Mary Allen Stories...

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 ...

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...