Book launch for The Historic Buildings of New Hamburg and the People Who Lived in Them set for Dec. 21

Authors and historians Kristen Hahn (left) and Marie Voisin (right), with a cardboard cutout of the late Ernie Ritz in between them, hold a copy of the five-volume anthology, The Historic Buildings of New Hamburg and the People Who Lived in Them. Galen Simmons photo

By Galen Simmons

After more than a decade of exhaustive research, writing and fine-tuning, the authors and historians behind the five-volume anthology, The Historic Buildings of New Hamburg and the People Who Lived in Them, will officially celebrate its release at a book launch later this month.

Though the book launch on Dec. 21 beginning at 12:30 p.m. at Puddicombe House will be a relatively quiet affair – those who preorder now while supplies last will get an opportunity to pick up their copies and the authors will have the chance to thank everyone who contributed or supported them along the way – the event will mark the final chapter of a monumental journey through local history the historians and authors, Marie Voisin and Kristen Hahn, as well as the late Ernie Ritz, embarked on 15 years ago.

“For me, it’s unlike any feeling I can possibly describe because I’ve never encountered anything of this scope,” Hahn said. “I think the very first moment when I realized the last words had been written, I got this sort of vertigo, and it was twice as intense when the files got sent to the printer. It’s a mix of excitement, a little bit queasy, it’s sadness, accomplishment; there’s no word for this feeling.”

“It was a sadness for me because it really linked me with the current people who are in the houses, but also the people from 50 or 100 years ago who built the houses, and I feel very close to those families,” Voisin said. “They were my people who built New Hamburg and I’m sad to not be investigating anymore.”

Coming in at more than 1,200 pages across four books, and a fifth just for the index, The Historic Buildings of New Hamburg and the People who Lived in Them explores human stories through the lens of New Hamburg’s heritage buildings – both those that still exist today and those that have been demolished and replaced with newer construction.

The idea for the exhaustive work was originally brought to Voisin, and then later Hahn, by Ritz – the legendary local newspaper editor and printer who had a unique memory for local history, which he both lived himself and heard from others. Sadly, Ritz died a few weeks shy of his 99^th birthday in March 2024, a little more than a year and half before the work he initiated would see its conclusion.

“He’d be just thrilled; he’d be beaming, smiling because he once wrote in the 1940s when he was editor of a newspaper that it would be nice if, someday, someone catalogued all the houses and the people who have lived in them,” Voisin said. “And now it’s done.”

“Because of his memory, too, he could just hold court and tell us everything that he remembered of the buildings of the people who lived in them and their stories, and I feel we did our best to write them all down and get them in the book,” Hahn said. “It feels to me like it is kind of a tribute to our dear friend who the town misses and we miss very, very keenly.”

Now, as Ritz once prophesized, The Historic Buildings of New Hamburg and the People who Lived in Them can serve as the definitive architectural and historical record for New Hamburg, not only giving researchers, historians and journalists a starting point when it comes to the history of the town’s buildings and people, but also offering local homeowners and the stewards of heritage buildings a chance to see what their buildings looked like when they were first built, and the opportunity to maintain or restore those original architectural features.

At a time when heritage protections are being eroded by the province, both Voisin and Hahn hope their work inspires others to take the up the cause of heritage protection themselves, preserving visible local history for generations to come.

At a cost of $200 for the anthology, a total of 150 copies have been ordered and will arrive in time for the book launch Dec. 21. To preorder, e-transfer $200 to historicbuildingsnewhamburg@gmail.com. Buyers should include their name, address and phone number in the transfer message.

More copies will be available for purchase in the new year.

While this work may be complete, both Hahn and Voisin have already begun work on another historical book, started by Ritz before he died, about the early history of New Hamburg and the surrounding Township.