Cover paintings by Barbara McLeod
The Historic Buildings of New Hamburg and the People Who Lived in Them
ABOUT THE BOOKS
These books serve to raise awareness of our built heritage and emphasize their valuable place in a thriving community. To regard these properties as part of a continuum encourages owners to treat them with respect and care, hopefully to endure for another 100 years. Marie, Kristen, and Ernie have spent years poring over primary sources, knocking on doors, tracking down owners, documenting structures, and combing through photographs—all to ensure that their final product is accurate and enlightening. It will be treasured for generations to come.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
MARIE VOISIN is a writer, historian, and the author of William Scott and his Extended Family. She has been deeply involved with local heritage preservation and documentation for thirty years. Marie was the winner of the 2017 ACO Peter Stokes Restoration Award, 2024 Wilmot Citizen of the Year Award: Culture, and volunteers with the New Hamburg Legion's Honour our Veterans Banner Project, celebrating the service of over 200 men and women.
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KRISTEN HAHN is a writer, indexer, and editor. With a lifelong involvement with the printed word, she was an independent bookseller for 20 years and the owner of Upper Case Books from 2004 until 2013. Winner of the 2007 Wilmot Citizen of the Year Award: Culture, Kristen was the director of the 2005 and 2007 Harry Potter Festival, and is featured in Kessler and Chen’s book, Overtime: Portraits of a Vanishing Canada (2017).
ERNIE RITZ is a historian and the author of New Hamburg as it Really Was. He served with the RCAF from 1943 to 1945, was the editor and publisher of the New Hamburg Independent, and has the distinction of being the last mayor of New Hamburg and first mayor of Wilmot Township. Honours include the Ontario Heritage Society Lifetime Achievement Award and induction into the Waterloo County Hall of Fame. He was conferred with the Queen’s Jubilee Medal in 2012. He passed away in 2024 just weeks shy of his 99th birthday.