A Short Synopsis about the Teutonia Club

All indicators, in finding the roots of our society’s existence, point to an area of a few city blocks between Hall Ave. and Howard Ave. – looking from east to west – and from Wyandotte St. to Ottawa St. – north to south. To be more precise it was in Mr. Alex Rasnovan’s (a Romanian) billiard room at the corner of Giles Blvd. And Marion Ave. where in 1929 the first initial meeting took place. At that meeting the decision was made to unify and form the (Deutsch Kanadischer Verband) German Canadian Association.

Previously and long after the founding of the (Verein) club most meetings were held at the house of the president, Mr. Adam Scherer, which was located between Ottawa St. and Giles Blvd. On Elsmere Ave. There have been some smaller gatherings in other private homes until they bought a house (store) on the corner of Ottawa St. and Marentette Ave. in which they held their meetings and used it for other occasions. But it was not meant to last, because of the depression and hardship that followed, they lost this property. Later on they ventured again into a deal to own a home and acquired the Schmutz’ property on Howard Ave. and Erie St., which was an auto, parts store. Losing this property as well as the previous one, they were forced to rent.

Places they rented were: the Lancaster Hall on Wyandotte St. at Pierre Ave., (the hall was above the storage area of the Lancaster Moving Co.); the Saxon Club, on Wyandotte St. between Parent Ave. and Marion Ave.; occasionally the Polish Hall on Langlois Ave. across from the Lanspeary Park as well as the Masonic Temple on the corner of Erie St. and Oulette Ave., but most of the time, when it was available they rented the basement of the Sacred Heart church on Ottawa St. and Benjamin Ave. In this church basement most of their dances and theater performances were held.

Theater was held in high esteem because they were trying to keep the younger generation speaking their mother language. In this endeavor two names come to our attention: Mr. Kaiser and Mrs. Eppert who were very involved with the study and preparation of plays. Practice was held in many homes, mostly the Niklas’s, Backer’s and Kaufmann’s.

In the nice weather they entertained themselves with picnics, which were mostly held on Mr. John Hutz’s farm. The farm was located on Walker road, past the tracks when you drive south, where now the 401 is.

In 1935, before the application for a charter was made, Mr. Karl Endriss, himself a board member and a Swiss citizen advocated to rename the fledgling society. He advised the club to change its name from German Canadian Association to Teutonia Club (Verein). Mr. Endriss argued the point, that Teutonia was a more collective name for German speaking people no matter where they came from: Germany, Austria, Switzerland or any other part of the world. So it came to be, that in 1935, the charter was issued to a Society Teutonia of Windsor, Ontario.

The first president of the newly formed (named) club was Mr. Peter Niklas. In the following year (1936) the Teutonia Society acquired their first home on 1119 Langlois Ave. Just as their activity began to flourish, World War II put a damper on them and almost destroyed their efforts. However, in 1949, due to the relaxing of the immigration laws, many new immigrants came to participate and swell the ranks. In the early fifties it became quite obvious that the small building on 1119 Langlois Ave. could not hold the membership any longer and plans were made for a move.

Through the acquisition of a few acres of land on Edinborough St., in the old township of Sandwich South, a new dream was born. On the very same date as the charter right was obtained, November 7th (almost twenty years later) 1954, the corner stone for the present Teutonia Club, at 55 Edinborough St. was laid. It culminated out of the hope to have a new and large enough house to hold all its members. Yet, again this thought seemed to have been too optimistic, because in November 1966 the members gathered for another opening of an even more elaborate extension of their club.

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