During 1915, construction began on what was to be North America’s most modern dairy plant – The Farmers Dairy at Walmer Road and Bridgman Street (now MacPherson Avenue).

In 1929, Acme Dairy was purchased and the company was then known as Acme Farmers Dairy. During the 1970’s Acme Farmers Dairy supplied products throughout Southern Ontario. In the early days, raw milk from dairy farms surrounding Toronto was delivered to the dairy in metal cans via trains, small trucks and horse-drawn wagons. The finished milk products, after pasteurizing and filling in glass bottles and paper cartons, were then delivered in horse-drawn wagons and small trucks to the customers.

Starting in the 1950’s, milk being transported to the dairy from dairy farms moved from eight gallon metal cans to large stainless steel tank trucks carrying up to eighty thousand pounds. Milk during the 1970’s and early 1980’s came from dairy farms as far as Woodstock in the west and the Kingston area in the east. Over five decades the volume of milk processed at the dairy increased twenty-fold.

In the early 1980’s, Ault Foods Limited purchased both Dominion Dairies and Silverwood Dairies. In 1983 the former Dupont Street plant of Silverwood’s was closed and the volume consolidated into the Walmer Road dairy (then Sealtest Dairy) which was finally closed in 1986 when the site was sold for residential development.

The legacy of the dairies which started on Walmer Road in 1915 is recollected today by the Spadina Line artwork.

Leo Higgins
Ault Foods Limited