A Brief History of Dorr-Oliver-Long

The name of the foundry at 174 West St South changed many times over the 115 years it existed, but it was always a major player during Orillia's industrial era.

William Bateman started one of Orillia's first foundries at 116 Peter St South in 1865.
In 1878, the business was acquired by Robert Brammer who renamed it the Victoria Foundry.
Brammer's many inventions, including the Clipper Shingle Machine, were very successful with the lumber industry.

Brammer's nephew, Erastus Long joined the company as an apprentice in 1881. By 1885, Long was a partner and along with a third partner, James B. Thompson, the business operated as Brammer-Long & Thompson.

In 1890, a major initiative in Orillia involving construction and servicing of Queen Street supported the creation of a large foundry at 174 West St. South (southeast corner of Queen St and West St).

Brammer died in 1894. The foundry operated as Long & Thompson Mfg until approx. 1900 and then as E. Long Mfg from 1900 to 1927.

Erastus Long (1868-1916)

In 1927, the name was changed to E. Long Ltd and the manufacturing focus changed from the lumber industry to the mining industry. Orillia became a large supplier of heavy equipment used by the mining industry worldwide.

At the end of 1955, Dorr-Oliver Inc. purchased a majority of E. Long Ltd. and starting in 1956, the foundry was operated as Dorr-Oliver-Long Ltd. At its peak during the 1970s, Dorr-Oliver-Long employed close to 800 people.

In 1978, the company name was again changed to Dorr-Oliver Canada Ltd.

In 1987, Standard Oil of Ohio (the owner of Dorr-Oliver Inc.) sold Dorr-Oliver Inc. Worldwide of Stamford, Conneticut to a Canadian company named CONTOR. Dorr-Oliver Canada was subsequently sold separately and operated under a license from Dorr-Oliver Inc.

In 1990, the assets of Dorr-Oliver Canada were sold to Groupe Laperriere & Verreault Inc. (GL&V) of Trois-Rivieres, Quebec and operations continued under license from Dorr-Oliver Inc.

In 1999, GL&V purchased Dorr-Oliver Inc. Worldwide and a new company named GL&V Dorr-Oliver was formed.

In 2002, GL&V Dorr-Oliver purchased Eimco Process Equipment (Sault Lake City, Utah and Mississauga, Ontario) and the name was changed to Dorr-Oliver Eimco.

GL&V sold Dorr-Oliver Eimco's chemicals, minerals mining divisions to FLSmidth of Copenhagen, Denmark in 2007 and the Orillia site operated under the name of FLSmidth Dorr-Oliver Eimco.

In 2008, FLSmidth Dorr-Oliver Emico (Orillia) and FFE Minerals (Toronto) became one entity and the name was changed to FLSmith Minerals Ltd. with head office in Orillia.

In 2014, the decision was implemented to retire and demolish the foundry and machining facilities in Orillia, but the office buildings were maintained and FLSmidth conitinues to operate with Head Office at 174 West St. South, Orillia.

For more information about what FLSmidth does now, visit their website

See also:  Dorr Oliver Long Structural Shops in Postcard Memories and our video on YouTube