton's history". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on 2014-01-22. Retrieved 2013-10-03. Building 9, the former Kodak employee building, is the last remnant of Kodak Heights. The derelict building will become the "heart" of Mount Dennis station.
  3. Lorinc, John (2012-11-23). "Down (but not out) Mount Dennis area pins hopes on Metrolinx". The Globe and Mail. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2013-03-28.
  4. "Kodak Canada Corporate Archives and Heritage Collection". Ryerson University. Archived from the original on 2013-09-16. In 1912, Canadian Kodak purchased 25 acres of farmland near Weston Road and Eglinton Avenue to build a major manufacturing facility known as "Kodak Heights." By 1925, there were over 900 employees working in seven buildings at Kodak Heights.
  5. Winter, Jesse (25 August 2016). "Historic 3,000-tonne Kodak building picked up, moved to save it from demolition". Toronto Star.
  6. "Kodak in Toronto, 1899-2005: A Century of Traces". Ryerson University Library. 5 January 2015.
  7. "Kodak's Building 9 was once employee hub of Toronto complex". Toronto Sun. 2013-06-22. Archived from the original on 2013-09-16. Retrieved 2013-09-13. In 2013, the last remaining building became home to squatters, teenage graffiti artists, and the property of Metrolinx, the government organization that oversees public transportation in the GTA.

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