SL000313 Waterloo County Board of Education Administrative Offices and Education Centre, 1985 (KPL Collection)
As ION nears the Block Line station, think about a local company that was famous for Hush Puppies – of the footwear kind and a family dog that graced their advertisements for decades.
If you thought of Greb Shoes, you would be correct! Founded in 1916 by Erwin Greb, Greb Shoes built a small empire through the acquisition of local, and then other Canadian shoe manufacturers. In the early 1960s , the company obtained a license to make Hush Puppies from Wolverine World Wide of Rockford, Michigan. The shoe line brought international attention to the company, particularly for the use of the image of the Greb family dog, Velvet (I and II), in its advertising campaigns.
In 1965, Greb acquired Kitchener based Bauer group of companies and built a skate plant on Hayward Avenue.
In 1968, Greb consolidated operations with the construction of a new head office building, manufacturing plant and warehouse at the corner of Ardelt Ave. and Henry Sturm Boulevard (a truck bypass built by the City of Kitchener in the 1950s to direct traffic on Highway 8 away from downtown. It was upgraded to a freeway when the road was incorporated into the route for the Conestoga Parkway in the late 1960s).
The family sold the company to Warrington Products of Mississauga, ON in 1974. The offices, pictured above, and manufacturing complex served the company until 1979, when its parent company decided to relocate the Greb Shoes headquarters to Mississauga.
The Waterloo County Board of Education purchased the Ardelt Avenue property in August 1980 to serve as its administrative headquarters and education centre at a cost of $3.39 million. The property and offices still serve as the Board’s headquarters today, with several additions and renovations.
Greb’s Hayward Avenue skate and Kodiak plant closed in 1990. By 2000, all Greb operations and divisions were wound down.
Cheers, Karen
This is post 18 of 19 in the Stories That Move You series.
Stories that Move You is a Kitchener Public Library project that celebrates the launch of ION service with curated collections of reads, music, audio, learning resources, and local history to help people make the most of an unique window of time during their public transit ride.
Historically Speaking 