Famous people's places / Walkerville
Hiram Walker & Sons Distillery
The riverside distillery Hiram Walker founded in 1858 directly across the Detroit River from downtown Detroit, whose company town, Walkerville, and Prohibition-era whisky trade were deeply tied to the city.
01 / The story of this place
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Grocer and grain dealer Hiram Walker built his distillery on the Canadian shore of the Detroit River in 1858, deliberately choosing the Ontario side, opposite Detroit, for its grain and water and, later, for the legal distance it gave him from American liquor restrictions. Around the distillery he built Walkerville, a model company town of workers' housing, churches, and a school, effectively Detroit's industrial twin just across the water. His "Club" whisky, renamed Canadian Club by the 1890s, became one of the best-known whiskies in North America, and when Michigan and then the whole United States went dry, Hiram Walker & Sons profited enormously by legally exporting Canadian Club into an America thirsty for it during Prohibition, much of it crossing the river within sight of Detroit. Hiram Walker died in 1899, and his family sold the company in 1926, but the distillery on the original riverside site has never stopped producing whisky. It operates today as a working distillery with a visitor center, the Canadian Club Brand Centre.
- Hiram Walker built the distillery on the Detroit River's Canadian shore in 1858
- Founded the company town of Walkerville around it
- Canadian Club whisky, exported legally during American Prohibition, made the company's fortune
- Still an operating distillery today, with the Canadian Club Brand Centre for visitors
Famous Detroiters
Famous people tied to this place 1
Lexicon entries for the people who lived, worked, performed or liked to spend time here.
- Hiram Walker 1816–1899 · grocer and distiller, founder of Hiram Walker & Sons (Canadian Club)
Founded
The riverside distillery he founded in Walkerville, across from Detroit; Canadian Club is still produced here.
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Sources & fact check · Checked: 2026-09-25
An independently written bilingual guide. This collection is not an attendance-based ranking.
03 / Events
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