National Casket Factory

 Upload a photo

In the early 1800s the site was located on the east side of the Garrison Creek ravine,
which generally ran parallel with Niagara Street and encompassed the old Garrison,
otherwise known as Fort York, at the mouth of the ravine. The first building constructed
on the site was the Garrison Hospital in 1835. After the construction of the railway
corridor located just south of the site in 1855 the hospital was converted to industrial and
commercial uses. Garrison Creek was rechanneled through a brick sewer and buried in
the late 1880s.
The Garrison Hospital was demolished by the early 1880s to allow for more intensive
industrial development with a private railway siding. The existing heritage buildings,
ranging from three to five storeys in height, were all constructed between 1883 and 1887.
The buildings were all originally designed as factories that produced a range of consumer
products including felt hats, doors, window sashes and blinds, carriage parts, pianos and
furniture. By 1906 the National Casket Company had replaced most of the original uses
and consolidated the site. Additional one and two-storey workshops were then
constructed behind the heritage buildings. Casket manufacturing was the principle use of
the site until 1973, which explains the common reference to the buildings as the "coffin
factory."