The ACC Simcoe plant was built in 1929 in Art Deco styling, not typical for industry at the time, and was one of the main plants in the town of Simcoe for almost 60 years. The plant had such a high output of production, that at one point it was producing one out of two cans in Canada . During the war the plant was employed in war production, making artillery casings. At the time, a large number of women were employed at the plant, contributing to Canada ’s war effort. The plant continued to grow and peaked in 1977 when it employed 600 people at the Simcoe, Montreal and Vancouver locations. ACC was purchased in 1988 by Ball Packaging, and soon after in 1991 it closed, where the remaining 210 employees were laid off. Sometime in the late 1990’s a developer was interested in re-developing the location as a condominium; however the project never seemed to get off the ground. A quick search shows almost all of these other locations in the US, including Jersey City , San Francisco, New Orleans, San Jose, Baltimore, and Ogden were successfully converted into condos and mixed use spaces. The Simcoe building was demolished in the spring and summer of 2011, almost 6 years after my first visit. Originally featured on NTROPY.
