The Breithaupt Block
Status message Project The Lang Tannery has been updated. View(active tab) Edit Revisions Clone content The Lang Tannery Historical Industrial Brownfield Development Brick Repair & Restoration
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Philip Louis, took over operating a tannery from his father, who 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 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.
The leather 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.
Mora Masonry maintained the integrity of the history of the building in the creation of a new elevator tower, and preserved the interior with sandblasting and repairs to restore the original interior brickwork.
