Baden, Ontario
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Baden ( ) is a suburban community and unincorporated place in Township of Wilmot,
Regional Municipality of Waterloo The Regional Municipality of Waterloo (Waterloo Region or Region of Waterloo) is a metropolitan area of Southern Ontario, Canada. It contains the cities of Cambridge, Ontario, Cambridge, Kitchener, Ontario, Kitchener and Waterloo, Ontario, Waterl ...
in
Southwestern Ontario Southwestern Ontario (census population 2,796,367 in 2021) is a secondary region of Southern Ontario in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. It occupies most of the Ontario Peninsula, bounded by Lake Huron (includ ...
, Canada. It was named after
Baden-Baden Baden-Baden () is a spa town in the states of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg, south-western Germany, at the north-western border of the Black Forest mountain range on the small river Oos (river), Oos, ten kilometres (six miles) east of the ...
,
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
; the approximate population as of 2015, as per township statistics, is 4,940. The area is the site of the Baden Tower, a huge television, radio, and communications tower located on top of one of the Baden Hills, which is the transmitter for
CKCO-DT CKCO-DT (channel 13) is a television station in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, part of the CTV Television Network. It is owned and operated by network parent Bell Media alongside London-based CTV 2 station CFPL-DT (channel 10), although the two ...
, the CTV affiliate for Kitchener, as well as
CFCA-FM CFCA-FM is a Canadian radio station broadcasting at 105.3 FM in Kitchener, Ontario. The station currently plays a Top 40/CHR format branded as ''105.3 Virgin Radio'' and is owned by Bell Media. CFCA's studios and offices are located in Wat ...
and
CHYM-FM CHYM-FM (96.7 MHz) is a Canadian radio station in Kitchener, Ontario. The station currently airs an adult contemporary music format using its on-air brand name as ''CHYM 96.7'' and is owned by Rogers Radio, a division of Rogers Sports & Media. ...
, which have studios in Kitchener. Much of the area consists of farmlands and pine forests are in the area. The local high school,
Waterloo-Oxford District Secondary School Waterloo-Oxford District Secondary School is a high school just outside Baden, Ontario, Canada operated by the Waterloo Region District School Board. It opened in 1955 and is one of two rural high schools in Waterloo Region, the other being Elmir ...
, is located just outside the town and the statue park Prime Ministers Path is located on the grounds adjacent to
Castle Kilbride Castle Kilbride is the former residence of James Livingston (Canadian politician), James Livingston, a Canadian member of parliament, and owner of flax and linseed oil mills. It was designated a National Historic Sites of Canada, National Histor ...
.


History

The first settler in this area was Jacob Beck in 1854; he opened a large flour mill on the Spring Creek. A second flour mill, two saw mills, a flax mill, and an iron foundry also opened in the next twenty years. The settlement was originally called Weissenburg. The village of Baden founded and established in 1855, was originally named after an old bachelor living in the area. Jacob Beck, born in the Grand Duchy of Baden-Baden, Germany, settled in the village and later renamed Baden in 1854. Baden was also the birthplace of Sir Adam Beck, founder of Ontario's public hydroelectric system. By 1864, the town had school and its population was 400. A historical plaque near Baden honours Christian Nafziger, an
Amish Mennonite Amish Mennonites came into existence through reform movements among North American Amish mainly between 1862 and 1878. These Amish moved away from the old Amish traditions and drew near to the Mennonites, becoming Mennonites of Amish origin. Over ...
from Munich, Germany, who arrived in 1822 with about seventy families. With assistance from local Mennonites, he was able to obtain the "German Block" (now Wilmot Township) from the government; many other Amish from Europe settled here. Baden is home to the historic
Castle Kilbride Castle Kilbride is the former residence of James Livingston (Canadian politician), James Livingston, a Canadian member of parliament, and owner of flax and linseed oil mills. It was designated a National Historic Sites of Canada, National Histor ...
, built in 1877 by James Livingston, co-founder of a successful linseed oil company, who went on to represent the area in the
Legislative Assembly of Ontario The Legislative Assembly of Ontario (OLA; ) is the legislative chamber of the Canadian province of Ontario. Its elected members are known as Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs). Bills passed by the Legislative Assembly are given royal as ...
and the
House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada () is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Monarchy of Canada#Parliament (King-in-Parliament), Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the Bicameralism, bicameral legislature of Ca ...
. The home was designed by architect David W. Gingerich, who also designed major projects such as the Mutual Life office block, the Waterloo Town Hall, and the governor's (jailer's) house at the Waterloo County Gaol. In 1993, Castle Kilbride was purchased and restored by Wilmot Township, which spent $6.2 million on the project. The castle was designated a
National Historic Site of Canada National Historic Sites of Canada () are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment on the advice of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC), as being of national historic significance. Parks C ...
in 1994 and Wilmot Township's administrative offices and council chamber are housed in an addition to the original building. Baden was also the home town of Sir
Adam Beck Sir Adam Beck (June 20, 1857 – August 15, 1925) was a Canadian politician and hydroelectricity advocate who founded the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario. Biography Beck was born in Baden, Canada West to German immigrants, Ja ...
, who went on to pioneer hydroelectric power, the visible results being the generation plants located in Niagara Falls. Beck has a park named after him in his hometown, as well as an elementary school within the
Waterloo Region District School Board Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB, known as English-language Public District School Board No. 24 prior to 1999) is the public school board for the Region of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. It operates 105 elementary schools, 16 secondar ...
.


Prime Ministers Path

Baden is home to Prime Ministers Path, a series of
bronze sculpture Bronze is the most popular metal for Casting (metalworking), cast metal sculptures; a cast bronze sculpture is often called simply "a bronze". It can be used for statues, singly or in groups, reliefs, and small statuettes and figurines, as w ...
s of
Canadian prime ministers The prime minister of Canada () is the head of government of Canada. Under the Westminster system, the prime minister governs with the confidence of a majority of the elected House of Commons; as such, the prime minister typically sits as a ...
, designed to have visitors explore the history of the country since
Canadian Confederation Canadian Confederation () was the process by which three British North American provinces—the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick—were united into one federation, called the Name of Canada#Adoption of Dominion, Dominion of Ca ...
. The privately funded project was conceived of as a
Canada 150 The 150th anniversary of Canada, also known as the 150th anniversary of Confederation and promoted by the Government of Canada, Canadian government as Canada 150, occurred in 2017 as Canada marked the sesquicentennial of Canadian Confederati ...
project and has been met with repeated controversy. It was unanimously approved by Wilmot Township councillors in 2016 after attempts to install it in Kitchener's Victoria Park and on the campus of
Wilfrid Laurier University Wilfrid Laurier University (commonly referred to as WLU or simply Laurier) is a Public university, public university in Ontario, Canada, with campuses in Waterloo, Ontario, Waterloo, Brantford, Ontario, Brantford and Milton, Ontario, Milton. The ...
failed after public push back about the appropriateness of the project. As of June 2020, statues of
Robert Borden Sir Robert Laird Borden (June 26, 1854 – June 10, 1937) was a Canadian lawyer and Conservative Party of Canada (1867–1942), Conservative politician who served as the eighth prime minister of Canada from 1911 to 1920. He is best known ...
,
Kim Campbell Avril Phaedra Douglas "Kim" Campbell (born March 10, 1947) is a Canadian politician who was the 19th prime minister of Canada from June to November 1993. Campbell is the first and only female prime minister of Canada. Prior to becoming the f ...
,
William Lyon Mackenzie King William Lyon Mackenzie King (December 17, 1874 – July 22, 1950) was a Canadian statesman and politician who was the tenth prime minister of Canada for three non-consecutive terms from 1921 to 1926, 1926 to 1930, and 1935 to 1948. A Liberal ...
,
John A. Macdonald Sir John Alexander Macdonald (10 or 11January 18156June 1891) was the first prime minister of Canada, serving from 1867 to 1873 and from 1878 until his death in 1891. He was the dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, and had a political ...
, and
Lester B. Pearson Lester Bowles Pearson (23 April 1897 – 27 December 1972) was a Canadian politician, diplomat, statesman, and scholar who served as the 14th prime minister of Canada from 1963 to 1968. He also served as Leader of the Liberal Party of C ...
have been installed. Several of the designs include
Easter eggs Easter eggs, also called Paschal eggs, are eggs that are Egg decorating, decorated for the Christian holiday of Easter, which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. As such, Easter eggs are commonly used during the season of Eastertide (Easter ...
as nods to notable events or aspects of a prime minister's life. The statue of Sir John A. Macdonald, the first to be installed, was put in place June 2016. Titled 'A Canadian Conversation', the piece was sculpted by Wilmot artist Ruth Abernethy. It had previously been installed on the Laurier campus, but was removed and relocated after concerns were raised about Macdonald's role in creating the
Canadian Indian residential school system The Canadian Indian residential school system was a network of boarding schools for Indigenous peoples. The network was funded by the Canadian government's Department of Indian Affairs and administered by various Christian churches. The sch ...
. Controversy regarding the statue project was raised again in June 2020, following the dousing of Macdonald's statue in red paint, an act that coincided with the celebration of
National Indigenous Peoples Day National Indigenous Peoples Day (; formerly National Aboriginal Day) is a day recognizing and celebrating the cultures and contributions of the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Indigenous peoples of Canada. The day was first celebrated in 199 ...
. A statue of Macdonald had been vandalized with red paint the week prior in
Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island Charlottetown is the capital and largest city of the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island, and the county seat of Queens County. Named after Queen Charlotte, Charlottetown was an unincorporated town until it was incorporated as a city in ...
. The incidents followed a number of similar occurrences across North America tied to calls for the removal of monuments and memorials following the
murder of George Floyd On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black American man, was murdered in Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old White police officer. Floyd had been arrested after a store clerk reported that he made a purchase using a c ...
in
Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...
,
Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...
. Wilmot mayor, Les Armstrong, defended the Prime Ministers Path expressing frustration with people who failed to do their research about Macdonald, noting the prime minister had a number of
Indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology) In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often populari ...
friends. Statue creator Ruth Abernathy acknowledged the incident raised important questions about who is deemed worthy of a statue, but cautioned against "sanitizing public spaces".
Cree The Cree, or nehinaw (, ), are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people, numbering more than 350,000 in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada, First Nations. They live prim ...
-
Métis The Métis ( , , , ) are a mixed-race Indigenous people whose historical homelands include Canada's three Prairie Provinces extending into parts of Ontario, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and the northwest United States. They ha ...
educator Lori Campbell challenged the ability of public statues to raise awareness about history due to lack of contextual information. Campbell positioned museums as better and safer spaces for these types of installations, calling their presence in open spaces "painful".


Amenities

The Region of Waterloo Library operates a branch at 115 Snyder's Road East, beside the community mailboxes.


Local religious congregations

*Steinmann Mennonite Church *Wilmot Mennonite Church *St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church


Transportation

The
Grand Trunk Railway The Grand Trunk Railway (; ) was a Rail transport, railway system that operated in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and in the List of states and territories of the United States, American sta ...
originally built its rail line to Southwestern Ontario in the mid-19th century, with a station in Baden, which existed until at least the 1950s. This line still exists as the CN Guelph Subdivision, which runs from the Park Street bridge in Kitchener (continuing east as the
Metrolinx Metrolinx is a transportation agency in Ontario, Canada. It is a Crown agency that manages and integrates road and public transportation in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA). It was created as the Greater Toronto Transportation Au ...
Guelph Subdivision) to London Junction in London, Ontario, where it connects to the CN Dundas Subdivision immediately after crossing over the CP Galt Subdivision. Baden is the location of a
rail siding In rail terminology, a siding is a low-speed track section distinct from a running line or through route such as a main line, branch line, or spur. It may connect to through track or to other sidings at either end. Sidings often have lighter r ...
on the Guelph Subdivision, as well as an industrial
spur A spur is a metal tool designed to be worn in pairs on the heels of riding boots for the purpose of directing a horse or other animal to move forward or laterally while riding. It is usually used to refine the riding aids (commands) and to ba ...
constructed by Pestell Group. Baden is not currently served by passenger rail, though Wilmot Township has set aside land for a possible future
GO Transit GO Transit is a regional public transit system serving the Greater Golden Horseshoe region of Ontario, Canada. With its hub at Union Station in Toronto, GO Transit's green-and-white trains and buses serve a population of more than seven mil ...
layover facility and station in Baden. The nearest passenger station is
Kitchener station Kitchener station is a railway station located in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, slightly to the northeast of downtown Kitchener, at 126 Weber Street West, near the corner of Victoria Street. It is a heritage building containing a waiting room and t ...
, which is served by both
Via Rail Via Rail Canada Inc. (), operating as Via Rail or Via (stylized as VIA Rail), is a Canadian Crown corporation that operates intercity passenger rail service in Canada. As of December 2023, Via Rail operates 406 trains per week across eight ...
'' Corridor'' and
GO Transit GO Transit is a regional public transit system serving the Greater Golden Horseshoe region of Ontario, Canada. With its hub at Union Station in Toronto, GO Transit's green-and-white trains and buses serve a population of more than seven mil ...
Kitchener line Kitchener is one of the seven passenger lines of the GO Transit system in the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada. It extends westward from Union Station in Toronto to Kitchener, though most trains originate and terminate in Brampton in off-p ...
trains.


See also

*
List of unincorporated communities in Ontario The following is a list of unincorporated area, unincorporated and informal communities in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario, Canada. These communities are not independent communities, these are usually a part of a towns ...


References


External links


Township of Wilmot
{{Authority control Communities in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo Wilmot, Ontario