The Grace Schmidt Room of Local History

How Old is My House?

Step One: Determine how much information you want to find, e.g., enough to establish a construction date or enough to evaluate the architectural style etc.

Step Two: Determine the geographic location of the property (legal land description) i.e., the municipality & the street and lot number, or concession and lot number.

Step Three: Search the house for physical evidence of its age (look for a date stone or check its architectural style). Check for written records such as a deed or title search.

Research Aids:

1. City and County directories

City directories for Kitchener and Waterloo have a street index (pink pages) which can be used to trace a building. These books will also give the name of the owner or tenant. Watch for street name changes and house number changes.

The county directories do not have street indices. There are sections for each municipality, with an alphabetical list of the householders.

2. Heritage Kitchener (Kitchener LACAC) Inventories

LACAC stands for “Local Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee”. LACACs advise their municipal councils about the heritage buildings or districts within their jurisdiction.

The GSR collection has copies of several inventories prepared by Heritage Kitchener (formerly Kitchener LACAC). An index, arranged by address is available:

gsr 728.370971345 Inventory of Heritage Buildings /
Local Index Index of Properties Designated

The index will tell you if the building is listed in an inventory or if it has been designated under the Ontario Heritage Act. The list itself is getting dated. For up-to-date information, the researcher should contact the City of Kitchener’s Heritage Planner, Leon Bensason
(741-2306 or leon.bensason@city.kitchener.on.ca).

Examining these inventories will often reveal the age of other buildings on the same street.

3. Newspapers:

The Berliner Journal had a regular column about “Progress in Berlin” from 1873 until 1903. These articles have been translated into English and are kept in a file box in the GSR (near the Manuscript Collections finding aids).

The articles are arranged by ward, & list new houses or improvements to existing homes plus the value of the property. New businesses were also listed.

Three building lists for Waterloo are available: 1900, 1901, 1902, as well as Preston: 1895, 1896, and Elmira 1887.

Year end editions of newspapers often reported upon houses under construction. Sale notices usually included house descriptions, and would be worth checking in the time period of the house. An obituary of the owner might provide a date to search for a sale notice.

4. Ontario Inventory of Buildings:

The Waterloo Historical Society began documenting information about historic buildings in Waterloo County in the mid 1960s and 1970s.

The following inventories were done for each township are kept in the WHS archives, in Moveable Shelving Unit, Aisle H.

Waterloo Township
- Waterloo Township (incomplete) – dated 1968,1970
- Kitchener (Collishaw) – date 1978
- Waterloo (city) – inventory dated 1968 & 1970 (2 copies)
- inventory dated 1975
- Bridgeport – inventory dated, 1975, 1976, 1980

Wilmot Township
- New Hamburg – inventory dated 1969 (2 copies)
- inventory dated 1975
- Wilmot Township – Block B inventory dated 1972
- Wilmot Township – Snider’s Road, Erb’s Road inventory dated
1972, 1973
- Wilmot Township – inventory updated 1975

Woolwich Township
There are three files available, one organized into a cover dated 1968, & two in file folders dated 1968 & 1969. These included buildings from Elmira and St. Jacobs.

North Dumfries Township
- Galt – inventory dated 1968, 1969, 1971
- North Dumfries & Galt – another inventory dated 1968, 1969
- North Dumfries – Concession 7 & 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 all have individual folders
- Ayr – inventory dated 1974 – also loose sheets dates 1975

Wellesley Township
Only preliminary work on a building inventory for Wellesley is available. There is a binder with information based on the 1851 census & 1861 Tremaine Map. Another map shows the approximate location of buildings in the township based on the 1861 census & the Tremaine Map.

5. Assessment Records

Assessment rolls are arranged by municipality or township. Each
year property was assessed for tax purposes. When viewed over several years, any change in the assessed value may mean a significant change to the structures on the property.

These rolls also contain the owner’s name and address, the name of a tenant (if applicable), his/her age, religious affiliation and occupation.

The earliest assessment records in the GSR are on the Gore District microfilm, for any period between 1816 & 1840. Consult the list on top of the microfilm cabinet for the surviving records for each township.

For more information about assessment records, click on the “Assessment” button in the GSR Intraweb.

6. Maps and Atlases

The Tremaine map for Waterloo County 1861 is the most useful
map for dating a building. Each lot holder is identified by name, and small black squares shows structures such as homes, schools, churches and mills. The Tremaine map has been indexed by owners’ name. Consult the following titles:

Waterloo Township:

gsr 333.30971344 Bloom
Bloomfield, Elizabeth
Waterloo Township Cadastre in 1861

Wilmot, Woolwich, Wellesley, North Dumfries Townships:

gsr 912.71344 Tre
Index to Tremaine’s Map of 1861

Fire insurance maps are another important source of building information. They were produced in Canada in the latter half of the nineteenth century and were used by fire insurance companies to determine the financial risk of insuring private homes and businesses.

The maps show the layout of streets and buildings in great detail. The size and shape of the building, as well as the construction details are included.

Fire insurance maps often have two dates, an original date and a revision date. When minor corrections were necessary, revision slips were pasted onto the original map.

7. Tweedsmuir Histories:

Women’s Institute branches in Ontario have been compiling Tweedsmuir Histories since 1938. These collections of local history material are valuable accounts of the history in rural areas of the province. Many contain farm & family histories which may include information about houses and other buildings. Several Waterloo Region Tweedsmuir Histories are available on microfilm in the GSR.

8. Photographs:

The photograph collections of both KPL and the WHS are kept in the GSR. Many family photographs include buildings in the background.

Several early histories of Berlin/Kitchener contain a section with views of prominent homes in the area.

For more helpful hints, see:

gsr/mnon 728.09713 Badon
Badone, Donalda
Complete House Detective, 1988

Other resources:

1. LACACs
There are seven LACACs in Waterloo Region, one for each city or township. Each LACAC keeps their own inventory of heritage buildings. LACACs may be reached at the appropriate municipal office – check the appropriate website.

2. Land Registry Office
30 Duke Street West, 2nd Floor
Kitchener ON N2H 3W5
571-6043

To trace the ownership of a piece of property since the first Crown grant was made, a visit to the Land Registry Office is necessary.

The lot and concession number is needed to do a land registry office search. This information should be on a deed, assessment notice ot tax bill.

For more information, consult:

mref/mgen.coll. Guide to Ontario Land Registry Records
929.3713 Guide 1994

3. Waterloo County Land Registry Copy Books
These documents contain copies of deeds and other documents affecting title to land such as mortgages and wills etc. Copy books are usually available on microfilm in local Registry Offices.

The original copy books for Waterloo County are held by the Archives of Ontario.