Hamilton - Phantom Hosiery

As I indicated in the last post, we have wandered south of our Simcoe County UrbEx hunting grounds to join in some explorations with our Hamilton associates. The second (and last installment) of this trip is presented here.

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The Phantom Hosiery Plant / aka 'The Lofts'.

Front of Hosiery Mill from the LCBO parking lot.

At the turn of the last century, Hamilton was a hub of ambitious manufacturing which included steel (duh) tobacco, beer and other consumer products. It also became a centre for the textile industry, which did not die out completely until the 1950's. In fact, by the mid 1940s, textile manufacturing was Hamilton's second largest industry.

Phantom Hosiery Production floor (Toronto facility)
In 1928, National Hosiery Mills Limited announced its plans to open a new mill to produce silk stockings. Located at 220 Dundurn Street South, the Phantom Hosiery Plant opened the new mill to produce silk stockings.

The plant shut down production in 1957 and sold the building to the Hamilton Institute of Technology (HIT), which purchased the building for classrooms, warehouse and storage. HIT eventually became Mohawk college.

In 1997 the place was purchased by Dundurn Street Lofts Inc with idea of converting the place into residential lofts (Open space apartments).



Due to asbestos and extreme cost of the project, the place was 10% finished before the company decided to halt any further development and moved to another project.

The building was abandoned but soon became an "eyesore and magnet of undesirables". The LCBO and Beer Store directly across the street most likely did not assist in this issue.

Other explorers had informed me that the afore-mentioned undesirables had constructed lavish lounges on the top floor from furniture collected from the surrounding areas. On 8 November, 2004 one of the 'Hobo-Lounges' caught fire which has resulted in an increased neighbourly vigilance.

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You're In Al !
On the main floor, one would be hard pressed to find an intact urinal. In other news, vandals are a$$-hats.

A trinity of doors on the main floor with an urbex prize behind each.

A portion of the top floor with some of the stalled renovation work present. HairyTheTaco did an LED streak across the frame to help light things up.

The neighbours must not be overly happy with state of this property across the street. The city of Hamilton has contacted the owner and had promised a weekly inspection.

As shown here, the building has become a paint ball battlefield. From experience, paint ball players are often among the first 'special interest' groups to make use of abandoned buildings.

The inside shaft of the elevator was extremely yellow for some odd reason. Why someone would be possessed to paint a surface almost no-one would see is a mystery to me.

Apparently 'Snow Flake' tagged this stairwell.
In other news, tag-monkeys like Snow Flake have unnecessarily exposed themselves to dangerous carcinogens and toxics . . . dumb-a$$es.