Industrial area.

Details of Site Location: On both the east and west banks of the Humber River in the Dundas West area of the bridge.

Boundary History: The mills’ sites and related buildings occupy a substantial amount of acreage (see below).

Current Use of Property: The grist mill site is now occupied by an apartment building at 4075 Old Dundas, and the woollen mill site is now mainly parkland.

Historical Description: Between June 1804 and May 1809, William Cooper assembled properties amounting to 700 acres on the Humber between Dundas and Scarlett Road. To these he added even more acreage in November 1815. This gave him control of both sides of the river as well as two mill sites. The purchase in May 1809 of land on the west bank, which he obtained from Thomas Barnes Gough, included one of the mill sites that had a grist mill built earlier. A road from Queen Street to Cooper’s mill was built in 1810, and in 1811 a bridge over the Humber was built to carry the Dundas/Davenport/Kingston Road over the Humber, although the route had been in use as a trail for centuries. Further road improvements were made by the militia during the War of 1812. From late 1807 the combined grist and sawmill on the east bank had been functioning. In 1820, Cooper dammed the Humber between his mills and two years later raised the level of the dam to the point where logs could not pass downstream. This enraged the lumbermen, and litigation followed with fractious negotiations taking place outside the court all during the period. Cooper managed to keep his dam, much to the chagrin of the lumbermen, who suffered financially. The problem hastened the building of sawmills upstream. In 1827, Cooper restructured his operations, converting the west bank mill into a fulling and carding woolen mill. That same year, he sold his Humber operations to his son, Thomas Cooper. By this time, acrimonious debate had ceased and upstream mills were recovering logs, sawing them, and transporting the lumber out of the area overland. The Cooper mills were bypassed. 

In July 1840, Thomas Cooper leased the west bank properties, excluding the woolen mill, to William Pierce Howland. And in 1844, Howland acquired a 44-year lease for the east bank mills. Then in 1846, Howland acquired the Scarlett mill site and in 1853 Thomas George Cooper, grandson of William and son of Thomas, sold the east bank mills to Howland. Howland then named the area Lambton in honour of John George Lambton, Earl of Durham, out of respect for Durham’s Report in support of the Canadian people. In 1861, the grist mill with three employees ground 96,387 bushels of wheat, and the sawmill with two employees cut $2,100 worth of logs into more valuable planks for use in buildings and in planking roads. In 1855, Peleg Howland became a partner with his brother William, later taking a third brother, Frederick Aiken Howland, into his half of the partnership. In 1867 the partnership was dissolved, but Peleg and Frederick continued the business and William became Ontario’s Lieutenant-Governor. Water levels in the Humber had dropped substantially by 1871, and the Lambton Mills were converted to steam around 1880. The frame grist mill on the east bank was five storeys high and 114′ long. It was producing 150 barrels of flour per day, each barrel weighing 200 pounds. This mill shut down by 1910 and was purchased by Home Smith, who converted it into a concert hall and restaurant. A fire broke out in the kitchen and burnt down the mill, along with many other wooden structures around it. This loss was in 1915. The west bank woolen mill had been rented to William Gamble in 1846, and Howland bought it in 1857. It continued to produce woolen goods, chiefly blankets, until after 1900, possibly as late as 1912. It remained a derelict building and the frequent resort of artists, including members of the Group of Seven. The remnants of the mill were swept away by Hurricane Hazel.

Relative Importance: From the foregoing, the importance of the Lambton Mills and the Howlands will be obvious. Less obvious in this account is the community to which they gave rise, the satellite industries, the employment, and the economic influence exerted by the mills. Lambton Mills, as milling operations and as a community, has importance for both the former City of York and City of Etobicoke.

Planning Implications: Local interest on both sides of the Humber at Lambton is rising expectantly in the hope that the former community can be recognized in a significant way. There is interest in seeing the old bridge (south of the modern bridge on Dundas) restored for use by pedestrians and cyclists. Separation of the two interests must be maintained for safety reasons; preferably cyclists can be rerouted away from the natural areas, leaving a restored bridge for the use of pedestrians. The recommendation is also made that the city explore the possibility of applying sunset clauses to the high-rise buildings in the area of Lambton village so that in the future the land can be converted to parkland that reflects something of the nature of the old community. It is acknowledged that this would be difficult to achieve, but a long-term strategy must look to improving the area.

Reference Sources: Files of Heritage York; Kathleen Macfarlane Lizars, The Valley of the Humber 1615–1913 (1913).

Acknowledgement: Heritage York