Back at the end of March, on the end of the Canadian Motor Lamp post, there were some comments posted about terrible places to work. Burningrome had posted that the worst place to work in Windsor “had to be Kasle Steel over on Sprucewood by the racetrack – ancient, decrepit, hot, noisy and unsafe as hell!”. I’m not sure if the safety level has changed since the 1980’s, but the facility was recently sold to a larger steel conglomorate.
The old Saw tooh roof of the Kasle Steel factory.
The steel history of the West side is kind of interesting. Around 1913, plans were created to erect a company town surrounded by a massive steel factory. Different newspaper report siad the deveolpment was going to be the “Gary, IN of Canada”. Well the First World War, then the Deepression and then WWII came, always putting an end to the plans. The great planned town of Ojibway never got built. When the town was founded there was a by-law on the books making Ojibway a dry town. When the Horse Racetrack was put in the 1960’s, they had to hold a “referendum” to repeal the no alchool sales by-law, and I think that the voting consisted of about 4 people.
How about a shoot over at the racetrack?
Hey thanks for this! It’s very blue now – I think it was industrial grey in 89 or 90, when I was there. That 2nd shot shows what was, at any rate, the employee lunchroom – as you can see, kinda tacked on the side of the big building. When I was there, older employees said that the factory was built before WW1, and that it made parachutes for the war. No clue about the veracity of those statements. Kasle Steel is a stamping plant, for quite heavy gauge steel – I recall making school bus bumpers at one point. Most of the big presses are nearer to the wall in the 2nd picture – the whole other side of the factory was empty back in the day, home to many pigeons coming in via the broken windows in the sawtooth roof.
Well the picture on the company’s own website looks like it was taken in the ’70s. They might want to enlist in your services, A.
Hi burningrome, I’ve worked at Kasle for the last 23 years, who are you??? Please contact me, maybe we worked together back in the day!!
butterflylover69@hotmail.com
Let’s be thankful we didn’t end up the “Gary, IN of Canada.” My great-great grandfather, on my mother’s side immigrated to Gary around this time to work in the booming steel industry. He brought his family from Croatia and one of his daughters (my great-grandmother) was born in Gary, IN. His family hated it there and they moved back to Croatia. He stayed, and never saw them again. He just sent money back every year. I never met him, or my great-grandmother, but I’ve heard the story. While travelling back from Chicago for work, I made a small detour to Gary, IN just to see what it’s like. It’s a ghost town. Everything is boarded up. Nobody is around. It just had a very eerie feeling that I didn’t like.