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Neustadt, Ontario
Neustadt, Ontario is a small rural community located in Grey County, north of Kitchener, Ontario. Neustadt has retained the charm of years gone past. The village has strong German roots and descendants of these early settlers can still be found in the area.
David Winkler was born in 1829 and just seven years old when his family immigrated from Dreisbach in the Grand Duchy of Baden to Waterloo County in Southern Ontario. In 1855 he arrived in Normanby Township with his family of five children and settled on 400 acres where the Saugeen River meets Meaux Creek. After securing the deed to the property the following year he proceeded to build a dam at Meaux Creek. Once the dam and millpond was in place he built a sawmill and flour mill, naming the tiny community Neustadt, which means New Town in German.
Two years later in 1859 another German immigrant arrived in Neustadt named Henry Heuther. Realizing the potential of the area Heuther purchased the property close to the millpond where underground limestone caverns contained a natural spring with a plentiful supply of cool, clean water. It was here that he established his brewery which Henry and his son would operate until Prohibition in 1916. The beautiful fieldstone building would not function again as a brewery for another 80 years, when it was reopened as Neustadt Springs Brewery in 1997.
By 1865 the thriving village boasted several stores, and three hotels. The only remaining hotel is the former Commercial Hotel, which now functions as a restaurant. Like the brewery, the hotel, constructed in 1858 used fieldstone from local quarries.
Neustadt Public Library
Neustadt Brewery
Neustadt Brewery
A former hotel is now a restaurant
