Street has links to politics and mystery
Keen Flash from the Past readers may recall a photograph I used 15 months ago during the controversy over the demolition of Kitchener’s Mayfair Hotel.
This week’s scene was shot from the same location (King and Young), on the same 1927 day, by the same photographer, Ernest Denton. The camera, however, has rotated 90 degrees. From the right we see the Windsor Hotel (note the fire escape ladders) then under the marquee below Sturm’s Bowling Club are Carroll’s Grocery Store and Thorman’s Meat Market at street level. In the distance is the spire of the Swedenborgian church at King and Water.
This stretch of King West between Young and College now opens onto Carl Zehr Square in front of city hall. It’s recently been in the news as council moves to upgrade the square.
As this photo proves that section of King once prominently displayed an earlier mayor’s name spread out across the top of the tall BOWLING sign.
Henry Sturm’s list of connections and accomplishments from the 1920s to 1950s is so impressive that the Waterloo Region Hall of Famer is still honoured almost a century later by Henry Strum Greenway, running from Victoria Park to Monarch Woods. Kitchener’s original Highway 8 truck diversion route — a precursor to the Conestoga Parkway — was once named Henry Sturm Boulevard but it no longer exists. Who was Henry Sturm? For all his influence on, and contributions to, Kitchener, he was born in Waterloo. Christian Sturm had emigrated from Germany in the early 1880s. On June 10, 1884, Henry was born at the family home on Union Street near Willow. Twelve years later, Henry was earning $1.75 for a10-hour day at Kreiner’s Furniture factory in Berlin. Four years later, his day was 18 hours at Waterloo Woolen Company and he made $8.50 a week. Brother Morris ran a barbershop-cum-pool hall in Waterloo and took Henry on as an unofficial apprentice. In 1907, Henry moved to Berlin, barbering at the town’s leading tonsorial parlour owned by George DeBus. Henry cut the hair and shaved the faces of Berlin’s movers and shakers for years before buying the Imperial Billiard Parlour. Bowling’s popularity was on the upswing in the early 1920s and when a new building was erected beside the Brunswick Hotel, Henry Sturm jumped on the bowling bandwagon.
In 1923, he was elected as one of 15 Kitchener aldermen. Until 1953, when failing eyesight forced retirement, he served almost continuously, including two years as mayor (1933-1934). Among the many projects Henry spearheaded were Rockway Golf Course, Kitchener Memorial Auditorium, Depression relief schemes, and the formation of the Ontario Municipal Association. His first aldermanic success was forcing King Street businesses to remove overheard verandas and porches. Hotel owners were furious but he won. In Denton’s photo, notice the outline of the removed porch around the middle second-floor window.
Henry was the original sports nut — a founder of both the Senior and Junior Intercounty Baseball associations; secretarytreasurer of the Ontario Hockey Association in Kitchener; president of the Twin City Football Association; and one of the best five-pin bowlers in K-W.
Family? He and wife Lavina Ferrier had four children, two of each. Margaret Sturm, while attending collegiate, was already a talented writer and edited the Grumbler yearbook. When she met Ken Millar, the pair became a lifelong writing duo, each producing dozens of books and becoming among the top mid-century mystery writers in the United States. Ken assumed the name Ross Macdonald and created the private detective Lew Archer: she wrote as Margaret Millar.
Ernest Denton’s photo this week serves as an invitation to attend the next meeting of the K-W Post Card Club on November 9 at the Victoria Park pavilion. Karen BallPyatt, archivist and local historian at the Kitchener Public Library is featured speaker. Her research into Ernest Denton over the past few years has rescued Denton and his work from obscurity. All are welcome and there is no admission charge. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., program at 7:30.