On Seminole across the street from the former Motor Lamp factory is the massive Dominion Forge Complex. Once home to giant stamping presses that fabricated parts for the automotive industry, the complex today is used as a warehouse. Stories have it that the presses were so huge and powerful that they shook the ground and caused so much noise to the surrounding neighborhood, that they had to be shut down at 5:00 pm.
An old map of the complex
The “Machine Shop” building
The “Cold Trim” building
The other side of the “Cold Trim” building. The small bump out led to the offices, that have long since been demolished.
Art Deco Influences are visible on the trim on the main facades of the building fronting Seminole.
The rail spurs visible in the map are still active and still in use.
I’d love to get in and explore this complex. It is however still very much in use.
I’ve had the privelage of being inside the depths and corners of this building as I used to work security there on the midnight shifts. Not only is it creepy as hell, it’s quite interesting and fun to explore. Like the ime I discovered a flase wall, opening up to a spiral wrought iron staircase to the second and third floors (once all glass) as well next to the stair case an old fashioned elevator. I also had the keys to the upstairs of the old machin shop bldg. This is the old locker room and shower area….. it is still seemingly in the state it was when abandoned so many years ago…..old work boots and various other affects laying around….and again, creepy as hell. It was fun to explore on a nightly basis…so many nooks and cranies simply forgotten about over the years as a wharehouse…..
Apparently I missed some letters while I typed hehehehe oops…
I have a few pictures of this complex from the other end, when we entered from the rail road tracks. We were exploring around the outside and had to run away when we saw some people 🙂
Maybe this will be a place worthwhile to place a phone call to and ask permission to photograph? I can do the legwork for this if you’d be interested..
A bit more for ya…. DF was the first Forge in Canada and was established at the request of Henry Ford to make parts for his operations to save from shipping across the river. DF became more diversified in the 30’s and 40′ and WW II sure helped the cause…. in the 60’s they were booming with about 900 employees… come 1987 a labour dispute put a hold on all HOT forge operations but the bosses still did the COLD forge works… finally in 1989 they shut her down for good…. I’m not to sure when the Hearn’s boys took the property over but I remember as a kid the property being pretty empty and scary looking….. anyway just my 2 cents….
A security guard once told me that he worked there as well, and your description pretty well mirrors what he recounted to me, including the bit about the abandoned locker room. He also claims that the building is “haunted”. I know that sounds pretty wild but he seemed to really believe what he was saying. I’ve worked in the formerly abandoned Kelsey-Hayes buildings back before they were either raised or converted to other uses (ie. 1991-92). And they creaked and groaned and made all kinds of wierd noises even in a light wind, so who knows what is going on at Hearn’s as well.
hmmm wonder who that security guard could have been…… oh well 😉
His first name was Ryan. You think you might have known him from when you worked there?
This is another account we serviced when I first started working in 1985. We had to back our truck in between the buildings, and then back in to the maintenance shop to make deliveries. As mentioned the company closed after the labour dispute. I only have memories of the times I was in there, no photos. Never thought to try to get photos as we were too busy earning a living.
yeah I think I know him pretty well…. hehehehheheeh
Hello…I worked in the cold forge for a few years…also worked in the board and upsetter shops,The people who I worked with are among the best I ever have…there was a sense of lets get it done….more like a team almost family….
does anyone have pics of what the place looks like inside?the pere marquette railway is gone from what i have seen.if you go on st luke across the street fro dominon forge where they just build homes for the needy you can still see where the vistors parking lot used to be
I am surpraised the hearns brothers havent torn the building down yet and rebuild everything
I was inside a few years ago w/ a family friend that had some business w/ the Hearns. Anyway, they have done quite a bit of restoration work on the 2nd floor. I especially remember the smoking room. This was next to Hearn Sr. office. Paneled ceiling, fireplace, big leather chairs – just incredible.
I worked in the steam shop for some time, never had to shut down because of noise, each time that hammer fell, it was like putting money in your pocket. Piece work was great when you had a good team, up to 12 guys on some big jobs. Bull gears and cranks, I-beams for the F150 pick-up. You had trust in the other guy, red hot steel being passed so close to you, one wrong move and, well you can guess.
Vince did a grinding wheel come apart on you ?
D.F. lives forever I miss that place,
Hello Raven…yeah it is me. Not sure who you are but I am sure we have met. Did a little time in the steamshop, not much though
I work at TKH and verify comments on condition of premises. I remember those hammers pounding in what is now whse 6. A buddies dad used to sit in the window at St. Luke inspecting conn rods.
My brother, uncle (and great grandfather) worked there. I served a millwright apprenticeship there many years ago….have fond memories. Wish I had taken pictures when I had the chance. Mike Abromovich was one of my foremnn. I remember him very well…
My Father was the Plant Manager for many years, beginning his career as a Die Sinker I think. His name is Gunnar Hansen, and still lives in Windsor. I remember as a small boy, waiting for him in the lounge just inside the front doors, hearing the hammers pounding away. It was like the heartbeat of a great company.
I worked there as a security guard as well. This was in 2003/early 2004. I was a patrol supervisor, so when somebody didn’t show up for a shift, I had to cover it with another person, or do it myself. I did a midnight shift here, and it is spooky as hell. I would believe it was haunted. I didn’t have a specific strange experience, but I just always had this feeling like the buildings to the East were occupied, but nobody was in there. There was all sorts of strange ways buildings would connect to one another, or doors and docks inside the main west building that just seemed strange because the floor plan changed over the years. When I was there it was just storage for Ford. There was thousands of Ford Engines just waiting to go out to the assembly plants.
My grandfather and uncle were both machinists there. I got my grandfather’s crib tags, a little bit of history to hang on to!
My grandfather worked here too, at first as a laborer and then as a forklift driver. He said that the management there was very good to him. He retired right before the lock-out. He’s still alive today, turning 90 in less than a month. One classic story that I’ve been told is that this one worker there was giving him a very hard time, and one day this worker called my grandfather a very racist term that’s not worth repeating. Legend has it my gramps got so peeved he hit the guy with his forklift, broke his legs! No joke, that’s how the story goes. Does anyone remember this or remember hearing about it?? Would love to confirm it or hear some more details.
My father worked at the Forge for 30+ years and retired right before the lock out. He still tells stories and is in touch with a few of the old timers. I could have never done his job as a hammer operator. Some of the stories are I hear I never believed until I would here them from some of the other old timers. He wishes he could walk through one last time, he forgot his favourite wrench.
I was a welder at Forge for 30 plus years and retired in ’84 before the lockout. My hobby was cook on Fri. night shift. Enjoyed every minute of my time there. Now living in Colchester for the last year and a half.
Hello all who have worked at Dominion Forge. My dear father Keith Turner was a foreman in the Machine Shop for many years. He died in 1986. He was 64. Does anyone remember him ?
I had an uncle work for Dominion. He started working their in 1940 and the 70’s.
Can someone enlighten as to what full company name was ?
I’m looking at a blueprint from 2-16-44. The proper name is Dominion Forge & Stamping Co. Ltd. They also had the building that was last known as Empire Roofing, across Seminole, and butted against Motor Lamp. Behind both buildings at Reginald was the Garden Tractor & Equipment Ltd. and Maris Transport Ltd. looking south where Klinec is now. The Pere Marquette Railroad ran north and south between the Df buildings, later to be the C&O line.
You see the first photo?, the one with the placement of the buildings originally? Well the little building in pink to the immediate left of the ‘Cold Trim’ building, I know was used by Remington Rand in the very early to late 1950’s. They worked on univac computers and my dad used to volunteer or work there sometimes on these early computers. He had an interest in things like that. His full-time job was at the Windsor Armouries as Sgt. Major WO2, he was a machinist in his younger years. I’m sure the little building is gone now, just a parking lot. I drove by to see the area and there is no trace of it. The building was one floor, had gold/yellow brick and red painted steel around the long windows, similar to the Hydro Sub Station building across the street on Seminole…..which is still there by the way. I can find no one who remembers this little building! I don’t know when it disappeared either. It was still there in the mid ’60’s though.
I forgot to add….about that ‘hammering’…. In my small mind, I pictured a giant using his big steel hammer to make and fix things! Yes, they did shake the ground, all through the night, I got used to them though and came to regard them as ‘familiar’ sounds to lull me to sleep…heehe….on those hot humid summer nights with the windows wide open. As a kid, I was raised on the 1300 block of Tourangeau Rd
My dad (John Lawson) and uncle (James Lawson) both worked at DF. They’ve both passed away, but a couple names mentioned here are familiar to me. I believe Gunnar Hansen was a friend of Uncle Jim’s, and I seem to recall John Weber’s pick-up truck being in our driveway when we lived on Chandler Rd. back in the mid to late 60’s, but that could be a child’s mistaken memory. I don’t really remember much about DF, other than the location, and the block letters on the building facing Walker Rd., but I do recall the company having a “tug of war” team, with matches against the Fogolar Furlan, and the Windsor Police, possibly at Windsor Raceway. Also company outings to Bob-Lo Island, and some Christmas parties.
My Dad, Gunnar Hansen worked at Dominion Forge and Stamping Company Ltd (was one name change while he worked there) along with two of my Uncles, Paul and Robert Hansen. Dominion Forge hired family back then first before outsiders, so as someone else stated it felt like a big family and employees were treated well. The summer picnics that were held at Boblo Island was set up to pick up employee families at the Queens Dock and bring them back. My Dad started in February of 1952 in the die room, still has his crib tags #454 today which was needed to get tools logged out to use, I believe. I can tell you our family get togethers where something and not for the good especially during negotion times. My Dad being a total company man and both uncles being union guys, well lets just say the converstations at the Hansen get togethers could get very loud even in my grandparents house off Mic Mac Park. Contract negotiations were never smooth times and a few got scary. According to my Dad, whom is still with us today, July 2022 is going on 91 years old and pretty sharp on the details still after DF closed down. I remember in the late 60’s and 70’s, running through the halls while my Dad was doing work after hours or weekends and being taken through the hot forge plant all the time. It was amazing to see as a young kid but scary to a young girl in the hot forge with no lights on sometimes, and yes when the hammers were going, extremely loud. Three floors to the hot forge building and yes a metal circular staircase in the corner that went up to both the 2nd and 3rd floors. I went up and down these for hours it felt like. I do remembered the grand old wood staircase in the office building very well, the stairs even creeked back in the 60’s and well worn but hope the original details of the building were restored by the Hearn Brothers when they bought the plant. Ernie Marks was the President in my Dad’s years there, and Larry Couglin was Vice- President and my Dad, was Plant Manager. John Lawson, you are correct on James (Jim) Lawson, he started as an electrician and worked up to a manager in the offices and was my father’s best friend and our family saw them all the time and used to go away on vacations together with his wife Hilda Lawson along with her Mom, Mrs. Churchill for many years of my growing up (unfortunately all deceased now). James (Jim) Lawson started as an electrian and worked up to crank shaft manager for the hot forge, I believe (not sure if I have the title right though). The strikes that went on several times is what I remember the most growning up, nasty to say the least for us kids. So bad in fact, the Windsor Police Department in 1967 put together a division called “Riot Squad” that just handled the strikes of these larger companies. My Dad had to be escorted into the building by Windsor Police Riot Squad during one strike, the front doors of the offices were tied with ropes and the police had to cut them to allow my Dad to enter. They had two rows of Police officers from the parking garge across the street on Seminole to the front door of the building to let the management and office staff to get in safely. What I also recall a situation at Ernie Marks house (front porch area during one of the strikes also). In 1985 the big locked out which eventually closed down the operation for good happened. A contract could not be reached between the union and company for over the next year or more, so the cold forge plant was being run for this time by the management. DF made an agreement with the big 3 to provide them parts until they could get DF’s work done by other companies. The hot forge which was always the money maker of the operation and was already closed down before the cold forge because they couldn’t keep competative in the market with wages and benefits wanted by the union. Most of the business of DF came from the USA. My brother and I had to bring food and other items for him and the managers when they were running low, when we saw my Dad walk to the gate during the lock down we would hand him the items through the chain link fence gate of cold forge and told to leave immediate and take different routes home in case we were followed. There was just enough room between the bolted tall chain link fences/gates to get the items inside the fencing. The managers ate and slept inside the plant during the lockdown, actually went in the night before, kept all the lights off and shocked the workers outside the first morning of the lockdown because they were already in the building. My Dad loved working at DF from ’52 till the permanent closure of the plant, for most of the years definitely a family environent. Sad days seeing the biggest tool and die manufacturing giant closed it’s doors for good.
For My Father, Paul Perz
My father, Paul Perz, worked in production at the Dominion Forge for over 30 years, right up until the 1987 lockout. He’s still with us and will be turning 90 in March 2026.
Dad often talks about the old days at the Forge like they were yesterday. Many of his closest friends have passed on, including his brother-in-law Stefan Skrzydlewski (d. 2011), his friends Walter Kolodziejski (d. 2016) and Adriano Morson (d. 2023), along with many others whose names I can not find or I can’t get past his pronunciation (he’s mostly deaf and was never great with names to begin with!).
If any former Dominion Forge workers are still around, my father would love the chance to reconnect, share stories, and reminisce. He’s in remarkably good shape for his age—he still drives every day and enjoys life—but the years at the Forge certainly left their mark on his body. Meeting anyone who shared that time with him would mean the world to him.
Please reply here or send me an email, and I will gladly arrange something.
dperz@maxitrol.com