Meadowglen Mushroom Factory

• Ah the memories of "turn the manure days".......everyone in town and beyond knew it!!!!!!!!!!!
• Yes!
•  Mushroom factory
• "Here Comes Ken!"
• A very close friend of the family was tragically hurt in the plant
• I was an adventurous child, the horror I feel to imagine my kids exploring the rubble of this place like i did YIKES!!...but I have to laugh and embrace, cherish and remember what my adventures and life lessons have taught me! Now that said children of mine you will Grounded harshly if you do foolish things like I have, "it's your ballgame" (Greg quote..love you Dad, just saying) ..I've gone thru what I have and its so so much! 
• YES! we totally climbed the walls and walked all along the track, also tobogganed on groundhog hill! great times!!!!
  •   OHHHH!!!!!! we were on arletta across from moore park plaza but a quick trip "down the hill" had us on Ontario st
  • :)  Groundhog hill was in cedarvale park right?
  •  nope, off the tracks up by the mushroom factory, you could see glenwilliams from the top to the hill
  •  Yes many fires up there


• I grew up on John St and I was almost always outside exploring the world.


•  I worked there as a kid picking mushrooms lol
• Wow the memories this picture brings back
• Where is this pic taken? What is that street in the background?
• Not a street. It’s a road on the factory property. Taken on mountain view.
•  Oh! Thanks. I’m curious to know what’s there now.
•  A ton of houses.
• thanks, Bonnie. I’m always interested in what places looked like before ‘development’. Thanks for the info.
•  Most of the wooden buildings that were there before those concrete buildings appeared were levelled after a fire. Anyone living on John Street knew the smell of burning manure as well as the smell of the fresh stuff.
•  this is were grandpa worked
• What is happening or holding up development of the Smith and Stone site? Is the land there contaminated? There would be asbestos from the kilns, heavy metals from the parts that made the switches and fuses. Anybody know?
  •  That’s what I heard but only rumours
  • Apparently after ground testing. It’s highly contaminated
  •  Black lung was a killer for many S+S workers from the asbestos and the metals used to make the products they made.
  • Silica was the one thing in that plant used in pottery light fixtures - it’s was everywhere when I worked there
  • I remember those fixtures. Mom worked on them in the 40's.
  • They were not my favourite to fettle (sp)
  •  One of the biggest contamination came from diesel fuel tanks that ran the boilers. These tanks were compromised and buried underground and diesel fuel would leach in the ground for years and they just kept refilling the tanks. They have had a pumping station installed for years trying to remove as much fuel from the ground as they can. The tanks have been removed for a while now but the ground, well you know.
  •  I can smell it just looking at this picture!
  •  Worked here for Christmas money 1978


• Fire central...
•  remember the smell on Ann Street when the wind was just right 🙂
• I worked there it was the best job mushroom fights lol
• ​ Lived on Alexander Street for 40 years & always had mushroom spring up in the lawn and gardens plus the smell on some days would curl your hair!
• There was a small house at the top of the hill ,the lady there ran a small daycare in the house
• My first job as well..memory flashback..grab you head lamp, battery pack, and knife and off you go climbing into those beds. Good times..🙃
  
• And dream of mushrooms 🍄 lol.
  
• I found it very eerie reading some of the comments this morning about all the fires at the mushroom factory. I now live in the Meadowglen area , the old mushroom factory land. In the past 4 years we have had 2 big house fires and 1 car fire in our neighbourhood. So this picture and comments gave me the chills because I find that’s a lot of fires in 1 small area. 🔥 🔥 🔥
•  I grew up on Victoria Street. Sure was a stinky place!lol
• I worked at the mushroom factory briefly one summer and hated every second of it!
  
•  I worked there for a while
  
• I worked on building it
•  · Worked there 4.5 years.
• I remember that, Larry!
  I also remember hearing the fire sirens one night (one on the freight shed, too close, very eerie) and sitting up on my bed looking across to see the flames above the freight shed roof! Very scary when you're little.
  
  • If you lived on John Street, seeing and hearing the fire trucks on their way to the mushroom plant in the middle of the night at least once a year was not new.
    
• That is our dad “ here comes Ken”
  
  •  My Dad and I both worked with Kenny. My Dad drove truck there in the 70's, I worked there in the 80's. Your Dad was a lot of fun, good guy. Merry Mushroom would not be politically correct in today's climate. I drove the truck your dad drove after he left Meadowglen. One of several jobs I did while working at Meadowglen. Hard work at times but a lot of fun
    
  • Me too! We smelled as ripe as the factory when we were done. My dad drove home with all the windows down, all year round, when he gave me a ride home from work lol
• Work there when I was in high school!
  
• Worked there when I was 12! Lol Great times!!
  
• My dad and my uncle worked there when they first immigrated to Canada.
  
•  remember going there all the time when I worked for Flash taxi and Royal Pizza.
  
•  OH MAN! we lived on Arletta as kids (grew up there really) and in the mornings my Nanny (Helen Norton) would say "Smells ripe out there this morning, they must have turned the mushrooms!!" and it was RIPE! 🤢
  
• My father built everything there other than the two original block grow houses. That was back in the 70s the cannery should be to the right of the photo.
  
• My oldest son Jay worked there, first job.
  
• The closest building is the bunk house. I remember George washing his socks in the laundry room wash tub while he was wearing them.
•  I remember doing a watch guard duty on Halloween, maybe 1985 ? Rick who lived in the bunk house running around the farm with a white sheet on Pretending to be a ghost. He was scaring some of the older guys until they realized it was just Rick. We had a lot of fun there at times. Worked hard and had fun.
  • was Rick the guy from England? Had the S10?
    
  • Yes. He was actually from St. Catherine’s , he was a good guy but troubled. I think he took off to England. Long time ago. He flipped the s10 , rolled it over could completely and back into all fours going south on the 9th line - mountanview rd. That was before they filled it in, the hill going south bound was steep. He drove it back to Murray Motors and left it outside the shop. Pretty messed up , it was basically new and leased.
    
  • Hungry hollow as we knew it back then.
    
  • Where he flipped the truck. Hard to figure out how he did it going up the hill. I remember talking with Rick about it afterwards
    
  • The odour...... Not so good.... Funghi!
    
  •  Horse manure- compost. A special mixture to build lasting memories. 😉
  
  
• Our house on John St backed onto it
  
• I remember trucking old topsoil out of there & new in.They would hire as many trucks as they could get to do the job fast.
  
•  The joys of being down-wind!
  
• This was a great post although my memories are from the cannery I really enjoyed reading all the comments. Thanks for sharing!
  
• I remember that place as a kid
•  Use to play Soccer their after mushroom plant closed...
  
•  On strike at S&S learning how to play euchre (sp) at the poetry door keeping trains out now when I play cards I smell 💩
  •  I remember that strike Cheryl. We were not very old. Remember doing nite shift in the tent. Bud Lowe brought us pie's up.
    
• Smell was awful.
  
•  I served coffee and donuts at Mr. Donut to some of the guys that worked there...the money stunk lol
• Mom worked there