Mary Allen Stories...

At the end of World War II the returning veterans were settling down, getting married, starting families, and that created a housing shortage across Canada.     As mentioned earlier, 39 George Street was sold by the original owner (the Snyders) to a partnership of Harold and Shirley Bordman, and his parents, Edward and Sylvia, in 1946.  The mansion was turned into 5 apartments.  After a year of renovations, in 1946 Harold, Shirley and their young daughter, Heather, moved into the main floor apartment on the east side.  Harold’s parents, Edward and Sylvia and their daughter, Marnie, moved in above them, and the other 3 units were rented out.   Marnie recalls growing up on George Street.  She was 8 when she moved in, after living on both Herbert and John Streets.  The neighbourhood was full of children.  Here are some of her recollections. Four-year-old Marnie Bordman in front of one of the houses at the foot of Herbert St. (near William), recently demolished. The community

The Mary-Allen neighbourhood has several majestic houses, many of them on George Street.  You can download a walking tour of the neighbourhood at this link . One interesting house is 39 George Street.  It is a mirror image of a house at 50 Albert Street.  Both houses were constructed by Charles Moogk , Waterloo’s first Civic Engineer as well as an architect and a builder.   The Albert Street house was built in 1903 for Herbert Snyder of Snyder Brothers Company (furniture and upholstery), and 39 George was built for his brother, Alfred, in 1905.  (Their father, Simon Snyder, lived next door at 43 George Street).  Both houses are concrete wall construction, a new concept at the time.  Both cost around $7,000 to build.  39 George Street c.1940, constructed by Gharles Moogk and built for Alfred Snyder of Snyder Brothers Co. in 1905. In 1945 Edward Bordman and his son, Harold, bought 39 George Street.  Edward supplied the down payment by selling his home at 159 Herbert Street (n

Today, Moore Avenue marks the informal edge of the Mary-Allen neighbourhood.  A century ago it was the very edge of town, and the land there, before it was developed, was put to an interesting and uncommon use... The earlier blog post  Who Were Mary and Allen?  introduced the Moores, whose name was given to Moore Avenue, and whose home stood at Union and Mary streets in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  ( Some images and details in this post come from Laura Wilford’s excellent Moore genealogy, located at the Kitchener Public Library:  Moore Lineage of North Dumfries Township: Unto This Land They Came .) Click to enlarge. The Italianate style George and Mary Moore family home, often referred to as "Hop Villa" in its heyday, stood on a large lot at the corner of Union and Mary Streets. Today, the site is occupied by the Richelieu Apartments. Reproduced from the publication  100 Years of Progress in Waterloo County, Canada: Semi-centennial Souvenir 1856-1906.    Image

Part of a c.1895 birds-eye view  of the town of Waterloo, looking NE. Image courtesy of the Waterloo Municipal Heritage Committee.   Who were Mary and Allen? We’re not sure, but we have a reasonably good idea who Herbert and John were. Street names in the Mary-Allen neighbourhood seem to read like the branches of a family tree: George, Mary, Herbert, Allen, William, John, Moore…  But for whom are these streets named? Some of the information in this post comes from research-in-progress left by the late Waterloo historian Ellis Little , who had started a file on Waterloo street origins and land surveys.  Click on the link to read about Ellis, a thoroughly knowledgeable scholar of Waterloo history.  After his death in 2004 the Waterloo Public Library local history room was named in his honour, and it acquired his research papers for public use.  Ellis Little’s early research on street names included few source references; more digging will be needed to verify some Mary-Al

When you stroll through our Uptown neighbourhood you will notice Norway spruce trees dotting the landscape. Soaring in many back, side and front yards, they are all a uniform size. These trees were planted by schoolchildren in the 1920s. A Norway spruce behind 40 George Street. Before Elizabeth Ziegler Public School was built our neighbourhood kids went across King Street to attend Alexandra School (ingeniously re-adapted into condos in 2000). To celebrate Arbour Day, every student was given a seedling to take home. Years ago I met the woman who grew up in my house in the 1920s. She and her brother, children of George H. Skelton, each planted a Norway spruce in the backyard. Hers has survived and towers above our house at 40 George Street. Arbour Day was started in Nebraska in 1872 by J. Sterling Morton. He was a journalist from the east coast who eventually became Secretary of the Nebraska Territory. He recognized the need for trees as a source of shade, for wind