Toronto – Parks Canada and Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada will participate in a plaque unveiling ceremony to commemorate the national historic significance of Penman Textile Mill.
Penman Textile Mill in Paris, Ontario, was once at the core of the Penman Manufacturing Company, Canada’s largest producer of woolen knit goods in the late 19th century. Founded in 1868 and initially powered by the Nith River, the mill burned to the ground in 1874, leading to the construction of Penman’s No. 1 Mill, one of the few buildings which remains standing today.
By 1887, the company expanded to include a new mill across the Grand River, which helped to establish the Grand River Valley as the hub of the knit goods industry in Canada. Penman Textile Mill, its workers and their employers had a significant impact on the work culture within the community in the late 1800s, and the site now serves to illustrate the evolution of industrialization through the 19th and early 20th centuries in Canada.