Site Background

The site is located at 1370 Argyle Road, south of Ottawa Street (see Location Map). The property is approximately 0.65 hectare in size and is currently vacant. In September 2018 the majority of the former building was destroyed by fire, with the exception of the two storey office space fronting on Argyle Road (see Figure 1). The remaining portion of the building was assessed by a structural engineer in March 2019, who concluded that the building is not in an immediate state of structural failure and can be reconstructed/repaired. The property is listed on the Municipal Heritage Register.

The building was constructed in c.1944 and occupied by the Aircraft Hydraulic Supplies company for two years. By 1947, Gelatin Products Company—a manufacturer of soft gelatin capsule products—which operated under Robert Pauli Scherer’s patent, took over the premises. R.P. Scherer invented the rotary die encapsulation process, revolutionizing the manufacture of soft gelatin capsule in the pharmaceutical industry with beginnings in Detroit in 1930. From the time of invention to the mid-1970s, the company became a multinational corporation and held near monopoly of the soft gelatin global market.

The Argyle Road facility was its Canadian company, which started in 1936 and later expanded to Argyle Road in 1947, then renamed to R.P. Scherer Ltd of Windsor in 1950. This facility was said to house one of the most modern manufacturing laboratories in North America. R. P. Scherer Ltd of Windsor was one of the key players that contributed to and influenced the growth of the local pill production industry in Windsor. In a Windsor Star article in 1976, Windsor was reported to be the third largest capsule producer in Canada, and the pharmaceutical and medicine-manufacturing sector continues to have a presence in Windsor’s economy to this day.

The 1370 Argyle Road facility remained as a manufacturer of soft gelatin capsules for health and nutrition industries, under the name of Gelcell Capsules Ltd c.1996 until 2008. The building at 1370 Argyle Road has direct associations with the local capsule/drug industry and is a representative part of the history of pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing industry in Windsor.