Postcards capture early 20th-century Waterloo

Not long ago, Flash from the Past tried to “rescue” Waterloo photographer Wendell B. Sherk from undeserved anonymity. Now, the focus is on another Waterloo camera artist, one who practised two decades before Sherk and then abandoned professional photography ... to run a cigar store.

My personal interest in Jacob G. (Jake) Doersam grew when collecting postcards of Waterloo and realizing that he published many of the best. This week and next, Jacob and his work are in the spotlight. First, enjoy three of my J.G. Doersam cards, each in a different style. Then in part two, some details on this St. Agatha native whose name became a downtown Waterloo fixture. I emphasize “name” because there was a Doersam sign on King Street until the early 1960s ... even though he died in 1912.

Scene One: One of Waterloo’s most familiar buildings stands at Albert and Erb West — the early home of Mutual Life Assurance/ Insurance Company (bottom right photo). It was home until the even more recognizable King and Union headquarters opened in 1912. The building in Doersam’s c. 1905 postcard view looked quite different when built in 1880 but underwent modernistic renovations at the turn of the century. Following Mutual’s departure, it housed other insurance firms over the next 80 years: Canada Health and Accident, Dominion and Waterloo Mutual Fire. A different form of insurance took over in 1991 when Waterloo Regional Police moved in for two decades. In 2018, the building is part of the Communitech network. Notice Waterloo’s street-watering wagon at left.

Scene Two: The camera, probably manned by Jacob Doersam, was at the corner of Duke Street and King North looking along the streetcar tracks to Erb Street and beyond (main photo). At extreme left is a small corner of what was known as the “Insurance Building” where several of Waterloo’s insurance firms were incubated over the years. Just as in 2018, a mix of small shops fills the four two-storey structures and then comes one of the town’s largest structures: Hotel Lewis at the corner of Erb — today’s Waterloo Hotel. Along the right, numerous businesses line the sidewalk: Roesch Grocery, Conrad’s Hardware, The Apollo movie theatre, Mrs. Stenunagel’s millinery shop and Jacob Roos’ Popular Boot and Shoe Store. Atop the tall building stands the Roos advertising boot. In the right middle distance is the tall Snider mill, parts of which had been in operation since Waterloo’s birth around 1816. It was torn down in 1927.

Those ghostlike lines in this c. 1910 view aren’t flaws in the photo. Some postcard senders ran small strips of glue along lines in their postcards’ images then sprinkled sparkles on the glue, producing a shimmering effect. In this scene, the tracks and building outlines have been so treated.

Is the Duke Street reference causing confusion? Waterloo and Kitchener rationalized their street names in mid-century and whichever city had the smaller street had to change: e.g. Waterloo kept Albert, Kitchener’s became Madison; Kitchener kept Queen, Waterloo’s changed to Regina; Duke in Waterloo became Dupont. (This does not explain why both kept Young Street!)

Scene Three: Doersam moved to coloured postcards around 1910 and to him we owe this wonderful tableau of passengers and staff ready to board a Grand Trunk Railway passenger train (bottom left). All aboard for St. Jacobs and Elmira! Freight service from Berlin to Waterloo started in the late 1870s, with passenger service 20 years later. In 1910, when this modern station opened, it featured the latest GTR innovations: the American-style tile roof was the first in the province; tungsten lighting had seldom been seen in this area previously; and a baggage wicket, new to Canada, allowed baggage to be checked by passengers. Alas, in 1934 passenger service to Waterloo, St. Jacobs and Elmira ended, and for six decades the station was used for storage. Historically designated in 1995, it was then rented by Paul Puncher Men’s Clothier, which purchased the ex-station in 2010. This particular postcard was mailed in 1913 but the photograph likely dates to 1911.

In the next column, Flash from the Past introduces readers to Jacob G. Doersam, who was behind these nostalgic scenes from the Waterloo of a century-plus ago.