Waterloo Pioneer Memorial Tower

The Waterloo Pioneer Memorial Tower was built in 1926 in Kitchener to commemorate the arrival of the Pennsylvania Dutch to Southwestern Ontario. It was conceived by William Henry Breithaupt, who wanted to heal wounds of nationalism fomented in the city during World War I. This led to increasing anti-German sentiment and an eventual change in the name of the city from Berlin to Kitchener. The tower overlooks the Grand River on a site once cleared by the first pioneers to settle the area. Its walls consist of fieldstone, its observation deck references the Grand River Trail along which the pioneers travelled, and the roof is topped by a weather vane in the shape of a Conestoga wagon. For many years, it was depicted in the masthead of the local newspaper The Record. The 18.9-metre-tall (62 ft) tower was designated as a building of historical importance in 1989 and is a Classified Federal Heritage Building that "commemorates the arrival of the Pennsylvania-German pioneers to the Waterloo region between 1800 and 1803".

Building data from Wikidata (CC0); heights normalised. Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).