Vulcan Iron Works helped to forge Winnipeg By: Kevin Rollason Posted: 5:56 PM CDT Wednesday, Jul. 5, 2023

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/07/2023 (1120 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Vulcan Iron Works buildings were never deemed worthy of heritage protection, but its workers are part of history thanks to the 1919 general strike that shook Winnipeg, which they helped to ignite.

Named after the Roman god of fire and the forge, the former site of Vulcan Iron Works, at 105 Maple St., North, was consumed by a massive blaze on Tuesday. Nearby residents in Point Douglas were forced to keep their windows closed and leave the area for hours while firefighters fought to put it out, due to the amount of unidentified chemicals inside.

The company was established as the Winnipeg Foundry and Machine Shop in 1874, just months after Winnipeg was incorporated as a city in November 1873. On the site, there were buildings dating back to the 1880s, but, as Cindy Tugwell said, because almost every physical historical feature on them was long gone, the city never deemed the site as something worth preserving.

“Its biggest problem was it was vacant and abandoned,” she said.

“From a history and heritage perspective, the original building was unique for the strike, but it did not tick off enough boxes to be designated.”

Julia Smith, an assistant professor at the University of Manitoba labour studies program, said Vulcan Iron Works was a key cog in the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike.

Smith said it was Vulcan workers who, upset with their low wages and long hours, walked off the job on May 2, 1919. The general strike began two weeks later, on May 15.

“It was that job action which led the labour council to vote for the general strike,” she said. “The Vulcan Iron Works workers were a key part of the strike.

“Thankfully, the history is not just wrapped up in the building. The history is still there. It cannot be erased.”

Gordon Goldsborough, of the Manitoba Historical Society, wrote on its website that Vulcan had manufactured structural material for bridges and buildings, as well as stairs and fire escapes, grain elevator machinery, and railroad equipment. He said during the First and Second World Wars the company produced artillery shells for the army and metal parts for naval and merchant ships.

The 40-metre tower and water tank on the Winnipeg Beach waterfront is the most prominent piece constructed by Vulcan that remains visible today.

Goldsborough said the company, which at its peak spread across three-and-a-half city blocks, or about nine acres, moved to North Kildonan in 1961, and the original site closing in the mid-1970s.

Historian Christian Cassidy said it’s sad when a building as old as Vulcan Iron Works is destroyed.

“There aren’t many around from that time and this company played a large role here and in Western Canada,” Cassidy said.

“The men who worked there made the products which made Western Canada. You can look under bridges and in old buildings and you will see the VIW stamp.”

“Its biggest problem was it was vacant and abandoned.”–Cindy Tugwell

Both Cassidy and Tugwell said the company helped define Point Douglas — but not necessarily in a good way.

“It is a vast, very polluted site,” Cassidy said. “You can’t just stick housing in it without cleaning it up.

“If there’s a silver lining, the neighbourhood gets land back and, if the land gets cleaned up, a housing development could go there.”

“It is a vast, very polluted site… You can’t just stick housing in it without cleaning it up.”–Historian Christian Cassidy

Tugwell agreed saying “maybe the good that can come out of this fire is looking at and cleaning up a dangerous site that has been holding down Point Douglas for decades.

“Even back then, no one wanted to live near it except the people who couldn’t afford to move elsewhere.”

Tugwell said the company and the site do have a place in history.

“It probably touched everything in the city while it was in business,” she said.

“What they did was to make the economy go, not just in Winnipeg, but in Western Canada. I think its vision was really providing goods and services, which was a necessity here.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca