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Waterloo
City (lower-tier)
City of Waterloo
Uptown Waterloo Waterloo City Hall Ion rapid transit The Huether Hotel Perimeter Institute Davis Center (UofW) Seagram Lofts
Logo
Motto:  Stability
Waterloo Show map of Regional Municipality of Waterloo Waterloo Show map of Southern Ontario Waterloo Show map of Canada Waterloo Show map of Earth
Coordinates: 43°28′N 80°31′W / 43.467°N 80.517°W / 43.467; -80.517
Country	Canada
Province	Ontario
Region	Waterloo
Incorporated	May 27, 1857[1]
Government
• Mayor	Dorothy McCabe
• Governing Body	Waterloo City Council
• City CAO	Tim Anderson
• MP	Bardish Chagger (Liberal)
• MPP	Catherine Fife (ONDP)
Area [2]
• Land	64.06 km2 (24.73 sq mi)
Elevation	329 m (1,079 ft)
Population  (2021)[2]
• City (lower-tier)	121,436 (47th)
• Density	1,895.8/km2 (4,910/sq mi)
• Metro	575,847 (10th)
• Metro density	527.2/km2 (1,365/sq mi)
Demonym	Waterluvian[3]
Time zone	UTC−5
• Summer (DST)	UTC−4
Forward sortation area	N2J to N2L, N2T to N2V
Area codes	519, 226, and 548
Website	www.waterloo.ca

Waterloo is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is one of three cities in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo (formerly Waterloo County). Waterloo is situated about 94 km (58 mi) west-southwest of Toronto, but it is not considered to be part of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Due to the close proximity of the city of Kitchener to Waterloo, the two together are often referred to as "Kitchener–Waterloo", "K-W", or "The Twin Cities".

While several unsuccessful attempts to combine the municipalities of Kitchener and Waterloo have been made, following the 1973 establishment of the Region of Waterloo, less motivation to do so existed, and as a result, Waterloo remains an independent city. At the time of the 2021 census, the population of Waterloo was 121,436.^[2]

History

Indigenous peoples and settlement

Indigenous peoples such as the Iroquois, Anishinaabe and Chonnonton lived in the area.^[4]

After the end of the American Revolution, Joseph Brant, a Mohawk war chief, wanted Frederick Haldimand to give the Mohawk and Six Nations a tract of land surrounding the Grand River, in return for their loyalty to the British in the war.^[5][6] Haldimand's 1784 Haldimand Proclamation granted the land "six miles deep from either side of the beginning at Lake Erie and extending in that proportion to the very head of the said river."^[5][6] Haldimand, who had previously ordered for potential mill sites to be identified in the region, decreed in 1788 that mill sites would be included in the grant (which would not have been included otherwise).^[7] In 1796, Richard Beasley purchased Block Number 2 of the grant from Joseph Brant (on behalf of the Six Nations) with a mortgage held by the Six Nations.^[8] Block 2, 94,012 acres in size, was situated in the District of Gore. To meet his mortgage obligations, Beasley had to sell portions of the land to settlers.^[8] This was counter to the original mortgage agreement, but subsequent changes to the agreement were made to permit land sales.

Mennonites from Pennsylvania counties Lancaster and Montgomery were the first wave of immigrants to the area.^[9] In the year 1800 alone, Beasley sold over 14,000 acres to Mennonite settlers.^{[citation needed]} A group of 26 Mennonites from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, pooled their resources into the German Company of Pennsylvania, which was then represented by Daniel Erb and Samuel Bricker.^{[citation needed]} The company purchased all the unsold land from Beasley in 1803, resulting in a discharge of the mortgage held by the Six Nations. This discharge allowed Beasley to clear his obligation with the Six Nations, and allowed the settlers to have deeds to their purchased land.^[10] The payment to Beasley, in cash, arrived from Pennsylvania in kegs, carried in a wagon surrounded by armed guards.^[11]

Many of the pioneers who arrived from Pennsylvania after November 1803 bought land in a 60,000-acre tract of Block 2 from the German Company of Pennsylvania. The tract included almost two-thirds of Block 2. Many of the first farms were least 400 acres in size.^[12]

Development (19th century)

The Mennonites divided the land into smaller lots; two lots owned by Abraham Erb—who is often called the founder of the Village of Waterloo^[13]—became the central core of Waterloo. Erb had come to the area in 1806 from Pennsylvania.^[7] He had bought 4,000 acres (1,600 ha) from the German Company Tract and settled where there was enough water power to operate mills.^[7] He founded a sawmill in 1808 and grist mill in 1816; they saw business flourish.^[13] Other early settlers of what would become Waterloo included Samuel and Elia Schneider, who arrived in 1816. Until about 1820, settlements such as this were quite small.^[12][14] Erb also built what is now known as the Erb-Kumpf House in c. 1812, making it likely one of the oldest homes in Waterloo.^[15][16][17]

The first school in what is now the City of Waterloo was built on land donated by Erb; the log building was constructed in 1820. A larger school house of stone was built in 1842 and was replaced with a brick school building in 1852. Over the decades, the log building was moved, eventually to Waterloo Park, where it still stands.^[18] The German spoken in Waterloo County is based upon the 18th century Pennsylvania Dutch dialect.^[19] In turn, the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect is based upon the dialect of German spoken in southwestern Germany.^[19]

In 1816, the new Waterloo Township was officially incorporated while being named after Waterloo, Belgium, the site of the Battle of Waterloo (1815), which had ended the Napoleonic Wars in Europe.^[20] After that war, the new township became a popular destination for German immigrants. By the 1840s, German settlers had overtaken the Mennonites as the dominant segment of the population. Many Germans settled in the small hamlet to the southeast of Waterloo. In their honour, the village was named Berlin in 1833 (renamed to Kitchener in 1916). The first Catholic family to arrive were the Spetz family from Alsace who came in 1828.^[21]

By 1831, Waterloo had a small post office in the King and Erb Street area, operated by Daniel Snyder, some 11 years before one would open in neighbouring Berlin.^[22][23] The Smith's Canadian Gazetteer of 1846 states that the Township of Waterloo (smaller than Waterloo County) consisted primarily of Pennsylvanian Mennonites and immigrants directly from Germany who had brought money with them. At the time, many did not speak English. There were eight grist and twenty sawmills in the township. In 1841, the population count was 4424. In 1846 the village of Waterloo had a population of 200, "mostly Germans". There was a grist mill and a sawmill and some tradesmen.^[24] By comparison, Berlin (Kitchener) had a population of about 400, also "mostly German", and more tradesmen than the village of Waterloo.^[25]

Berlin was chosen as the site of the seat for the County of Waterloo in 1853. By 1869, the population was 2000.^[26] Waterloo was incorporated as a village in 1857 and became the Town of Waterloo in 1876.^[4] The Kitchener Public Utilities Commission began providing streetcar service in the region in 1888.

20th and 21st centuries

The Galt, Preston and Hespeler electric railway (later called the Grand River Railway) connected to Waterloo in 1911 and ended service in 1931.^[27][28] The Kitchener Public Utilities Commission stopped providing streetcar service in 1947, and were replaced by electric trolley coaches. Waterloo was incorporated as the City of Waterloo in 1948.^[4] The trolley coaches ended service in 1973.^[29]

The presence of the University of Waterloo in the city caused technological and innovative companies to base in Waterloo,^[30] especially companies specializing in computing and software. For example, Research in Motion (now BlackBerry Limited), which developed BlackBerry, was started by Mike Lazaridis and Doug Fregin in 1984.^[31] A 1994 issue of the Financial Post mentioned Waterloo-based companies MKS, WATCOM, and Open Text in a list of the top 100 independent software companies in Canada.^[31]

In June 2011, the Waterloo Region council approved the Ion: a light rail transit line connecting Conestoga Mall in north Waterloo and Fairview Park Mall in south Kitchener.^[32] Construction on the Ion began in August 2014. In 2016, two sections of a corduroy road were unearthed. One was in the King Street area of the business district and the second was discovered near the Conestoga Mall. The road was probably built by Mennonites using technology acquired in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, between the late 1790s and 1816.^{[citation needed]} The log road was buried in about 1840 and a new road built on top of it.^[33][34] A historian^[who?] explained that the road had been built for access to the mill but was also "one of the first roads cut through (the woods) so people could start settling the area".^[35] Ion service began in 2019 and experienced a daily ridership of 25,000 in November 2020.^[36]

Uptown looking Northwest from the Uptown Parkade. Landmarks visible include the Marsland Centre on the extreme left and Waterloo City Hall on the extreme right.

Geography

Waterloo's city centre is near the intersection of King and Erb streets. The city centre was once along Albert Street, near the Marsland Centre and the Waterloo Public Library. The town hall, fire hall, and farmers' market were located there. Amidst some controversy, all were demolished between 1965 and 1969.

Historically, Waterloo's swamp land near where the village was first developed caused problems for development.^[7] To mitigate these issues, sand was taken from nearby areas to raise the land; buildings were built on foundations of oak planks; and King Street was originally built as a corduroy road.^[13]

Waterways

The Grand River flows southward along the city's east side. Its most significant tributary within the city is Laurel Creek, whose source lies just to the west of the city limits and its mouth just to the east, and crosses much of the city's central areas, including the University of Waterloo lands and Waterloo Park; it flows under the uptown area in a culvert. In the city's west end, the Waterloo Moraine provides over 300,000 people in the region with drinking water. Much of the gently hilly Waterloo Moraine underlies existing developed areas. Ongoing urban growth, mostly low-density residential suburbs (in accordance with requests by land developers), will cover increasing amounts of the remaining undeveloped portions of the Waterloo Moraine.

Climate

Waterloo has a humid continental climate of the warm summer subtype (Dfb under the Köppen climate classification)^[37] with warm, humid summers and cold winters. Compared to other parts of Canada, Waterloo has fairly moderate weather. Winter temperatures usually occur between mid-December and mid-March, while summer temperatures generally occur between mid-May and late September. It is not uncommon for temperatures to exceed 30 °C (86 °F) several times each summer. Waterloo has approximately 140 frost-free days per year.