Let’s talk history. Canadian history.

I truly believe that as Canadians, we fail to realize how important whisky was to the history of this Country. It’s our National Spirit, and as you’re about to read it built much of the foundation that Canada was built upon. Yet, the incredible stories of entrepreneurship, innovation, and titans of industry have largely been lost over time. To understand the history of Canada, is to understand the history of Canadian Whisky. In the following article, I’m going to tell you the story of how a family turned a small windmill in the wilderness into the largest distillery in the British Empire, and for a time, the world: the rise and fall of the Gooderham & Worts Empire.  

“The Story of Canadian Whisky is the Story of a Colony Becoming a Nation” 

- Davin De Kergommeaux, Canadian Whisky: The Portable Expert. 

Let’s start by taking you back in time to the early 1800’s in Upper Canada. It is important to remember that Canada is not yet a country, but a rough and ragged unexplored landscape…the new frontier. In 1830, the estimated population of the entire nation was 260,000 inhabitants, roughly the same number that reside in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan today. This new colonization needed food, not booze, and similar to the story of many early Canadian distillers, Gooderham & Worts came to Upper Canada to capitalize on the need for nourishment. Their foray into the whisky business came out of innovation and entrepreneurship.  

 William Gooderham and James Worts were business partners and brothers-in-law back in Suffolk, England. In search of new business opportunities, William sent James Worts on a scouting expedition to Upper Canada. James landed in “Muddy York” (soon to become Toronto) in 1831, and immediately set to work finding the ideal location for a windmill on Lake Ontario at the Mouth of the Don Valley River. On July 25, 1832, William Gooderham arrived with both families, several servants, and eleven orphans he adopted after having lost their parents on the dangerous voyage across the Atlantic - 54 bodies in total. By October, the mill was in full operation and was immediately successful, milling nearly 3,000 bushels of wheat before the year’s end. The savvy businessmen had a deal with farmers that in exchange for their milling services, they would keep 10% of the milled flour as payment.  

 Despite the fact that the enterprise maintained the Wort’s name forever, sadly, James Worts would never see a drop of whisky made. In 1834, James’s wife, Elizabeth, died giving birth to their sixth child. Heartbroken and distraught, James was found dead two weeks later in the company well that he drowned himself in. The untimely suicide left the families devastated, but true to form William Gooderham adopted Wort’s five surviving children and continued onward, eventually bringing James’s eldest son back on as a partner in the prosperous business years later. Today, the distillery district is considered one of the most haunted areas in Toronto, with several reports from late night workers of seeing a ghostly figure walking the streets of the distillery carrying on a loud conversation with himself, something James was well known for. 

As wheat production expanded across Upper Canada, so did the milling operation. Gooderham was stockpiling so much wheat from his 10% deal that it was starting to spoil before he could find buyers for it. In 1837, William Gooderham added a small distillery, strictly to process the waste from his excess wheat. He was unaware at the time that this small innovative business decision would change the course of history. 

Gooderham’s first batch of whisky was 36 bushels of wheat, 304 bushels of wheat middlings (leftover from milling), and 27 bushels of malt. It was the product of a single distillation (low wines), unaged, and came in at about 22% ABV. From the outset, there was a ready market for his whisky. William sold out on his very first day to a single grocer, Joseph Lee, and the second day the same grocer on King Street returned and bought the next days stock. Clearly there was a need for his distilled spirits, and it wasn’t long before the entire business pivoted over to whisky production.

It was through innovation that William Gooderham found distillation, but it was through entrepreneurship that he built an empire. Over the next three decades, William would build the foundation of one of the most successful distilleries in history, set up the next generation for both families, and change the course of distillation forever. He quickly added malting, rectifying columns, and in 1846 patented the riley still, the very first rudimentary form of double column distillation. Of course, this wasn’t like the beautiful copper columns and bubble trays of today, but instead, smooth large stones pulled from Lake Ontario and stacked in a wooden column. It wasn’t pretty but resulted in the same partial reflux that is instrumental in modern column double distillation. Gooderham, at the time, unknowingly changed distillation practices worldwide.

In 1859, after bringing in James Wort’s eldest son and his own son, George Gooderham, as partners to run the company, they commissioned the Stone distillery for $200,000. At the time, this was the largest private undertaking in the history of Upper Canada. This new five-story distillery would be at the leading edge of industrial technology. By extending their own spur of the Grand Trunk Railway, they could bring in full railcars of grain, which would pass through the entire system to the whisky barrel without intervention by human hands. 

Disaster struck in October of 1869 when the stone distillery emblazoned the night sky with one of largest fires Toronto had ever seen. Luckily the structure was built with metre-thick limestone walls and rooftop grain storage; so, when the internal beams burned and gave way to the storage above, the blanket of grain suppressed much of the fire saving valuable equipment. The innovative design of the building saved the entire operation. Within two days, and at a cost of $100,000, repairs were underway, and the distillery would be operational again in early 1870. The same stone distillery and the same limestone walls still stand today and are some of the oldest remaining structures in the City of Toronto.

The following thirty years from 1870-1900, would be the most prosperous era of the distillery. Led by William’s son, George, the distillery was exporting throughout Canada, the United States, South America, and Europe - the world was drinking Gooderham & Wort’s whisky. By 1877 the small windmill in “muddy York” had now become the largest distillery in the world. 

During these thriving years, the Gooderham family diversified well beyond whisky. They began many ventures across the financial services, railway, mining, and insurance industries. Large corporations that still exist today, like TD Bank and Manulife were started by the Gooderham family. This is important to keep in mind, because when George Gooderham passed away in 1905, of the businesses that he left his 3 sons the whisky distillery was just a small piece of the pie. 

When George Gooderham passed away, his net worth was estimated at $15 million, one of the wealthiest men in Canada, and the estate tax handed over with his passing single handedly eliminated the federal deficit. Despite this wealth, his three sons would come to realize it was a difficult time to inherit one of the world’s largest distilleries. Within a decade, two monumental events in history changed everything. The Great War coinciding with the temperance and prohibition movements marked the beginning of the end for the distilling empire. 

When World War I began in November of 1914, Canada was involved immediately under the British Empire. Supporting the war effort was of the upmost importance to both civilians and industry. Canadians embraced teetotaling as an act of patriotism. At the time, alcohol consumption and production were widely regarded as a waste of resources and a distraction from the war effort. In 1916, the province officially passed the Ontario Temperance Act, prohibiting alcohol sales in Ontario. Considering this, and their already diverse and lucrative portfolio of businesses, the Gooderham sons did not hesitate to donate the distilling operation, free of charge, to the British Government in 1916.

The Gooderham & Worts distillery was no longer making whisky, but instead acetone and ketone, vital components in the making of explosives. When the war ended in 1918, unfortunately the temperance movement did not. Even worse, the largest market for Canadian Whisky enacted a federal Prohibition from alcohol in 1920. It was officially illegal to buy, consume, or produce alcohol in United States of America. At the time it appeared that alcohol would remain illicit forever, and the distillery that was once the most lucrative business in the Nation, had become more of a liability than an asset.

It is to no surprise then, that when the Gooderham sons had an offer to buy the distillery in 1923 they jumped on the opportunity. The Gooderham & Worts distillery was officially sold to Harry C. Hatch for $1,500,000 on December 22, 1923. A renowned salesman from the Corby Distillery, Harry Hatch would quickly become the most infamous Canadian smuggler during prohibition, and one of the most successful businessmen in the post-prohibition era. In the span of seven years Hatch purchased and consolidated Gooderham & Worts, Hiram Walker, Corby, and J.P. Wiser’s distilleries. However, that is a story for another day. Over the following decades, Hatch would continue using the Toronto distillery for various aspects of production within his whisky empire, until 1957, when the last drop of grain alcohol would ever flow from the Gooderham & Worts stills. 

Today, the Gooderham & Worts distillery has been officially recognized as a National Historic Site. Redeveloped into retail and residential units, the old distillery has become a cultural hub for arts, food & drink, and holds some of the most popular festivals in the city. The stone distillery, along with nearly all the original buildings, offices, and rack houses still stand between the cobblestone streets. If you have never had a chance, I urge you to walk the streets and alleys that George Gooderham once did, run your fingers along the limestone walls that wouldn’t burn, and sip a Toronto cocktail while you breathe in a legacy that built the foundation for a nation.  

Cheers to Canada, and it’s spirited history. 

- Spencer Gooderham