Business & brands / Food
Hiram Walker
1816–1899 · grocer and distiller, founder of Hiram Walker & Sons (Canadian Club)
Detroit grocer who built a distillery across the river in 1858, founded the company town of Walkerville and created Canadian Club whisky.
- Born
East Douglas, Massachusetts- Died
Detroit, Michigan
aged 82- Detroit years
- 1838–1899
- Field
- Business & brands, Food
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Walker left Massachusetts for Detroit in 1838, at 22, and worked as a grocery clerk before opening his own grocery and dry-goods business and trading in grain and vinegar. With Michigan moving toward prohibition, in 1858 he bought land across the Detroit River east of Windsor, Ontario, and built a distillery and flour mill there. Around it he developed Walkerville, a planned company town with housing, a church, a school and services for his workers, and he added a ferry and a railway. His whisky, sold as Club Whisky and then Canadian Club, became Canada's leading export whisky. Walker lived in Windsor for a few years but spent most of his life in Detroit and crossed the river daily to his business. He died in Detroit in 1899 and is buried at Elmwood Cemetery. Canadian Club is still made at the distillery he founded, visible from the Detroit riverfront.
Highlights
- Moved to Detroit in 1838
- Founded his distillery across the river in Walkerville, 1858
- Created Canadian Club whisky
- Built Walkerville as a company town (now part of Windsor)
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Founded · 1858–1899
Hiram Walker & Sons distillery (Canadian Club Brand Centre)
The riverside distillery he founded in Walkerville, across from Detroit; Canadian Club is still produced here.
Buried here · 1899
Elmwood Cemetery
Detroit's historic east-side cemetery, where Walker is buried.