Mary Allen Stories...

At the corner of Willow and Allen streets in Waterloo, across from the former St. Louis Catholic School (see blog post St. Louis Catholic School ) , sits an empty lot that has been mostly vacant for many decades.  Click to enlarge. The corner in question: Allen and Willow streets in 2012. Since the City of Waterloo recently bought the space, along with the school building itself, the corner has gotten a lot of attention in the  neighbourhood. Its future is an open question, but its past is a bit less of a mystery... Walking through this quiet intersection, looking at the empty corner, can your imagination conjure a looming, four-storey factory built right to the edge of the sidewalk and stretching far back along both streets?  Between 1903 and 1930, that’s exactly what occupied this lot. Prior to 1903, it was undeveloped: Click to enlarge. Part of a c.1895 birds-eye view of the town of Waterloo, looking NE, created by the Toronto Lithographi...

The Grand Trunk Railway came to Berlin (Kitchener) in 1856, drawing the region within reach of the far-flung world, and broadening its cultural, commercial and industrial potential. In Waterloo, the land made available by the 1855 Hoffman survey (see the blog post  Mary Allen Beginnings, Part 1 ) meant that commercial and industrial enterprise could now gain a better foothold. The population increased to more than 1,200 by 1861, and would continue to grow steadily into the thousands during the late nineteenth century. Click to enlarge, then open image in new tab for full size. Part of Tremaine's Map of the County of Waterloo, Canada West, 1861. By the mid-1800s, Berlin and Waterloo were surrounded by subdivided farm lots. One undivided lot, “Saml. S Snider” (circled), shows the size of the original, nearly 450-acre lots as created in 1805. Streets shown include Erb (1), Albert (2) and King (3), as well as Mary and John in the future Mary-Allen neighbourhood (4). ...