Local History

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Scope note(s)

  • Special Collections & Archives holds a variety of resources related to the local and urban history of the Kitchener-Waterloo area. Collections include maps, fire insurance plans, business and city directories, yearbooks from local high schools, government documents outlining local county or village by-laws, and newspapers including restored copies of issues of the Berliner Journal for the years 1859-1889. The department is also home to the Kitchener-Waterloo Photographic Negative Collection, which documents local news events, community activities, regional development, and human-interest stories between 1938-2001. Many of the local history collections contain the institutional archives of local businesses and organizations such as Dare Foods Limited, Electrohome, Fritsch Pharmacy, the Dominion Rubber Company, the Kitchener-Waterloo Record, and the Rotary Club of Kitchener. In addition, the department maintains numerous family papers including those for the Breithaupt, Bolender Ball, Ratz, Schantz, Schneider, and Seagram families, among many others. These collections complement several printed genealogies, family histories, and monographs also held by the department.

Source note(s)

Display note(s)

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Local History

Local History

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Local History

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Local History

14 Archival description results for Local History

Only results directly related

Architectural drawings for the Berlin Y.M.C.A.

  • SCA303-GA339
  • Collection
  • 1895

File consists of three architectural drawings of the building of the Berlin [Kitchener] Y.M.C.A. at 22 Queen Street North. Includes a side elevation, main and upper floor plans, and details of the locker room.

Kitchener-Waterloo Young Men's Christian Association

Augustine, Ham, Kaufman family fonds.

Material related to the lives and activities of members of the Augustine and Kaufman families of Kitchener, Ontario and of the Ham family of Toronto, Ontario, in particular of the parents, aunt and grandparents of Mary Ham. Includes biographical information, clippings, correspondence, diaries, ephemera and photographs.

Augustine, Ham, Kaufman family

Bechler family fonds.

  • SCA153-GA126
  • Fonds
  • [18--]-1945

The Bechler family fonds contains records created and accumulated by the Bechler family documenting life in Berlin (later Kitchener). Records include textual records and graphic material, predominantly photographs from an album. Records also contain confirmation certificates, marriage certificate, press clippings, and cards.

Bechler family

Breithaupt Leather Co. truck.

  • SCA168-GA142
  • Collection
  • [191-?]

One undated photograph showing a Breithaupt Leather Co. truck in front of the Shipping Dept. at the tannery, which was located in Kitchener, Ont.

Denton, Ernest

Budd's Dept. Stores Kitchener, Guelph, Simcoe annual picnic.

  • SCA411-GA478
  • Collection
  • August 20, 1947

One photograph of the Budds Department Store annual picnic, held August 20, 1947. The photograph shows 82 people, including men, women, and children. The picnic attendees appear to include the owners and employees of the three Budds Department Store locations, as well as their families. The photograph was taken outside in an undisclosed location and the subjects appear relaxed and informal.

Budds Department Store

Company of Neighbours fonds.

  • SCA147-GA120
  • Fonds
  • [189-]-[195-], predominant [189-]-1906.

Photographs taken in and around Waterloo, Ontario by unknown photographers. Included are images of Waterloo Park and events and businesses along King Street.

Dominion Life Assurance Company head office.

  • SCA265-GA283
  • Collection
  • 1939

File consists of one photograph of the employees of the head office of the Dominion Life Assurance Company in Waterloo, Ontario. The photograph was taken July 1939. The employees are standing in front of the building at 14 Erb Street West.

Dominion Life Assurance Company

First Mennonite Church bible school.

  • SCA291-GA326
  • Collection
  • [1928?]

One photograph of students of the First Mennonite Church bible school. Students are shown outside in front of the church building.

Gordon Good fonds.

  • SCA247-GA250
  • Fonds
  • 1925-1976

Fonds consists of materials created and accumulated by Gordon Good, primarily during the time he was employed by The Kaufman Rubber Company. Includes materials from Kaufman Rubber, as well as local and national history materials accumulated by Good. Fonds contains time books, ephemera, clippings, catalogues, rubber information and strike materials from Kaufman Rubber as well as materials relating to World War Two, Kitchener history and Canadian politics.

Good, Gordon

King Street, Waterloo, Ont., 1923 : completed paving work.

  • SCA201-GA178
  • Collection
  • 1923

One photograph of a section of King Street, Waterloo, Ont. showing recently completed paving work by Standardite Paving. Also visible in the photograph are streetcar tracks, early street lights and automobiles.

Denton, Ernest

Municipal council of the town of Berlin.

  • SCA413-GA481
  • Collection
  • 1909

One photograph mounted on cardboard of the Municipal Council of the town of Berlin, dated 1909. The black and white photograph shows 15 adults dressed in suits and posed seated or standing in front of an ornately painted backdrop.

  • Back row, from left to right is Edwin Whyte Clement, F. W. Sheppard, Joseph Roman Winterhalt, and Frederich “Frederick” Bornhold.
  • Middle row from left to right is Charles Boehmer Dunke, William Daum Euler, William Robert Wilkinson, Alexander Hugh Millar, H. Martin, and John R. Schilling.
  • Front row from left to right is reeve David Gross Jr. (George “David" Gross), third deputy reeve Henry Anthony Dietrich, Mayor Charles Casper Hahn who served from 1909 to 1910, second deputy reeve John F. McKay, and first deputy reeve Nicholas Asmussen.

Among the subjects are three individuals who would later serve as mayor of Berlin or Kitchener following its 1916 name change: William Daum Euler (1914-1917), David Gross Jr. (1917-1919), and Nicholas Asmussen (1925 -1926). William Daum Euler was also elected to the House of Commons of Canada (1917) and Nicholas Asmussen to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario (1919-1926). Both represented Waterloo North, Ontario in their Federal political office.

R. Forbes & Co. Ltd. film

  • SCA316-GA352
  • Fonds
  • [191-]

File consists of one film reel showing the exterior and operations of the R. Forbes Co. woollen mill in Hespeler (Cambridge), Ontario. The mill would later become the Dominion Woollen and Worsted Mill.

R. Forbes & Co. Ltd.

Sims Family collection.

  • SCA369-GA427
  • Collection
  • 1833-1963

The Sims family collection encompasses records of the Sims and Cook, Davidson and Garden families retained by members of the two family branches that came together when Harvey James Sims and Florence Katherine Roos married in 1902. Their Sims and Davidson forbears were equally significant in the history of the Waterloo-Wellington area and in the growth and development of agriculture, education, business and government. Harvey James Sims and Florence Katherine Roos were deeply involved in their local community of Berlin, (later Kitchener) Ontario and their own records contain significant additions to our knowledge of local personalities and affairs. Harvey was a childhood and lifelong friend of William Lyon Mackenzie King; they wrote and visited each other regularly. King's sister Bella was also a close friend of Florence from school days on.

Sims family

William Dickson collection.

  • SCA12-GA7
  • Collection
  • 1818, 1831-1834, 1839

Collection consists of seven legal documents regarding the sale of land in the Township of Dumfries in Southern Ontario.

File list:

1. Deed of land between Aaron White and Joseph Dorland -100 acres (Hallowell Township) – June 5, 1818
2. Deed of land between between William Dickson and William Otis - 50 acres – May 9, 1831
3. Deed of land between between William Dickson and John Campbell - 315 1/3 acres – July 14, 1832
4. Deed of land between between William Dickson and Jacob Kinsey - 150 acres – April 25, 1833
5. Deed of land between between William Dickson and John Fraser - 50 acres – October 1, 1834
6. Deed of land between between William Dickson - Levi Howell, 25 acres – April 16, 1834
7. Receipt for Joseph Pettengall from the Commissioner for Crown Lands - 100 acres (Hillier Township) – June 6 1839

Dickson, William