You’re invited to a
Join City Councillor Sarah Marsh to talk about traffic on Lancaster Street (from Victoria Street to Weber Street), including:
An update about the city’s new creative traffic calming policy
A chance to identify issues and voice your concerns
An opportunity to suggest short-term and long-term solutions
Tuesday, April 21
6 – 8 p.m.
Bethany Church, 160 Lancaster Street East
No anecdote is too small.
Contact: Sandy at SIRG (519) 884-0710 ext. 5232
Researchers (Dr. Ginette Lafrenière and Dr. Sandy Hoy) at Wilfrid Laurier University are collecting stories, anecdotes, memories, photos and artifacts associated with the House of Refuge to develop an online museum exhibit and tell the story of a forgotten part of Waterloo Region’s history. Your contribution can be kept confidential or be shared at your discretion.
If you are interested in contributing to this project through sharing information or artifacts, please contact Sandy at the Social Innovation Research Group (SIRG) at: 519-884-0710, ext. 5232 or: shoy@wlu.ca. Please contact us by September 2015.
The Research Ethics Board at Wilfrid Laurier University has reviewed and approved this project. If you feel you have concerns about this study, or your rights as a participant in research have been violated during the course of this project, you may contact Dr. Robert Basso, Chair, University Research Ethics Board, Wilfrid Laurier University, (519) 884-0710, extension 4994, or rbasso@wlu.ca. Approval #4418
Our neighbourhood had one of the first Houses of Industry and Refuge in Ontario. It was on Frederick Street directly in front where the A.R. Goudie long term care facility stands today (just behind the Frederick Street Mall).
The Waterloo County House of Industry and Refuge provided room and board to people who were called “inmates” (the poor and other people without a place to live who needed its services).
Between 1869 and 1907 if someone died and wasn’t claimed by their family, they were buried in a field nearby. That is estimated to be more than 260 people. Some of them can be found in this online registry.
One of those graveyards is in the area covered by the Central Frederick Neighbourhood Association. Researchers believe it was about where the block bordered by Dunham Avenue, Mansion, Indiana and Victoria streets now is. Many of those people buried in this graveyard are likely still there as the site was neglected and forgotten. A second graveyard is about behind where the Polish Legion is now on Wellington Street.
The Waterloo Region Record has published several pieces on this piece of neighbourhood history. See links below to learn more.
There is already an initiative underway to build a memorial for the residents of the Waterloo County House of Industry and Refuge in these unmarked graves. The location and other details are still being determined.
The CFNA Executive has voted to be supportive of this initiative and offer our assistance including possibly making a financial contribution to the memorial.
Interested in being involved? Please contact us and we’ll connect you with the process to remember those people who died.
We’re not aware of any questions or concerns from people living on or near the block which is about where the graves may be. But if you have any, if you would like our help please contact us so we can have your questions answered or concerns addressed by the right government staff.
Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
“For over a century, they’ve been buried underneath city streets, sidewalks and backyards — out of sight and long forgotten. And that bothers Darryl Bonk.
The local heritage advocate is behind a project to memorialize over 260 people who were interred in unmarked graves prior to 1907, in two lost graveyards near what’s now the intersection of Victoria Street and the Conestoga Parkway.”
“After spending decades forgotten by history, the people buried in Kitchener’s lost “poor house” graves may soon be getting some public recognition.
Region of Waterloo chair Ken Seiling and Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic support the idea of a permanent memorial for an estimated 260 residents of the old County of Waterloo’s House of Industry and Refuge, who died more than a century ago and were buried in unmarked pauper’s graves.”
“There are calls — and rightly so — to build a memorial to recognize the hundreds of destitute people who died while in the Waterloo County poorhouse, and were buried in unmarked graves that have long since been built over.
But what was it like for the county’s poor, disabled and abandoned people to live in the House of Industry and Refuge?”
Central Frederick Neighbourhood Association 