Waterloo Public Library Digital Collections

Joseph E. Seagram & Sons Distillery, Waterloo, Ontario

Description

Media Type

Image

Item Type

Slides

Description

Stacked display outside the former site of Seagram's distillery and the Seagram's museum. Barrels were removed prior to the site becoming part of the Centre for International Governance and Innovation.

Notes

Joseph E. Seagram was asked in 1864 by William Hespeler, co-owner of the Granite Mills & Waterloo Distillery, to manage his interests while he was in Europe. Seagram purchased Hespeler's share of the mill in 1869. The firm was then became known as Seagram, Randall and Roos. The original business was the grinding and production of flour. The distilling began as a sideline to use up the excess grain, but it became the mill's sole business when whiskey became it's most profitable product. Seagram bought out George Randall in 1878 and then William Roos by 1883. The distillery was incorporated as Joseph E. Seagram & Sons Limited in 1911. In September of 1916 the Ontario Temperance Act passed and Seagram's business slowed down other than manufacturing alcohol for medicinal and industrial purposes. In 1928 when Joseph's son Edward was president of Seagram's, the company was merged with Distillers Corporation Montreal under Samuel Bronfman. The Waterloo distillery was shut down in 1990. A fire in 1993 claimed part of the historic buildings, and the two barrelhouses were converted into condominiums in the 1990s.

The museum operated from May 1984 to March 1997.
The City of Waterloo purchased the Seagram property for $4 million in the fall of 1997. The museum donated its archives to the University of Waterloo.

In July 2002, the city sold the building to the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI).

Inscriptions

"Waterloo circa 1887, Oldest Picture of the Plant in the Seagram Museum Archives".

Date of Original

1887

Date Of Event

1887

Subject(s)