The Erb-Kumpf House (also known as the Kumpf House and the Abraham Erb House) is a two-storey house located on 172 King Street South in

Waterloo Waterloo most commonly refers to: * Battle of Waterloo, a battle on 18 June 1815 in which Napoleon met his final defeat * Waterloo, Belgium, where the battle took place. Waterloo may also refer to: Other places Antarctica *King George Island (S ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. The oldest portion of the house was constructed circa 1812 by

Abraham Erb Abraham Erb (12 July 17726 September 1830), sometimes called the founder of Waterloo, Ontario, was the first Mennonite settler from Pennsylvania. His brother John is considered the founder of the Preston community in Cambridge, Ontario. Abraham ...

, the founder of Waterloo, likely making it the oldest home or one of the oldest homes in the city. In 1979, the Erb-Kumpf House was designated as a heritage home under the

Ontario Heritage Act The ''Ontario Heritage Act'', (the ''Act'') first enacted on March 5, 1975, allows municipalities and the provincial government to designate individual properties and districts in the Province of Ontario, Canada, as being of cultural heritage ...

by the City of Waterloo. the house is occupied by the Oldfield, Greaves, D'Agostino, Billo & Nowak

law firm A law firm is a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. The primary service rendered by a law firm is to advise clients (individuals or corporations) about their legal rights and responsibilities, and to r ...

History

Background

Abraham Erb, the original architect of the house, came to the settlement that would become Waterloo from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania in 1806, settling on Lots 14 and 15 of the German Company Tract. Erb first built a

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...

Laurel Creek Laurel Creek is a river in Delaware County, New York. It flows into the Roods Creek Roods Creek is a river in Delaware County, New York. It begins just south of Cannonsville Reservoir and flows south into Crystal Lake. After exiting Crystal Lak ...

(then Beaver Creek) in 1808 and built a

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the Mill (grinding), grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist i ...

on Laurel Creek in 1816. He also decided that he would build his home on what is now King Street/Waterloo Regional Road 15 (then the main road in a small community).

Construction and ownership

Abraham Erb built his home south of Laurel Creek and facing the

mills Mills is the plural form of mill, but may also refer to: As a name *Mills (surname), a common family name of English or Gaelic origin * Mills (given name) *Mills, a fictional British secret agent in a trilogy by writer Manning O'Brine Places Unit ...

he had previously built. Erb chose the location because of its access to the road and because it sat on a hill, making the house slightly elevated from the surrounding land. He owned and resided in the house until his death in 1830, when the house was passed onto his wife Magdalena Erb, who then passed the house onto her and Abraham's adopted son Benjamin Devitt in 1835. Devitt oversaw renovations made to the house in 1849. The house was then passed onto Elias Snider and after that passed onto John Hoffman, who renovated the house in 1855, adding a second-storey front

balcony A balcony (from it, balcone, "scaffold") is a platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade, usually above the ground floor. Types The traditional Maltese balcony is ...

and an ornate. The house came into possession of Christian Kumpf, a German-born Ontarian politician, in 1869. Christian served as mayor of Waterloo from 1879 to 1880 and from 1888 to 1889. He also owned the ''

Waterloo Chronicle Waterloo most commonly refers to: * Battle of Waterloo, a battle on 18 June 1815 in which Napoleon met his final defeat * Waterloo, Belgium, where the battle took place. Waterloo may also refer to: Other places Antarctica * King George Island ( ...

'' newspaper, was one of the founders of Dominion Life Assurance Company (later acquired by

Manulife Manulife Financial Corporation (also known as Financière Manuvie in Quebec) is a Canadian multinational insurance company and financial services provider headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. The company operates in Canada and Asia as "Manulife" an ...

) and one of their first vice presidents, and served as Waterloo's

postmaster A postmaster is the head of an individual post office, responsible for all postal activities in a specific post office. When a postmaster is responsible for an entire mail distribution organization (usually sponsored by a national government), ...

for 42 years from 1862 until his death in 1904. In 1899, Christian sold the house to his son Ford Kumpf, who had been born in the house in 1877. Ford served as the Treasurer of Waterloo and the Clerk and Manager of the Water and Light Commission, served as the President of the Waterloo Red Cross Society and the Dominion Life Assurance Company, and was a reporter for the '' Waterloo Citizen''. He also extensively involved himself in the Waterloo community by helping raise funds and volunteering in

community project A community project is a term applied to any community-based project. This covers a wide variety of different areas within a community or a group of networking entities. Projects can cover almost anything, including the most obvious section of conce ...

s. The house remained in the Kumpf family until 1973, after which it briefly became a

furniture Furniture refers to movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., stools, chairs, and sofas), eating (tables), storing items, eating and/or working with an item, and sleeping (e.g., beds and hammocks). Fu ...

showroom A plumbing fixture showroom, Canada, 1921 A showroom, also referred to as a gallery, is a large space used to display products, entertainment or visual arts. Marketing location A showroom is a large space used to display products for sale, suc ...

and then a law firm office, which it remains to this day. On February 19, 1979, the house was designated a heritage home by the City of Waterloo under the Ontario Heritage Act due to its

historical significance Historical significance is a historiographical key concept that explores and seeks to explain the selection of particular social and cultural past events for remembrance by human societies. This element of selection involved in both ascribing and ...

. Sometime after 1979, the house was once again renovated.

Architecture

The Erb-Kumpf House has a mixed architectural style due to the numerous renovations made over the course of the house's history. The house has

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

six-over-six

window A window is an opening in a wall, door, roof, or vehicle that allows the exchange of light and may also allow the passage of sound and sometimes air. Modern windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent materia ...

s, as well as a

Regency A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...

façade A façade () (also written facade) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a Loanword, loan word from the French language, French (), which means 'frontage' or 'face'. In architecture, the façade of a building is often t ...

with two wings, Treillage, a

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

bargeboard Bargeboard (probably from Medieval Latin ''bargus'', or ''barcus'', a scaffold, and not from the now obsolete synonym "vergeboard") or rake fascia is a board fastened to each projecting gable of a roof to give it strength and protection, and to ...

, and

Doric columns The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of col ...

References

Houses in Waterloo, Ontario History of Waterloo, Ontario Residential buildings completed in 1812 Georgian architecture in Canada Regency architecture in Canada

History

Background

Construction and ownership

Architecture

See also

References