Crown Cork and Seal

Illustration of a figure holding a bubbling soda bottle

William Painter invented the bottle cap.

In 1892, the Irish-born businessman founded Crown Cork and Seal in Philadelphia to manufacture his latest and greatest invention, which he called the “crown cork.”

Location:

316 Carlaw Avenue

Crown Cork and Seal Company

Year:

1929 (with additions)

Architect:

Unknown

Made:

Bottle caps, cans, aerosols

Former Crown, Cork and Seal factory at 316 Carlaw Ave, March 2019. — **Former Crown, Cork and Seal factory at 316 Carlaw Avenue, March 2019.**
Image by Susan Drysdale

Painter also patented a machine for capping bottles and (conveniently) a handheld bottle-opening device.

Colour image of the front of a promotional calendar made by the Crown Cork and Seal Co. It prominently features and painting of a naked woman with large butterfly wings on her back, leaning against stone with blue skies in the background, titled 'The Mountain Fairy'. Above reads: 'Compliments of Crown Cork and Seal Co. Toronto.' — **Crown Cork and Seal advertising calendar, 1900**
Toronto Public Library

This bottle cap factory opened in 1929 and was expanded several times.

Like a number of plants on Carlaw, it was a subsidiary of its American parent company.

Like Wrigley, Crown Cork and Seal moved to a new plant outside the city’s core in the 1960s.

It was north of the city limits on Keele Street, directly beside a massive new Canadian National Railways freight yard and major highway.

The new factory was especially designed to handle a popular new product line – aerosol cans.

Many of the 240 staff at the Carlaw factory followed their job north and the total number of staff employed by the company in Toronto increased to 300.

The Diament Knitting Mill later used this building for several decades.

Still, the area declined economically as factories continued to close into the 1990s.

Living Memory

“[In the mid-1980s] everything closed down at 5 pm … I was afraid to be on the street. It was desolate. Windows were boarded up. There was a lot of vandalism. Landlords were desperate to just cover their costs and were letting the buildings deteriorate.”
Nancy Jain
co-owner of several Carlaw Avenue
buildings, speaking to the
Toronto Star, June 2001

This building was one of the first in the area to be fitted with live–work units.

First in the area to be fitted with live–work units

In 1996, Gyan Jain, an engineer who migrated from India to Canada in 1964, bought this building and installed hundreds of small, affordable units that were popular with photographers, artists, entrepreneur, and professionals.

Colour photograph of the Reliable Toy factory on Carlaw Avenue. The factory is closed and there are 'For Rent' signs on the outside of the building. Several cars are parked outside and a delivery person is walking with a package. — **Reliable Toy factory in 1986, shortly after it closed.**
**Note the “for rent” signs on the building.**
Toronto Public Library

In 2008, the Jain family also bought and converted part of the former Rolph-Clark-Stone plant into residential lofts.

Living Memory

“We took a mortgage back from the vendor. He had a toy factory. Half the building was vacant, the other half rented out. When he saw me taking the plywood off and replacing the windows, he said, ‘Mr.Jain, what are you doing? They will just be vandalized again.’ I said, trust me. If I respect my buildings, they will as well.”
Gyan Jain
speaking to the
Toronto Star, June 2001

Illustration of a figure taking a picture with a camera phone

Check it out…

Crown Cork and Seal lives on

Look carefully at your next canned drink. A small crown symbol indicates that it was made by Crown, now one of the continent’s leading packaging companies.