Palmer Piano Factory / Gold Medal Radio & Phonograph Company

Above is a post card showing the Palmer Piano Co building in Uxbridge.

The above photo taken from “Downright Upright A History of the Canadian Piano Industry” by Wayne Kelly shows the Palmer Piano Factory located beside the train tracks, just south of where the Co-op was located.

The map below is a section from the Uxbridge Insurance plan drawings from 1910 showing the corner of Brock St and Victoria Ave.

Map showing the location of the Palmer Piano Co building in Uxbridge.

According to Tales From The Uxbridge Valley, written by Alan McGillivray

“After a fire at the Uxbridge Piano and Organ Company in 1907, the Palmer Piano Company built a huge factory by the railway just south of where the Co-op store is located today, but they only lasted a short time and were followed into the factory in 1912 by the Gold Medal Furniture Company, which soon had a staff of ninety. In 1922, it became the Gold Medal Radio & Phonograph Company, making Quadradyne Radios and Gold Medal Phonographs until 1926.”

In 1942 the Textile Dyers and Finishers of Toronto moved from the old McGuire piano factory that was on Franklin Street to the Gold Medal factory which was vacant at the time. In 1944 all was lost when the building was destroyed by fire. Remains of the building and the chimney of the boiler remained for some time in the forest at the end of Collins St before it was demolished to make way for a house.

Below is an ad from the Toronto Star advertising the Gold Medal Radio Phonographs built in Uxbridge from Nov. 7, 1924.

Photo courtesy of http://keithwright.ca/CAPP/Gold%20medal/Gold%20Medal.html

Click the link above to see more ads and photos of the Phonographs that are on display at the Uxbridge Historical Centre (Uxbridge-Scott Museum and Archives)