Gooderham and Worts Distillery, locally
referred to as "the Distrillery District" is located on Mill Street east of
Parliament. The Gooderham and Worts Distillery was built in 1859. After an 1869 fire it
was rebuilt, though it did not differ markedly from the original. By examining maps of the
period, the distillery was then located right at the waterfront. Today, however, owing to
the use of landfill to extend Toronto's waterfront, the best view of it can be had by
driving past on the Gardiner Expressway, just south of the building. James Worts and his
brother-in-law William Gooderham first set up a wind-driven flour mill in 1831-32 near the
mouth of the Don River. This milling operation expanded to distilling and then to a number
of manufacturing and financial interests carried on by successive generations of the
family.
