Page 22 - Special Feature.indd

PLACES

BWXT a player on the mergers. In 1923, Goldie & McCulloch merged

with Babcock and Wilcox Co. of England and
world stage the United States to form Babcock-Wilcox
and Goldie-McCulloch Ltd.

This union lasted for some time until
the 1960s when the Babcock & Wilcox
partnership purchased the Goldie &
McCulloch interests in 1963, resulting in the
company being renamed in 1967 as Babcock
& Wilcox Canada Ltd. to re lect the earlier
withdrawal of Goldie and McCulloch’s
interests in the operation.
The company’s ‘Southworks’ site ceased
operation in the late 1970s due to increased
competition and environmental factors
which eventually would pave the way in
the early 1990s for the creation of the
Southworks Outlet Mall, which initially
started out as South Works Mall containing
a handful businesses. The structures
underwent extensive restoration work in
1996 and became one of the city’s most
BWXT as it looked in the 1960s. City of Cambridge valued tourist attractions featuring at
Archives Photo
least 30 tenants, including Black and
Decker, Cambridge Towel, Florsheim
In the field of nuclear power Shoes and Kodiac. Its biggest tenant was
generation, BWXT Canada Ltd. is Southworks Antiques – now located on
a major player and has supplied The Babcock-Wilcox and Goldie-McCulloch Water Street - which offered customers a
vast shopping space and was home to 160
more than 305 CANDU and northworks at the Delta Park Intersection in
1906. Cambridge: The Making of the Canadian tenants. However, that change in November
pressurized water reactor steam City Photo of 2016 when HIP Developments, Grand
generators worldwide. Goldie & McCulloch was renowned for its Innovations and Conestoga College joined
The company’s massive Cambridge- manufacturing of many items, including the City of Cambridge in announcing a
based headquarters on Coronation engines, water wheels, millstones, major redevelopment of the block bounded
Boulevard has been a familiar sight for woodworking and wool processing by Cedar Street, Grand Avenue South, and
generations, but many passing by the machinery, boilers, and safe doors. In St. Andrews Street, signaling the end for
facility may not be aware of the extensive fact, one of its doors can still be found on Southworks Outlet Mall.
history this long-time member of the a safe in one of the blocks of Parliament In the years that followed, BWXT’s Coronation
Cambridge Chamber of Commerce has Hill in Ottawa. Boulevard site lourished and in 2015 it
had in the community. But closer to home, many local spun off its power generation business to
The company took root on Grand Avenue businesses were also customers as a allow BWX Technologies Inc. to pursue its
South in the historic structures that form seemingly endless wave of industrial government and nuclear operations which
the Gaslight District downtown when the expansion spread throughout Galt, have resulted in numerous and lucrative
James Crombie’s Foundry (also known Preston and Hespeler around the turn of contracts.
as the Dumfries Foundry in 1844) moved the century. Among them was the Robert The company – a key economic player in this
to the site from its original location on Forbes Company in Hesepler which area - has nearly 1,300 employees working
Ainslie Street in 1847. purchased seven large industrial boilers at its locations including Cambridge,
It developed into the Goldie & McCulloch from the ‘Northworks’ site to keep pace Peterborough, Port Elgin, Pickering, Toronto,
Company in 1859 when Crombie sold the with its increasing need for power from Arnprior and Oakville.
business to two of his former employees, 1905 to 1915, before purchasing another
John Goldie, and Hugh McCulloch. This much larger one.
location became known as the company’s The wartime economy around the First
‘Southworks’ which led to the building of World War resulted in a great deal of
the company’s ‘Northworks’ facility on industrial expansion in the community,
Coronation Boulevard in 1905. leading to many changes and corporate

22 Spring 2024 www.cambridgechamber.com