We used to make things in this country. #188: The Wunder Furniture Manufacturing Company Ltd., Kitchener, Ontario

A couple of weeks ago, we picked up this lovely mahogany office chair for $4 in Brockville, Ontario:

At the beginning of the previous century, the Grand Trunk line brought prosperity to Kitchener, providing cheap transportation for manufacturing. Furniture factories proliferated and, by the beginning of World War I, there were 12 factories operating along the line between Weber and Lancaster Streets.  The Wunder Furniture Manufacturing Company was founded in 1911 by Michael Wunder, and the factory located at the corner of St. Leger and Victoria streets. At some point, ownership of the company must have passed to Vincent Carey, as this person's obituary reports that he "was a long time Hamilton merchant, owner and operator of Wunder Furniture Co. Ltd., and co-owner of Interiors by Wunder."  I can't find when the firm shut its doors, but it seems to have been sometime in mid-century.

1953