Photo by Rob Salisbury

These are two views from the same location, and it is hard to believe that this was once the site of Brampton's most prominent landmark. From the early 1900's to 1979 Dale's chimney stood some 300 feet tall, in its place at the corner of Main & Vodden Streets, part of what was perhaps the greatest heating plant of its kind ever built anywhere on earth. A row of magnificent coal-fired boilers, huge by any standard, generated steam that was piped through underground tunnels to heat some 200 acres of greenhouses.

Photo by Steve Szarvas

In those greenhouses were grown "Dale Autographed Roses" that were shipped by rail all over the continent. There really were "Autographs". They were logos of the Dale name made of perforations punched into some of the leaves of the plant.

Alas, the coming of modern air travel ended this kind of trade in flowers. All of a sudden it was cheaper to grow flowers in the tropics than it was to grow them in heated greenhouses in Canada. These tropical flowers could then be shipped around the world by the planeload. The Dale property was sold to become a housing and commercial subdivision.

Tommy Thompson took his photo (below) of the intersection of Main and Vodden from the roof of the boilerhouse. By the time Rob got there, the building was gone and there was nothing to stand on. Rob took his picture perched atop a ladder that was extended 45 feet into the air from a fire truck, kindly provided for the occasion by the Brampton Fire Department.