Guenther Mohrmann, builder Stratford-Perth Archives
Guenther Mohrmann
Kathryn Crescent runs in a loop, beginning and ending on two parts of Patricia Road in the southwest corner of the city. Both streets are part of a subdivision laid out by Stratford builder and developer Guenther Mohrmann. The street is named for his daughter, Mary Kathryn Mohrmann, born in 1963.
Mohrmann (1924-1981), was a graduate of the Woodworking School of Technology in Germany and came to Stratford in 1952. As president of his own construction company, he was a leading contractor and house builder in Stratford for almost 30 years.
He was a founding member of the Stratford Architectural Conservation Authority Advisory Committee (LACAC) in 1973. Genuinely interested in preserving Stratford’s downtown architecture, he strongly opposed demolition of the Gordon Block (see Downie Street) and adjacent buildings as proposed by the city in 1976.
He was a member of the Stratford Kiwanis Club and the story presented here is from the club's website at about the time clay tennis courts were built in Upper Queens Park in 1968.
* Patricia Road was named after Mohrmann's daughter, Patricia.
This, according to Kiwanis Club president Bob Boyce in 1968: "We physically built the clay tennis courts at the east end of Water Street (in Queens Park). There were frequent work parties, also involving wives, levelling the ground, spreading the material for the courts, setting up the lines and nets, and setting the light standards correctly. Guenther Mohrmann actually hugged one of the poles, which was not standing straight, and set it right. The club contributed $25,000 towards the project, then 25 members of the club signed notes at the bank in order for the revived tennis club to have the money to build the clubhouse." Source: Streets of Stratford, 2004 and Stratford - Kiwanis International