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Barber Paper Mill- Georgetown
Abandoned Mill/Foundry in Halton Hills, Ontario, Canada
Apr 06 2009
| Recent status | Abandoned |
| Location # | 603 |
Legacy of Barber Paper Mill
In 1823 a descendant of the United Empire Loyalists by the name of George Kennedy purchased 200 acres of land. Mr. Kennedy constructed a woolen mill along the banks of the Credit River. A small settlement formed around the mill that took on the name of Hungry Hollow. The name was about the difficult times that the settlers faced. The land was scarcely cleared, roads were poor and the area was full of hungry wolves. For the first few years, only two other people lived in Hungry Hollow: Marquis Goodenow and Sylvester Garrison
In the nearby settlement of Crook's Hollow lived a man named Joseph Barber and his family. The Barber family immigrated to Canada in 1822 where Joseph found work as a stonemason working for James Crooks.
The Barber sons gained experience working in nearby paper mills. The youngest and the eldest of the brothers worked in the woolen factory. The second worked in the paper-making business. The third worked in the mill-wright business.
In 1837, six years after the death of their father Joseph, the four Barber sons (Joseph, Robert, William, and James) left Crook's Hollow and moved to Hungry Hollow.
Relying upon their mill experience, the four brothers purchased a portion of George Kennedy's land and built a mill and metal foundry located south of Kennedy's mill.
By 1840 Hungry Hollow had grown to include John Sumpter's general store and Elijah Travis' planning mill. By 1842 there were two Inns, a tailor, shoemaker, carpenter, and blacksmith. In 1844 a second general store opened, operated by James Young. Philo Dayfoot opened a tannery and boot factory during that same year.
In 1843 the Barber mill had become successful enough that the brothers opened a second mill in the settlement of Streetsville.
Around 1853 the Barber brothers consolidated their two woolen mills in Georgetown due to failing water power. The new larger facility became known as Toronto Woolen Mills. At its prime, the paper mill produced over 5000 pounds of paper for books and newspapers per day.
Cause of fire in Barber Paper Mill
A fire in 1861 destroyed the Streetsville woolen mill and during that same year, a boiler exploded in the paper mill at a loss of $8000.
By 1864 the population of Hungry Hollow had grown to approximately 1250 people.
The downfall of the legacy
In 1869 the Barber Brothers operation was dissolved. Joseph retired, Robert and William took over the Streetsville woolen mill and James took over the sole operation of the Georgetown paper mill.
Upon James' death in 1880, his son John Roaf Barber took over the mill and changed the production to wood pulp. The wood pulp was used for a specialty newspaper known as Number 3, which sold for 5 cents per pound.
By the 1880s the Georgetown mill was requiring increased power to operate. To harness the power of the river a water dam was constructed with a twenty-four-foot fall that was able to provide 175 horsepower. John Roaf Barber hired the Brush Electric Company to create a 100-horsepower electric generator and a 60-horsepower DC motor. The generators were placed in the powerhouse located 2.4 km downstream from the mill. Hydroelectric power was transferred back to the mill by copper wire. This was the first mill of its kind in Canada to generate electrical power for industrial production.
John Roaf continued operating the Barber Paper Mill under 1911 when he retired and sold the mill to the Provincial Paper Company who had mills in Thorold, Milleroches, and Port Arthur.
Provincial Paper was progressively shut down beginning on November 15, 1948, due to weakened financial markets. Production would eventually resume.
The Provincial Paper Company continued to operate until March 31st, 1991 when it was closed permanently.
Today the property is owned by Victor Boutin of Everlast Restoration. Mr. Boutin plans to convert the property into a country inn, fine-dining restaurant, and art studio. A 14 story condominium is also to be built on the site. As of 2010, the developers had submitted their plans to the Town of Halton Hills.
Barber Paper Mill Ghost
Some Southern Ontario paranormal investigators believe the site to be haunted by the ghost of Robert Barber. It is stated that you can hear John barbers ghost having conversations with his family members including joseph barbers ghost as well Robert barbers ghost in different parts of the infrastructure, some even claim to have John barbers ghost picture standing around windows, They have been recorded and can be heard on YouTube.
Dynamo of Barber Paper Mill
Barber mill dynamo was the first long-distance transmission dynamo in North America in 1888. And still stands to this day. Says a lot about the endurance and strength of the architecture of the era.
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went last week, place is double/triple fenced. its up for sale but there is no activity in it whatsoever. very good spot, lots of dust on the bottom floor, would recommend a mask. 2nd story floor is falling apart in some places. worth the visit
Went a couple months ago (will add photos soon!). No security besides beefed up fencing. A couple people stopped by the roadside part of the fence to look in but no trouble. Ran into a few other explorers while there. Definitely second the 'bring a flashlight' advice, the basement is well worth it to check out.
Someone must have got hurt here recently. There are a bunch of 'Dangerous Site' warning signs up, holes in the fencing now fixed and a security guard sitting in a car out front.
Visited this location yesterday and unfortunately didn''t have much time to explore. Police were called and an officer escorted us off the property. He did let us take a few pictures inside before we had to leave, which was much appreciated.
If you plan on exploring the place fully, be sure to bring a flashlight because even during the day, the basement is extremely dark and there are many holes in the floor.
the place is still standing when I went a couple of weeks ago. pretty easy to get in from the riverside. as long as you keep quiet while you're there you shouldn't have a problem.
They definitely increased security on this place so be careful. Was much more difficult than it has been in the past but absolutely beautiful site!
If you want to know more about current plans and more pictures go here for my blog. OAP covered everything else :) http://urbexdiaries.blogspot.ca/2012/10/georgetown-paper-mill.html
There was talk about what they wanted to do with this plave back in 2010 when my mom lived close by...it was in the papers and everything...there was even some talk about saveing someof ot....but i guess the stupid condo builders won their fight....id like to send oit a bog F -U to all tje idioys that let this place get demod to the ground- and didnt fight to keep such an important and beautiful p
Thank you Barber Mill for so many years of fun. It won't be the same without you. You will be missed.
Wow I was there a few days before demo began. I'm going to miss this place. Did many fun photo shoots here over the years.
I'm gong to go check what's left of it tonight if anyone wants to tag along
The loss of a legendary location... arguably one of the most visited site in Ontario.
They've started demolition to make way for the river-side condos. I suggest making a trip down before its completely gone.
Just was there the other day it's so different with all the windows borded up
Well that's weird. They seem to be pretty confident that they're going to build this nice little condo community thingy there.
this place cannot be redeveloped because it's in the flood plain of the creek. It's the same for the German Mill. these places were built because of the water....now it's the water preventing them from being redeveloped.
I think town council only boards it up because they feel its too dangerous of a place to go. If you get caught here i don't think anything major will happen, unless there's new signs there saying otherwise. Or if your carrying a bunch of spray paint because the local police are trying to crack down on all the graffiti in that town. They are catching people in other areas.
Development companies want to tear this down and build a hotel or something here but i think the town council always votes against it and want to either restore it or reinforce it for structural integrity and have it deemed a historical site like the ruins in Rockwood park.
went past this weekend (Feb 2, 2013) and the place has been boarded up. I didn't see any opens when I went by, but given the effort put into sealing it up...they probably did all POEs.
By far one of the coolest places I've visited. Usually I'm not a huge fan of graffiti but I loved all of it here! There was so much to look at and so many different areas to explore. However, I was attacked by massive geese so just be careful when going here. There's a hole in the fence which made access easy
ok what is the address to this place the map shows a persons house what is up with that???
I passed by here about 3 years ago, but never remembered where they were, so I never got a chance to go back, lol
Strange...this is the most whored out location yet nobody has pictures of the power plant ruins.
There's huge spotlights at night, bring a tripod and some imagination and you can get ghostlike pictures. I use a 30 second time exposure with the flash. The flash lights up the subject (Me) and the time exposure washes the scene out so you become "see through".
Hmm the night pics look pretty cool. Might have to do that some time.
we went to this place at night with flashlights as there are many holes in the ground that you need to be aware of!
the spotlights in my opinion are there to scare off trespassers.... this location is by far one of my favourites!
The spot lights have been there for a while and the place has been fenced off for as long as I've been going there. If you walk around though, there are plenty of holes to go through. There was a development project a while ago but nothing has been done. Check out my @ Night '11 set for night shots with the help of those spots
were the spot lights similar to those for a movie shoot? Those are huge. I haven't seen any signs of a development proposal and those are required by law. Maybe it's being done for insurance reasons.
went back to this site....the access through the fence has been wired shut. I decided not go untie the wired and went to a different location. Also....some punks painted new graffiti on the nice stone walls. probably why it was closed off.
was there today to give lessons to a photog wanna be....so I only took a few shots. some areas are great....some are just too damaged. access is easy.
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•6 months ago
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