Heritage designation sought for Kitchener industrial landmark
Heritage designation is being recommended for a Kitchener industrial landmark.
Heritage Kitchener members voted Tuesday to pursue designation for the 1913 portion of the former Rumpel Felt Company building at 60 Victoria St. N.
The vacant three-storey brick building with the company name painted in black and white above the entrance is owned by the Region of Waterloo and will form part of the planned transit hub at King and Victoria streets.
The heritage committee also recommended designation for two other properties — the Ukrainian Catholic Church of the Transfiguration on Victoria Street South at Bramm Street, and a Queen Annestyle home at the corner of Courtland Avenue West and David Street.
Designation under the Ontario Heritage Act helps to ensure a property’s conservation, and recognizes its value as a heritage asset.
City council will ultimately vote on designation for the properties at upcoming meetings.
The region supports the designation of the historic Rumpel Felt building, and plans to include it in a mixed-use development accompanying the transit hub, said manager of projects Laurie Wells.
That phase is expected to be three to four years away, Wells said. The designation would only apply to the 1913 portion, and not later additions.
The property is listed on the city’s heritage register and is considered “a representative example of the vernacular industrial architectural style within the city,” said city heritage planner Jessica Vieira.
A city report said Rumpel Felt was originally founded as the Berlin Felt & Boot Company on an adjacent property in 1875, and ceased production in 2007.
“I think it’s wonderful to see the region coming forward and asking to have the 1913 building designated,” said Heritage Kitchener chair Jean Haalboom.
“It’s very positive.”
The Ukrainian Catholic Church at 131 Victoria St. S. dates from 1926.
City heritage planner Deeksha Choudhry said it displays “a modest vernacular example of the Ukrainian baroque architectural style with influences from the Byzantine architectural style.”
Distinctive exterior features include a bronze, pear-shaped dome and rooftop cupola.
Inside, a project in the late 1970s added a series of 18 Byzantine icons by artist Mykola Bidniak, who learned to paint with his mouth after losing his hands as a teen.
The Queen Anne home at 35 Courtland Ave. W., at the entrance to Victoria Park, dates to between 1900 and 1907, according to a report.
The two-and-a-half-storey home features decorative red brick details, a pyramidal turret and a wraparound veranda.
Architectural elements including the turret and veranda “were strategically designed to complement the corner lot on which the property was built,” Choudhry said.
It was originally owned by Christian Asmussen, a local builder and contractor, and later by Edwin B. Dunke, a grocer who lived in the home for more than 50 years.