The History of the Waterloo Community Arts Centre

On February 11th, 1993, one hundred people gathered at the Adult Recreation Centre in Waterloo to discuss the formation of the Waterloo
Community Arts Centre (WCAC). A proposal was presented to the City of Waterloo and it was agreed that the WCAC be given a three year
mandate to create a self-supporting art centre in the Old Button Factory. The arts centre conducts classes, workshops, members' art shows,
art exhibitions and special events.

In September 1996, WCAC was granted a long-term lease on the Button Factory a charming heritage building once used for the manufacturing
of buttons which has now become a vital part of Uptown Waterloo.

The WCAC a not-for-profit, volunteer-run, charitable organization. It exists to promote all forms of art programs in the community
including: performances, classes, workshops, special events and art exhibitions. The WCAC offers programs for children, youth,
adults and seniors of all artistic disciplines and level of achievement from amateur to professional at affordable costs.

Annual Report 2008-2009 (pdf)


Resident Groups
WCAC currently hosts two resident groups:
Pat the Dog Playright Centre
Neruda Productions

2010 Board of Directors

President
Roger Montgomery

Secretary
Ryan Lloyd

Gallery Liaison
Jim Wallace

Special Events Liaison
Roy Wuertle

Executive Director
Lauren Judge

Councillor, City of Waterloo
Karen Scian

City of Waterloo Staff Liaison
Betty Anne Keller

The History of The Button Factory

Richard Roschman stowed away on a ship near the end of the Franco-Prussian war to avoid joining the army. Fortunately when the
23-year-old German tool maker announced his presence to the ship’s captain, he agreed to let Roschman work for his passage to Canada.
When Roschman arrived in Québec on March 23, 1871, the captain told him to head to Berlin, Ontario where he would find many of his countrymen.

Berlin supported a thriving button industry at the time with five local factories. Roschman began working at the Vogelsang and Shantz
Button Factory, one of the first of its kind in Canada, shortly after settling in the area. After learning the trade, Roschman decided to open
the first button business in Waterloo in 1878 with partner Daniel Bowman. When his brother Rudolph arrived, he began working there as well,
and by 1884 the Roschman brothers were in business together. The Roschmans were just two of thirteen children born in Ulm, Germany, to a
prominent soap manufacturing family.

“(Richard Roschman) came to the New World with little capital, but with strong determination and by unfaltering energy and perseverance
he has worked his way upward in the business world from a humble financial position to one of affluence.” As the business grew, the Roschmans
built a new factory in the late 1880s on what is now Regina Street in Uptown Waterloo. The historic factory has been designated a heritage
landmark and is being used by the Waterloo Community Arts Centre. It is generally described as “Mennonite Georgian” and is considered to be an
excellent example of a late nineteenth-century industrial building.

By 1900, more than one hundred men and women were making everything from buttons to buckles and cufflinks. A Waterloo woman who worked at
the factory as a 14-year-old remembers: “It was dirty work, the shells were brittle and sandy, I sorted them and put them in baskets, then men
carried them away to be stamped into buttons. There were a lot of young people working there; the girls sat at long tables to sort and grade.
I made $5 a week.”

Some of the material for the buttons came from nuts grown in the swamps of South America.
The nuts could be dyed after being dried, cut, and tumbled in wooden drums.

The Roschman factory also used iridescent pearl shells from Japan which were soaked and then
cut into discs before being polished and ground against a revolving whetstone.

“Passers-by would often see the heaps of shells piled in the factory’s yard. When the discarded shells accumulated to form a large heap, they
were hauled away to be used as clean landfill.”

Business was good to Richard and Rudolph for many years; both of them married and raised children in the community. They were also actively
involved in the Swedenborgian Church of the New Jerusalem on King Street.

However, their fortunes began to change when cheap plastic buttons from Japan flooded the North American market, making it difficult for
the brothers to compete. As well, hand-tailored suits were being replaced by machine-made clothing that needed the symmetrical plastic buttons for
the assembly-line. The use of zippers cut further into their market, and by the mid-1940s the Roschman button factory was shut down.

Today the Button Factory is considered one of the finest examples of late nineteenth century industrial building in the area. The three storey
building and its tall, equally proportioned rows of windows exude a classic stateliness and monumental air. The segmental arches over the
windows and the dental brick work where the wall meets the roof add to the graceful stature of the architecture.

Historic Profile from Profiles from the Past, Faces of the Future: Waterloo 150
published by the Waterloo Public Library