Industrial heritage site.
Details of Site Location: The northeast corner of Yonge Street and Queen Street, with street numbers varying from 74 Yonge to 4–6–8 Queen East in different periods of time.
Boundary History: The boundaries of James Good’s business expanded from1840 to 1889, growing in both directions from the corner.
Current Use of Property: An important historic bank building about to be redeveloped with a high-rise tower.
Historical Description: James Good came to Canada in 1832 and settled in York to establish a business in iron founding. After marrying in 1839, in 1840 he was able, with a little help from his new father in law, to purchase the Union Furness Company at 74 Yonge from its former proprietor, Amos Norton. Good’s Foundry was destroyed by fire in December 1841, but he built a new foundry on the same site, now numbered 134. In 1845 he built a brick house at the northwest corner of Queen and Bond, adding five townhouses to the north. He formed the Toronto Locomotive Works at the foundry but had the new company’s sign facing Queen Street. The new company’s name and Good’s Foundry became interchangeable. Good produced the very first locomotive ever built in the city, the Toronto, in 1853 for the Ontario, Simcoe and Huron Railway. By 1856 he had built 21 locomotives and switched to building other pieces of equipment. He continued to own the property and business, but formed a partnership with three Americans and renamed the business the Toronto Engine Works. When fire destroyed the entire factory complex and two dozen other properties in June 1875, his American partners pulled out, leaving Good to gather his resources and begin again. He built another factory on the same property with a 105′ frontage on Queen and named his business the Toronto Stove Works with its address as 8 Queen East. When he died in 1889, his widow sold the property. At its peak as the Toronto Engine Works, the frame building was of three storeys, 125′ by 122′ in plan, and had machine, moulding, black-smith, pattern, and stove mounting shops, plus a warehouse and counting room. One 35 hp engine powered all of the equipment, and he employed a staff of 45. This company made stoves, hollow ware, engines of all kinds, grist and saw mill machinery, potash kettles, and tin, copper, and sheet-iron wares.
Relative Importance: James Good is part of Toronto’s business and railway history, and his little locomotive, the Toronto, must be remembered along with this hardworking man. Others of his products over the years are collectors’ items to the extent they still exist, and Toronto’s museums are well advised to seek them out. Not one of his locomotives survives, but a program intended for the John Street Roundhouse was the building of a replica of the Toronto, for which drawings still survive. James Good’s factory stood on the same corner as the house of Jesse Ketchum had stood before.
Planning Implications: A plaque or other form of commemoration at the actual site is important in helping people to understand something of Toronto’s growth and changes in land use in the downtown area. Yet a plaque is hardly large enough to present this stratified history, and the entire history of this corner might better be presented in a large, permanent display inside the about to be redeveloped site.
Reference Sources: William Hood, private collection.
Acknowledgements: Eastern Canada Transit Club; Ontario Society for Industrial Archaeology.