The government sold the building in 1967. UW's optometry department was one of the tenants of the building (before they got their own facility on Columbia). In the 1980s, the post office was bought and occupied by one of Waterloo's most successful computer software businesses, Mortice Kern Systems (MKS). The full clock tower -- which had been removed from the building in 1956 -- was reconstructed in 1987 while the building was under MKS's ownership. MKS outgrew the building in the 1990s and sold it to the current owners. Time Square restaurant opened here in 1995 and closed in August 2001.

Walk along Dupont Street from King and you pass by Waterloo's old Market Hotel at the corner of Dupont and Albert. It was built in 1875, primarily to accomodate farmers and other travelers coming to Waterloo's market, which was located just across Albert Street (discussed further on the Erb & Albert page of the tour).

It continued under various owners as a hotel / bording house / pub until prohibition killed off much of its business in 1917. The building was then briefly owned by Mutual Life, before being sold to the John Forsyth Company, a prominent Kitchener-based clothing manufacturer.

Forsyth used the building as a manufacturing plant for nearly 60 years, and then as a warehouse for another 13 years. They sold the building in 1992, and it now used for offices and apartments.

Written by Gary Will
gary@garywill.com

Text and photographs copyright © 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 by Gary Will. All rights reserved.