The Tannery

The Tannery. . , Oakville Heritage Trails , Tannery Park , Few enterprises influenced the lives of ordinary Oakville residents like the Marlatt and Armstrong Leather Co. did at the turn of the 20th Century. If you didn't work for the tannery, you smelled its distinctive odor, you heard its clockwork whistle, you debated its hold on local politics and you marvelled at Cecil Marlat's lavish lifestyle., The brick building on the west side of Oakville Harbour facing onto Forsyth Street - turned into townhouses in the latter 20th Century - was but one of the complex of buildings that once formed the company, the largest employer from the late 1800s to its closing in 1924., The "old tannery" - the first building used to tan animal hides - was originally a brewery located farther south on the west bank and dating back to 1836. New owners converted it to a tannery in the mid-1850s. It changed hands and expanded over the years. By the late 1880s, it was controlled by Stafford Marlatt (1830-1908), his sons Cecil (1854- 1928) and Wilbur (1868-1945) and Christopher Armstrong (1845-1931). Although it produced personal leather goods, its success was primarily in supplying leather seats and coverings for carriages and cars., The company continued to expand on both sides of the Sixteen, but mainly on the west. It had become one of the largest such operations in Canada when it suddenly failed in 1924. The tannery buildings stood vacant until after World War II, when the post-war industrial boom pumped new business, new people and new life into the sleepy town.,