The Breithaupt Block
Industrial Brownfield Development Brick Repair & Restoration
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Mora Masonry maintained the integrity and the history of the building, in the careful creation of a new elevator tower, and in the preservation of the interior with brickpointing, restoration and repairs to restore the original and historical interior brickwork. The building will be the future home and engineering office for the Internet giant Google.
Philip Louis, took over operating a tannery from his father, who had founded the Breithaupt Leather Company company in 1843. Philip Louis made several trips to Waterloo County, and became acquainted with the Jacob Hailer family and Hailer’s daughter Catherine, whom he married in 1853. In 1857, Breithaupt started a tannery in Berlin (now Kitchener) with land obtained from his father-in-law Jacob Hailer. At the time of his death in 1880, Philip Louis was the Mayor of Berlin. His eldest son, Louis Jacob Breithaupt, then took over the operation of the various family businesses, including the tannery and related companies.
At the same time a Berlin builder convinced Jacob Kaufman (who later founded the Kaufman Rubber Company), A. L. Breithaupt (the son of Louis Breithaupt - who was the son of the original founder, Phillip Louis - of the Breithaupt Leather Company) and Louis Weber to invest in a plant to make rubber boots. The original Margaret Avenue rubber factory was launched with capital of $35,000. Finished in 1899, it was opened on Jan. 24, 1900.
The Berlin Rubber consortium wasn't without difficulties and three years after launching the Berlin Rubber Company, Kaufman founded the Merchants Rubber Company, which was apparently a competitor in the manufacture of rubber footwear, which he later sold in 1906 to the Canadian Consolidated Rubber Company of Montreal - this rubber manufactuing building was The Breithaupt Block.
The rubber factory closed by 1967 when leather manufacturing declined, and the Breithaupt Leather Company was sold and an era ended. The building lay idle for decades, until the space evolved in early 2000, into a brownfield redevelopment.
