Waterloo Public Library Digital Collections

J. Letter and Son Furniture, Waterloo, Ontario

Description

Media Type

Image

Item Type

Photographs

Description

Copy of a photograph of the interior of the J. Letter and Son furniture store at 38 (now 40) King Street south. Note the furniture and chairs, light fixtures, ceiling moulding and pictures on the walls. John Letter at left and his son Norman on the right.

Notes

In 1898 J. Letter and Son is listed as a contractor. The J. Letter and Son furniture store opened November 28, 1907, on what was later 38, now 40 King Street south, beside the railroad tracks. An attached undertaking business started a few months later on July 1, 1908. John's son Norman ran the businesses with his father. Norman took over the business after his father's death in 1925 and renamed it N.H. Letter, Funeral Directors and Home Furnishers. By 1927 the business had moved to 46 and 48 King Street north, closer to Princess Street.
Norman's son, Howard worked with his father in the businesses, which moved to 116 King Street north at the corner of Spring Street in the 1930s where the sign read "Letter's and Dreisinger's Undertaking". The business was associated with C. Dreisinger Furniture and Undertaking in Elmira.
The business closed in 1943 upon the retirement of Norman Letter and the building was changed back into a residence for Norman and his wife Lydia. The building was demolished in the 1970s and the land sold.

See Waterloo Historical Society Journal, Volume 92, 2004.

Inscriptions

Written at bottom; "J. Letter and Son 1909".

Date of Original

1909

Date Of Event

1909

Dimensions