Carl "Charles" Knechtel

Other Events:

• Name: Charles Knechtel
• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-29315
• Residence: 1871, Wilmot Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Lutheran
• Residence: 1881, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Lutheran
• Occupation: 1891, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Machinist
• Residence: 1891, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Lutheran
• Occupation: 1901, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Architect
• Occupation: 1911, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Architect
• Residence: 1911, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Lutheran

Notes:

FLASH FROM THE PAST: Victoria Park's first 'comfort station'

By Jon Fear

Early visitors to Victoria Park in Kitchener somehow did without public washrooms for the first 14 years of the park's existence.

But in 1910 when the town of Berlin (soon to be renamed Kitchener in 1916) got around to building them, it took pains to do a first-rate job.

"Finest of its Kind in Canada," a Berlin News Record headline said on June 7, 1910. "New Comfort Station One of the Most Complete in Canada," the Berlin Daily Telegraph agreed....The building's architect was Charles Knechtel. He also designed the original Victoria Park pavilion, which was destroyed by fire in 1916.

A newspaper account from 1910 describes the comfort station building as having the shape of a Maltese cross and featuring an interior with terrazzo flooring, enamelled brick walls and an ornamental metal ceiling.

"The building is divided into two compartments, one for men, the other for women. The latter has a large rest room in connection, splendidly equipped with mission furniture, easy chair, rockers and coach and a writing table. The furniture for this is from the Krug factory and cost $85."....

Waterloo Region Record 28 Jun 2014

_____________________

KNECHTEL, Charles (1869-1951), son of Jonas Knechtel of Berlin, was born in Mannheim, Waterloo County, Ont. on 22 November 1869 and attended Central School in Berlin (now Kitchener). He did not receive a formal education in architecture but instead gained his knowledge of design and construction from his father whom he worked with from 1886 until the death of the latter in 1894. Knechtel then opened his own office in Berlin in 1895 and continued to practise there until after 1930. He died in Kitchener on 5 October 1951 (obituary in the Kitchener-Waterloo Record, 5 Oct. 1951, 7; inf. Ontario Association of Architects). The Region of Waterloo Archives in Kitchener, Ont. holds a collection of over 800 original drawings by Jonas Knechtel and by Charles Knechtel dating from 1893 to 1943 (Fonds - JCK Coll.).

Knechtel, Charles | Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada. (2020). Dictionaryofarchitectsincanada.org. Retrieved 6 January 2020, from https://dictionaryofarchitectsincanada.org/node/223

Carl — Ernestine Schlegel. Ernestine (daughter of Johann Albrecht "John" Schlegel and Elizabeth Gremm) was born 21 Jun 1872, Bamberg, Wellesley Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; died 6 May 1958, Heidelberg, Wellesley Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; was buried 9 May 1958, Woodland Cem., Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Name: Mildred Elizabeth Leicht
• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-237812
• Residence: 1911, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Lutheran

Mildred — Clarence A. Leicht. Clarence was born 1892; died 1966; was buried , Woodland Cem., Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-176612
• Residence: 1911, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Lutheran

Notes:

Just days after World War One was declared, three young Berlin men (Fred Bolton, Alan Smith and John Ferguson) toppled the bust of Kaiser Wilhelm I from the Friedensfest Denkmal (Peace Memorial) in Victoria Park and dumped it into the lake. It was recovered the next morning by three teens (brothers Clayton and Gordon Maier & Otto Knechtel) and given to the Concordia Society for safekeeping in its closed meeting hall.


Kitchener100.ca (2012)

Other Events:

• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-176613
• Residence: 1911, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Lutheran

Carl — Jerene Hallie Betzner. Jerene (daughter of Josiah B. Betzner and Mary Pamelia Moyer) was born 28 Apr 1896, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; died 23 Mar 1994, Woodstock, Oxford Co., Ontario, Canada; was buried , Woodland Cem., Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Name: Dorothy Louise Campbell
• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-176614
• Residence: 1911, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Lutheran

Dorothy — Ross Campbell. [Group Sheet]