Goldie Mill lies at the northeast corner of Cardigan and Norwich, three stories of limestone ruins sitting above the Speed river. 1866 marked the year the mill as it now stands was completed, although a mill has operated on the site since 1827 when David Gilkison, cousin of Guelph’s founder John Galt, first owned a sawmill there. Doctors Clarke and Orton had the adjacent Wellington Mills built in 1845, but a fire in 1850 saw all the mills burn. They were rebuilt not long after, and named the People’s Mills, but another fire in 1864 left the mills destroyed again.

The land was bought by James Goldie, who ordered the construction of the building we can see in ruins today. The flour mill’s manufacturing complex included through its time a sawmill, foundry, cooperage, piggery and tannery.

James Goldie was a wealthy and powerful man in the town of Guelph, being well known among flour manufactures from England to the United States, and operating as president of the Ontario Millers’ Association, member of Guelph town council, license commissioner for the south riding of Wellington, and director of insurance companies in Guelph and Galt. He ran, and lost, as the south Wellington candidate for the Liberal Conservatives three times. Goldie was also a supporter, financially and administratively, of the Guelph General Hospital.

Goldie Mill, long known as the model flouring mill in Canada, played an instrumental role in Guelph’s development, and the Goldie family’s roots in Guelph are far reaching.

https://www.guelphhistoricalsociety.ca/archives/historic-guelph/volume-5/james-goldie