Kastner family (Cornwall, ON)

Scope and Content: Accession consists of 4 scanned photographs. One is a family snapshot of Tilla Kastner and the other three relate to Kastner's Clothing Store in Cornwall.

Administrative History: Sheila Kastner was born in Cornwall, Ontario in 1928, the same year her family moved there. Her father, Jacob Wolf Kastner, was born in the 1870s in Bukavina which was then part of Austria. He came to Canada in 1901. Sheila's mother was Tilla Brucer, born in 1895 in Rumania. She met and married Jacob in Montreal in 1923. Kastner's Clothing Store was originally located in what had been a house, on Pitt Street. The family lived behind the premises. Sheila's mother then rented a better location at 100 Pitt Street, as well as a house at 11 Augustus Street for the family. In 1939 the Kastners moved to Montreal. They moved four times there and had three stores. In 1942 her mother Tilla left her husband to return to Cornwall, accompanied by 14-year-old Sheila. After high school, Sheila went to Carleton College to study journalism. She married and had a child, which interrupted her degree. She and her husband moved to Cornwall and ran the successful men's and boy's clothing store Tilla had created, T. Kastner Limited, until they sold it in 1968. The new owners retained the respected name of Kastner and the store is still in business nearly seventy years later at 27 First Street East.

Use Conditions: Copyright may not be held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain permission prior to use.