"They just demolished my former office."

Demolition work began at the former Quest building in Vankleek Hill last week.
The current owners of the former spice factory promised earlier this year to have the building razed by the fall.
Lester Noyes, who was a technical services supervisor at Quest prior to its closure, was observing the demolition on August 20.
"It's an end of an era," he said nostalgically as a digger knocked down a small structure adjacent to the main factory. "They just demolished my former office."
Noyes worked at the spice factory for 18 years and left in 1990, four years before Quest closed its doors.
"It looks quite dilapidated," Noyes said of the building. "They said it wouldn't take much just to push it over."
When in operation, the buildings housed machinery that extracted oils from various spices. As anyone who has accidentally inhaled pepper knows, spices in the air can cause quite a reaction.
"One day they were grinding chili pepper," Noyes recalled. "The wind picked up and the grinder operator didn't notice it. It blew across town and got to the high school. They had an evacuation that day."
In another instance, Quest relied on the good nature of its neighbours. Noyes said a similar wind picked up once when the factory was grinding mustard and sent it in the direction of a neighbour's clothes line and fresh laundry.
"It coated everything a bright yellow," Noyes said. "The manager took all of her laundry and had it professionally cleaned."
At its peak in 1977, the company employed 32 people in Vankleek Hill. There was also a structure at Quest's location dedicated almost entirely to manufacturing vanilla extract.
"At one time," Noyes said, "this was the only spice extraction facility in North America."
Further demolition happened on August 24, which left half of the main brick building in a pile of rubble.

Lester Noyes stands in front of the rubble that was his office when he worked for Quest. Photo Matthew Talbot