September 16, 2025 • 37 mins
In this episode of The Disruptor, host John M. Kundtz takes listeners on a personal and historical journey into the remarkable life of his great-grandfather, Theodor Joseph Kundtz, an immigrant craftsman whose vision helped shape Cleveland and Lakewood at the turn of the 20th century.
From his humble beginnings in Metzenseifen (today Medzev, Slovakia), Theodor crossed the Atlantic in 1873 with little more than his skills and determination.
Within decades, he became a leading manufacturer, supplying sewing machine cabinets, school furniture, bicycle rims, automobile bodies, and church furnishings across the United States.
His entrepreneurial spirit left a legacy that touched everything from industrial growth in Cleveland to the iconic Kundtz Castle in Lakewood, Ohio.
John traces Theodor’s story through:
➡️ The family tree and roots in Europe.
➡️The immigrant journey that led to opportunity in Cleveland.
➡️The rise of the Theodor Kundtz Company, serving industries from sewing to automobiles.
➡️The construction and eventual fate of the Kundtz Castle, a Lakewood landmark.
➡️A lasting church furniture legacy, with Kundtz craftsmanship found in thousands of churches nationwide.
Blending genealogy, industrial history, and personal reflection, this episode captures how one man’s story reflects both the immigrant experience and the rapid expansion of Cleveland in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
🎧 Whether you’re a history buff, a Lakewood local, or curious about the immigrant roots of American entrepreneurship, this episode offers a compelling look into the past and how it still echoes today.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
John Kundtz (00:01):
Hi, I'm John Kuntz and this is a recording of a
presentation I made to theLakewood Historical Society's
annual meeting of membership atthe Church of the Ascension in
Lakewood.
The presentation was given onWednesday, april 30th 2025, and
(00:23):
is entitled the Life and Timesof Theodore Joseph Kuntz.
I am the great-grandson ofTheodore and self-appointed
family archivist and historian.
I also host the Disruptorpodcast and am a blogger and a
non-profit board advisor.
(00:44):
Today's agenda how did we gethere Our family tree medicine
szeifen where it is and whycan't I find it on a map?
(01:06):
Since we're presenting inLakewood, I'd like to spend some
time talking about the KuntzCastle, a Lakewood legacy.
Then we'll shift gears and moveback to Cleveland looking at
the late 19th century look like,particularly as it was a time
(01:26):
of growth and expansion forTheodor Kuntz's company, and
then we'll discuss more thansewing machine.
Theodor Kuntz's company made alot of things, but in today's
presentation we are going tofocus on the church furniture
legacy.
A number of years ago, ourfamily hired someone to go to
Metzenzeifen to research ourfamily tree.
We traced Theodor Kuntz'sgreat-grandparents, michael and
(01:50):
Katharina, who lived around the1760s that would be my fourth
great-grandparents, who had ason named Ionis.
Ionis is essentially German andor Hungarian.
For John, he married Anna.
(02:10):
They had a son named Joseph,who married Teresa, and Joseph
had Theodore.
Then, in 1874, maria andTheodore were married in
Cleveland.
From 1887 to 1910, maria andTheodore had 10 children.
Six of them are pictured hereEwald, my grandfather, angie,
(02:35):
irene, dorothy, marie and Leo.
On June 15, 1926, betty O'Neillmarried Ewald.
They had four children Louise,ewald Jr, jay, andrew, my father
and David, my childrenrepresent the fifth generation
of Kuntzes living in Cleveland.
(02:56):
Let's take a trip to a towncalled Metzenzeifen.
Metzenzeifen was founded in the1300s by German-speaking
immigrants.
This picture, taken around the1890s, shows what Metzenzeifen
looked like then.
It's not much different today.
In the background are theCarpathinian Mountains.
(03:19):
On the other side wastechnically Germany, which is
why many residents, including mygreat-grandfather, spoke German
.
In the foreground is the church, the center of town, in a
quaint village in theAustro-Hungarian Empire.
Before World War I,metzenzeipen was near the German
(03:41):
border, but it was technicallyin Hungary.
Mezenzaifen was near the Germanborder, but it was technically
in Hungary.
It was roughly about 25kilometers from Kosi and not too
far from Vienna, bratislava andBudapest.
Today, mezenzaifen is calledMedzev and is part of the Slovak
Republic.
Mary Queen of Angels CatholicChurch appears to be the
(04:07):
spiritual and physical center ofthe town.
In this 1910 picture the churchis on the left.
In the background you can seethe town cemetery, which still
has descendants and cousins ofTheodore buried in it.
Medziv is still a small town inthe foothills of the
Carpathinian Mountains.
Here are some recent picturestaken by a friend of the family.
(04:29):
The first one is Medzev,looking east.
You can see the mountains inthe background.
On the upper right-hand corneris the Mary Queen of Angels
Church.
There's a view of the cemeteryin the lower left-hand corner.
The last picture, in the lowerright-hand corner, is typical of
a village house in Medziv,similar to where Theodore or his
(04:50):
family grew up.
Their house is no longer there,likely destroyed during a flood
.
Shortly after he emigrated tothe United States.
Speaking of that, in April 1873, theodore traveled from his
home in metzenzeichen acrossaustria and germany, ultimately
to the french port of haver, andhe boarded the ss denmark.
(05:14):
The ss denmark was not what youwould call a speedy ocean going
.
It was quite slow turning analready long trip.
Even longer, theodore, withoutmoney, wasn't in a luxury class,
so his trip was likely three ormore weeks in cramped, dirty,
(05:39):
unsanitized quarters withlimited food and not a lot of
facilities, so to speak.
So while Theodore crossed theAtlantic Ocean from France to
New York, let's take a look atthe Kuntz Castle.
The Kuntz Castle was a staplelandmark in Lakewood from 1903
(06:00):
to 1961.
Let's deconstruct the castle'slegacy.
First we'll discuss itsarchitecture, then delve into
both the interior and theexterior.
We'll explore what we think thelife on the estate might look
like.
Unfortunately, all things cometo an end.
We'll discuss the sale of thecastle to the Murrow family and
(06:25):
its ultimate demolition in the1960s.
Lastly, we'll cover the rise ofKirtland Lane, which was the
property's redevelopment.
Here is a 1914 Cuyahoga Countymap showing the Kuntz property
at 13826 Lake Avenue in theupper right-hand corner.
(06:46):
This picture is a blow-up,showing it turned perpendicular,
going west on the top and easton the bottom.
You can see the property andfrom Lake Avenue to Lake Uri.
A number of years ago the LakeHood Historical Society sent me
some copies and they currentlyhave in their archives the
original blueprints for thecastle, and here I'll show you
(07:10):
one of them the originalstaircase blueprint.
From the blueprint you can seethe design, the architecture and
the woodworking that Theodorecalled his mark.
He essentially took his cabinetmakers and his craftsmen and
developed the entire interior ofthe house.
Here's a picture of thatstaircase taken years ago when
(07:33):
the family was still livingthere.
You can see the ornatearchitecture, beautiful
woodworking and furniture ofthis master staircase.
Moving to the outside of thecastle, here's an original tower
blueprint from the LakewoodHistorical Society and here is a
picture of the finished towerand you can see it matches the
(07:55):
blueprint extensively.
My dad used to tell storiesabout visiting his grandmother
there.
He doesn't remember visitingwhen his grandfather was alive,
but he would visit hisgrandmother, maria and roam the
castle.
There was a bowling alley inthe basement and he would mess
around with that.
When he got bored, setting thepins up manually, he would go up
(08:19):
into the castle tower.
It's about a three-story tower,maybe four if you count
Pinnacle.
You could crawl up to the topand look out towards the lake.
This picture shows the southernside of the tower.
If you looked out this windowof the tower you'd be looking
towards Lake Avenue, but if youwent to the other side of the
(08:41):
tower you'd have a marvelousview of Lake Erie.
Here's the original carriageporch blueprint.
This was the front of the house.
The house was built when fewpeople had automobiles, so this
(09:02):
is where you drive yourhorse-drawn coach or horseless
carriage park and enter thehouse.
Here is an artist's renditionwith the porch.
It shows the magnificentwraparound porch that starts in
the front, goes to the easternside and then around the
northern side of the house.
So let's move on and take aquick look at some of the
exterior features.
Here is a wonderful aerialphotograph from the Margaret
(09:26):
Manor Butler Collection at theLakewood Historical Society,
dated about 1934.
At this point Theodore and hisfamily had lived in the house
for close to 30 years.
Here is a picture of what theycalled the carriage house, but
it really was actually a barnwith stables, stalls, horses and
(09:47):
cows in it In its own right abeautiful house, and the family
lived there during theconstruction of the castle that
wasn't completed until 1903.
Here is a postcard of the housepointing to the house and the
grounds.
Moving on, here's a picture ofthe north side of the house
facing the lake.
You can see the window up inthe tower.
(10:08):
Third floor must have hadspectacular views of Lake Erie.
This picture was probably takenfairly early after the
completion of the construction,because the landscaping is still
immature and the trees arestill young and they haven't
grown up, like you saw in theaerial photograph earlier.
Moving towards the east side ofthe house and you can see the
(10:35):
entrance to the gardens or grass.
And then you can see the northside of the wraparound porch
which we saw from that picturebefore.
It started in the front, wentto the side and is now in the
back, moving to the front of thehouse or the south side, facing
Lake Avenue.
You see the porches again thetower, the carriage porch where
(10:56):
you would come and drop off andpark your car.
And then here's another picture, taken a bit later, based on
the maturity of the trees andstarting to see some vines on
the carriage porch it looks likewinter giving a perspective of
what it looked like from LakeAvenue as you drove into the
driveway.
(11:16):
Let's shift gears to theinterior.
Here's a picture of Maria andTheodore inside their house, and
next to them is an example ofthe room and furniture in the
house.
As you can see, there'sbeautiful furniture, beautiful
woodworking.
It's a little ornate.
In my opinion, one of thethings noted in the house is
(11:38):
that there were these murals,and I'll show you some pictures
of them.
But you had these murals thatwent from the top of the windows
to the ceiling some beautifulmurals on the ceiling itself.
We'll look at those in a second.
Going back to the woman at thebottom of the staircase from the
previous slide now I have apicture taken a little later in
(12:02):
color.
You could see in more detailthe woodworking.
The craftsmanship Looks likethe same chair in this picture.
If you walk up the stairs yousee the woodwork throughout the
house.
If we take a quick turn aroundand look down the stairs you can
see I believe that is probablythe front entrance or certainly
(12:24):
an entrance.
You start to see some paintingsand furniture in the
woodworking.
Here's more of the interior ofthe house.
You can see the furniture andthe woodwork.
Each room had different typesof wood.
It got very detailed and pretty.
One last picture of a lamp anda table and another interior
(12:46):
picture with murals I referencedearlier.
Here's a ceiling mural and oneof the dining room murals.
I love this one because itshows them eating breakfast.
This could be when they wereliving in the barn while the
castle was being built.
There's a horse visiting.
It's a cool picture.
I would love to know if thismural was ever here.
(13:08):
So let's take a quick look atwhat life on the estate looked
like.
Here is a larger picture fromthe Margaret Manor Butler
Collection from the LakewoodHistorical Society.
This picture was taken in 1934,discovered in the Lakewood
Historical Archives by GregScent, and it's fantastic.
(13:28):
It's a view that in my 66 yearsI'd never seen before.
It shows not only the castleand the grounds but the paths
down to the lake.
Most pictures from our familyalbums were from ground level.
Here's a great example of apicture of the beach on the lake
(13:50):
.
This is one of the fewproperties in Lakewood with
direct access down to the lake.
Most of the lakeshore is veryhigh cliffs.
This property had a littlebeach that you could walk the
grounds down to the beach.
There was a pump house thatpumped water up to the house and
(14:10):
they would host picnics andcookouts down at the beach, and
there's some swimming areas inthe lake as well.
It must have been spectacularon a beautiful Cleveland summer
day.
There were paths from the houseto the lake.
On a beautiful Cleveland summerday, there were paths from the
house to the lake.
To the right you'd go down tothe beach the path to the upper
left where the bench is, leadsto a cliff overlooking the lake.
(14:37):
Eventually they built what theycalled the Roundhouse At the
top.
Here's a picture of Theodore.
In front of it he has his cane,so this was after the factory
accident that injured his legand after that he always walked
with that cane area.
(15:07):
From the aerial photo it wouldhave been a spectacular place to
enjoy an adult beverage on abeautiful summer night watching
the sunset over Lake Erie.
Here is a picture of Joe, tedand Ewald in front of the castle
.
I have dated this picturesomewhere around 1907, based on
the relative age of Joe andEwald.
(15:27):
My grandfather, ewald, was bornin 1901, and his brother, joe,
was born in 1902.
They appear to be roughly five,six or seven in this picture
dating it to around 1907 timeframe.
Here is another picture,identified around 1910, of Maria
(15:49):
and Theodore in front of theirhouse.
Here's a blow up to give you abetter perspective of their
outfits.
I think they really embracedthe culture of the United States
.
I asked my dad if he rememberstalking with his grandmother and
he said she had no accent.
(16:10):
Her English was very good.
They spent a good bit of timelearning English and
assimilating into the UnitedStates as a prominent business
couple trying to maintainHungarian roots.
Here is a family picture aroundthe 1920s.
You can see Theodore and Mariain the front and the rest of the
(16:32):
children in birth order.
Not pictured is their firstchild, joseph Peter, who
unfortunately only lived to two.
I believe he died during one ofthe flu epidemics of the late
19th century.
After that, ted was born, hewas called Theodore Jr, but he
(16:53):
had a different middle name.
He was the oldest surviving sonof Theodore and Maria.
Then came Marie, ted's sister.
Also not pictured is WilliamJoseph, a special needs child
with developmental disabilitiesand did not live with the family
.
He lived in Chicago, illinois,then my grandfather Ewald,
(17:18):
followed by his brother Joe,born 12 months later.
Next was Irene and then Angie,his younger brother Leo and the
youngest Dorothy.
As the saying goes, all goodthings must eventually come to
an end.
Now let's talk about the saleand the end of the era.
(17:39):
The time frame is 1945 to 1961.
The sale of the castle, the onelast look the public open house
in 1960, and the eventualdemolition of the Kuntz Castle.
The Kuntz family's longassociation with the Lakewood
estate ended in 1945, when theproperty was sold to Robert
(18:03):
Murrow for $60,000.
Here is a picture from 1955,after the Murrows bought the
property and about five to sixyears before they demolished the
house.
After Theodore died, maria livedin the house by herself.
It was actually at the timewhen my dad now 92, and his
(18:27):
brother Ewald, now 96, remembergoing to visit the house and
visiting their grandmother there.
It was a lot of upkeep.
The children were grown marriedand were moved on and had their
own houses, some in Lakewoodand some, like my grandparents
and his youngest sister, dorothy, on the east side.
(18:48):
It became overwhelming forMaria to care for it alone, so
they sold it in 1945.
Under the Murrow ownership, themansion gained the new nickname
of Murrow Castle.
Unfortunately, around 1960, thecastle and the surrounding land
was acquired by the EgglestonDevelopment Company for $110,000
(19:11):
.
Murrow realized the castle wasan overwhelming undertaking to
maintain and had unfortunatelyoutlived its useful life useful
life.
The developers' intent was toredevelop the five-acre property
into a new residentialsubdivision consisting of 16
custom-built homes.
(19:32):
Before closing this chapter,the Murrows and the developers
allowed one last celebration ofthe historic home, what they
called a public open house.
On December 18th 1960, theCleveland Plain Dealer published
an article entitled Last Look,then the Castle Will Crumble.
(19:56):
They published smalleradvertisements inviting the open
inspection Saturday and Sundayafternoon, december 17th and
18th.
Plans pictures, architecturesketches, will be shown of the
luxury homes in the newdevelopment at that time known
(20:21):
as New England Drive.
Then the cranes came, thewrecking balls came.
This Cleveland Press photo fromMarch 8th 1961 of the wrecking
company tearing down the house.
All that's left at this pointis the tower.
Then the following morning, onMarch 9th 1961, the Cleveland
(20:44):
Plain Dealer published thisphoto of the castle falling with
the caption the tower fallswith a crash.
The house is now gone.
This is a photograph and thecorresponding article in the
(21:04):
Cleveland Press March 8th 1961,and all it says is gone.
With the demolition of theGingerbread Tower comes to an
end one era in Lakewood andstarts a new one.
The Westside Realty Companywill build 16 homes in the
$50,000 to $100,000 range in thearea to be known as Edgewater
(21:30):
Estates.
It's always been referred to inour family as the rise of
Kirtland Lane, the redevelopmentof the property.
Here is a June 22, 1962Cleveland Press.
Article 22nd 1962 ClevelandPress.
Who article?
We're about a year and a halfafter the demolition Bob Brennan
(21:56):
, the real estate writer for theCleveland Press published an
article entitled Castle MemoryLingers in Kirtland Lane Homes.
He included a few pictures.
The first home occupied onKirtland Lane is listed as an
air-conditioned New Englandmodel bought by Carlisle and
Laura Milner.
Landscaping here was installedlast week.
(22:17):
Here is a picture of theoriginal model home for Kirtland
Lane.
Kirtland Lane.
It's listed as a brick andframe home has four fireplaces,
first floor utility room,kitchen and family room.
Here is an interior picture ofthe Carlisle Milner's home
(22:38):
entitled Spacious Setting forRelaxation.
This next picture is entitledThree Levels Face the Lake.
This is the rear of the homebeing built at 1041 Curtland
Lane for James Stouffer's ofStouffer's Restaurant.
It will have a traditionalfront elevation with an
(22:59):
attractive two-car garage.
The home will have living anddining rooms, kitchen, breakfast
room, library, bedroom and bathon the main level, plus four
bedrooms and two baths on thesecond floor.
Basement level consists of afamily room, patio, barbecue and
a boat storage room.
(23:19):
This picture is entitledSouthern Colonial is Among the
Var of early American homes onKirtland Lane.
His home has a library on thefirst floor, a circular stairway
, three bedrooms, two baths anda den on the second floor,
(23:40):
wrapping up.
Here is an aerial photo ofKirtland Lane.
Most of the homes have beenbuilt.
Kirtland Lane runs down themiddle of the property and
Dakota Sack is probably wherethe original house stood.
Let's shift gears to Clevelandin the late 19th century.
This was a growth and expansionera for not only the city of
Cleveland and Midwestmanufacturing, including the
(24:04):
Raccoons Company.
This picture shows the CowgillRiver and the brown areaund's
company.
This picture shows the KaugaRiver and the brown areas is
called the Irish Town Bend.
It used to be called the IrishTown Bend neighborhood and
redeveloped into a park.
Margaret Lynch, an archivist forthe Irish American Archive
Society, found that Irish TownBend had not only Irish but a
(24:25):
whole bunch of Hungarians.
When she was looking at thecensus realized that many of the
people in the census recordslisted their native country as
Hungary.
What struck her was many ofthose residents listed their
occupation as cabinetmaker.
Residents listed theiroccupation as cabinetmaker,
(24:46):
woodworker, craftsman, factoryworker, machinist.
The Irish town bend initiallyattracted skilled and
semi-skilled workers of Irishdescent, but over time more
Hungarians moved and lived inIrish town bend.
The rationale is because it waswithin walking distance of the
(25:10):
theater of Kunz company which isshown on the map.
The original Sewing MachineCabinet Works was at 122 and 124
Elm Street.
Irish Town Bend has anothersignificance there's a residence
there at 41 Franklin Avenue,significant because Theodore
took up residence there in theIrish Town Bend neighborhood.
(25:33):
When he arrived in Cleveland hewas on the boat from France.
He arrived in Cleveland.
He was on the boat from France.
He arrived in New York.
At that time Ellis Island wasnot in operation so he emigrated
quickly into the United States.
He got on a train and headedfor Cleveland.
But to give you some perspectiveof this picture shows Columbus
(25:54):
Road and Riverbed Street, whichis still there today.
Then right behind it, betweenthe row of houses on the yellow
line, would have been FranklinAvenue.
At the top of the picture youcan see this church, which is
the St Emmerich Church.
But right here in this box withthree two-story and
(26:15):
threeow-wide houses is what webelieve is Franklin Avenue and
therefore we believe Theodorelived in one of those houses,
most likely the first one on theleft.
If you Google 41 FranklinAvenue, you won't find it.
The city of Clevelandrenumbered the streets not only
(26:36):
once but twice.
This address doesn't existbecause it was replaced in the
early 20th century.
Margaret Lynch and her brotherdid a triangulation work and
pinpointed this location whereTheodore resided, his wife, some
of his siblings or cousins andother relatives when they all
first moved to Cleveland.
(26:56):
Moving down the river towardsthe lake, we see a picture of
the Theodore Kuntz Company.
His cabinet work was set up for122 and done 124 Elm Street in
1878.
He took over the space from abankrupt sewing machine company.
In fact, he actually worked forthat bankrupt sewing machine
company.
Even though Metzenzeifen wasknown for metallurgy and
(27:21):
ironworks, they had cabinetmakers there and we believe
Theodore's father might havebeen a cabinet maker.
Giving Theodore anapprenticeship in his early
teens.
This allowed him and gave himthe skill he needed to work for
the Cleveland Sewing MachineCompany.
When the company couldn't payhim, he took his pay in the form
(27:43):
of equity and later bought themout, renaming it the Theodor
Kuntz Company.
Here's a picture from 1879, acompany photograph taken in
front of the factory.
We believe everyone is fromMetzenzeifen.
Almost everyone would considerthemselves Hungarian.
You can see from this picturethere are two sewing machines.
(28:06):
Theodore is the gentleman withthe hat in the middle, not
looking at the camera.
There are some young employeesat the top left-hand side of
this picture, but they were allproud of what they were doing.
The company had really startedto grow.
Here is a picture of theSuperior Viaduct around 1885.
(28:29):
And at this point you can seethe cabinet works, what they
call plant one on the far leftwith the box, what they called
Plant 1 on the far left with thebox, the lumberyard and the
flats in the early 1880s showsthe business was starting to
grow.
A lot of people, a lot of wood.
He also had a lumberyard inLakewood which is a subject of
(28:51):
another discussion becauseapparently it was one of the
most notorious fires inNortheastern Ohio, still talked
about by some elders of the mostnotorious fires in northeastern
Ohio, still talked about it bysome elders of the community.
Then, around 1910, the DetroitSuperior Bridge opened.
You can see the five plants inthe upper right-hand corner, the
(29:12):
viaduct and the new bridge overin the flats.
You can sort of see where thepowerhouse is today.
Since I am giving thispresentation in a church, I
thought we'd spend some timetalking about church furniture.
Theodore was known mostly forsewing machines and that was
certainly his core business, butit wasn't his only business.
(29:35):
Theodore expanded into morediversified manufacturing over
the years by the late 1870s,through the 1880s sewing
machines was the business.
The good news was that by 1879,for all intents and purposes he
was the sole supplier for thewhite sewing machine company.
(29:56):
Sewing machines were verypopular and considered pieces of
furniture.
These machines were expensiveand prominently displayed in
parlors and living rooms.
By 1887, plant 1, which took upthe block of Washington Center,
(30:17):
elm and Winslow Streets in theflats was solely dedicated to
making sewing machines.
Shortly thereafter Theodore gotinto the school furniture
business which he branded asEclipse.
He actually got into it byrequest.
The Cleveland Board ofEducation needed a local
(30:38):
supplier they could trust andasked him to make furniture
which Plant 2 then produced,school furniture and eventually
church furniture.
Beyond Clipp's school furniturethere was the bicycle rim
business called.
In 1897, theodore was granted apatent number 596424, for
(31:02):
wooden wheel rims.
Now Theodore already had about40 patents, mostly for sewing
machines.
But this shows how he got intothe business in the late 1890s.
I've seen advertisements fromEuropean cycling magazines from
1904 into the 1920s.
These rims were consideredhigh-end, relatively expensive,
(31:28):
used by performance riders likeFrance quality riders, and they
were quite popular in Europe.
He also was in the truck andautomobile body business,
popular in Europe.
He also was in the truck andautomobile body business.
Plant 3 was a dedicatedmanufacturing automobile bodies
for Winton White, peerless,stearns and Murray companies.
Truck and automobile bodiesmade of wood were eventually
(31:51):
overtaken by steel in the 1900s.
He also was in the stadium andauditorium seat business, an
offshoot of the school furniturebusiness.
By 1930-31, theodore Quince hadsupplied 62,781 chairs to the
new Cleveland Municipal Stadium.
If you've ever sat in that oldstadium, those seats were
(32:14):
manufactured in Cleveland byTheodore Quince.
He also made seats for otherstadiums, including Boston and
other older stadiums.
Unfortunately when they toredown the municipal stadium they
didn't save any of the seats.
If anybody has one I'm sure theLakewood Historical Society
would be happy to accept it.
(32:36):
They're hard to find, but aninteresting artifact for
Theodore's business.
Let's move on to the churchfurniture legacy, a natural
expansion of the schoolfurniture business.
He didn't organically grow thebusiness.
He acquired our churchfurniture company around 1909.
(32:56):
It was founded by GeorgeForbrower who apparently was a
fellow practitioner at St Rose'sCatholic Church, and the story
goes that George was aging, hishealth was failing and he wanted
to get out and he sold thebusiness to Theodore.
Shortly thereafter he startedto see advertising brochures,
(33:17):
showcase, theater quints churchfurniture like one entitled Da
Vinci's Last Supper.
What I find fascinating aboutthe church furniture business
allowed him to take his artistry, craftsmanship and
cabinet-making skills to reallyexpand it and utilize the true
talent.
The school furniture business isboring, not a lot of room for
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beautiful hand carvings andelaborate woodworking.
It's very utilitarian andfunctional.
But the church furniturebusiness is different, as shown
by this beautifully carved inwood version of Da Vinci's Last
Supper.
Another couple of brochuresadvertise what he calls the
kunst craftsmanship.
Another couple of brochuresadvertised what he calls the
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Kunstcraftsmanship and thefurniture and the pews designed
and built by Kunstcraftsmen.
At one time more than 5,000churches in 48 states had
handcrafted woodwork from theTheodor Kunst Company.
I picked up a 1916 churchfurniture catalog.
Here is the cover of it and inthe title page there were two
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pictures of the factory.
The first one says thefactories cover four blocks.
The second says over 30 acresof hardware lumber.
By 1916, theodore Kuntz Companyhad grown and expanded.
Here are examples of churchfurniture from the 1916 catalog.
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Here's pew end number 114,altar number 12, tri-seat number
576, and high pulpit 389.
That takes us to the Church ofthe Ascension.
Here is a picture of my92-year-old dad in front of the
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church when we visited, afterGreg had uncovered some
wonderful artifacts tying thecurrent furniture in the church
to the Theodor Kuntz Company.
Here is a letter dated April 19, 1916.
It's a letter to ReverendWallace Gordon, presumably the
rector of the church, inquiringabout providing church furniture
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In May 13, 1916,.
A letter to R H Wilcock, whowas listed in other
documentation as the chair ofthe building committee.
Essentially, this is a letteracknowledging the fact that they
are going to respond with aproposal for the church's needs.
And what ties this all out isthat on February 16th 1918, we
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have a copy of an invoice thatdefinitely shows that business
had been conducted betweenTheodor Kuntz Company and the
Church of the Ascension.
Let's take a quick look at thecurrent pulpit, the
craftsmanship, the choir pewsand the church pews.
And then one last letter, datedMay 21st 1918, was a letter to
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Mr RH Wilcock, againacknowledging the payment of
$1,590 and, of course, thankingthe church for their business.
The sales cycle went frominquiry to proposal to invoicing
to payment it up.
Theodore Quince thanked thechurch for their business and I
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thank you and the HistoricalSociety and the church for
allowing me to pontificate onthe life and times of Theodore
Quince.
I'm John Quince, host of thisspecial edition of the Disruptor
podcast.
Take care, have a great day.
Hi, I'm John Kuntz and this is a recording of a
presentation I made to theLakewood Historical Society's
annual meeting of membership atthe Church of the Ascension in
Lakewood.
The presentation was given onWednesday, april 30th 2025, and
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is entitled the Life and Timesof Theodore Joseph Kuntz.
I am the great-grandson ofTheodore and self-appointed
family archivist and historian.
I also host the Disruptorpodcast and am a blogger and a
non-profit board advisor.
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Today's agenda how did we gethere Our family tree medicine
szeifen where it is and whycan't I find it on a map?
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Since we're presenting inLakewood, I'd like to spend some
time talking about the KuntzCastle, a Lakewood legacy.
Then we'll shift gears and moveback to Cleveland looking at
the late 19th century look like,particularly as it was a time
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of growth and expansion forTheodor Kuntz's company, and
then we'll discuss more thansewing machine.
Theodor Kuntz's company made alot of things, but in today's
presentation we are going tofocus on the church furniture
legacy.
A number of years ago, ourfamily hired someone to go to
Metzenzeifen to research ourfamily tree.
We traced Theodor Kuntz'sgreat-grandparents, michael and
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Katharina, who lived around the1760s that would be my fourth
great-grandparents, who had ason named Ionis.
Ionis is essentially German andor Hungarian.
For John, he married Anna.
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They had a son named Joseph,who married Teresa, and Joseph
had Theodore.
Then, in 1874, maria andTheodore were married in
Cleveland.
From 1887 to 1910, maria andTheodore had 10 children.
Six of them are pictured hereEwald, my grandfather, angie,
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irene, dorothy, marie and Leo.
On June 15, 1926, betty O'Neillmarried Ewald.
They had four children Louise,ewald Jr, jay, andrew, my father
and David, my childrenrepresent the fifth generation
of Kuntzes living in Cleveland.
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Let's take a trip to a towncalled Metzenzeifen.
Metzenzeifen was founded in the1300s by German-speaking
immigrants.
This picture, taken around the1890s, shows what Metzenzeifen
looked like then.
It's not much different today.
In the background are theCarpathinian Mountains.
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On the other side wastechnically Germany, which is
why many residents, including mygreat-grandfather, spoke German
.
In the foreground is the church, the center of town, in a
quaint village in theAustro-Hungarian Empire.
Before World War I,metzenzeipen was near the German
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border, but it was technicallyin Hungary.
Mezenzaifen was near the Germanborder, but it was technically
in Hungary.
It was roughly about 25kilometers from Kosi and not too
far from Vienna, bratislava andBudapest.
Today, mezenzaifen is calledMedzev and is part of the Slovak
Republic.
Mary Queen of Angels CatholicChurch appears to be the
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spiritual and physical center ofthe town.
In this 1910 picture the churchis on the left.
In the background you can seethe town cemetery, which still
has descendants and cousins ofTheodore buried in it.
Medziv is still a small town inthe foothills of the
Carpathinian Mountains.
Here are some recent picturestaken by a friend of the family.
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The first one is Medzev,looking east.
You can see the mountains inthe background.
On the upper right-hand corneris the Mary Queen of Angels
Church.
There's a view of the cemeteryin the lower left-hand corner.
The last picture, in the lowerright-hand corner, is typical of
a village house in Medziv,similar to where Theodore or his
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family grew up.
Their house is no longer there,likely destroyed during a flood
.
Shortly after he emigrated tothe United States.
Speaking of that, in April 1873, theodore traveled from his
home in metzenzeichen acrossaustria and germany, ultimately
to the french port of haver, andhe boarded the ss denmark.
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The ss denmark was not what youwould call a speedy ocean going
.
It was quite slow turning analready long trip.
Even longer, theodore, withoutmoney, wasn't in a luxury class,
so his trip was likely three ormore weeks in cramped, dirty,
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unsanitized quarters withlimited food and not a lot of
facilities, so to speak.
So while Theodore crossed theAtlantic Ocean from France to
New York, let's take a look atthe Kuntz Castle.
The Kuntz Castle was a staplelandmark in Lakewood from 1903
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to 1961.
Let's deconstruct the castle'slegacy.
First we'll discuss itsarchitecture, then delve into
both the interior and theexterior.
We'll explore what we think thelife on the estate might look
like.
Unfortunately, all things cometo an end.
We'll discuss the sale of thecastle to the Murrow family and
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its ultimate demolition in the1960s.
Lastly, we'll cover the rise ofKirtland Lane, which was the
property's redevelopment.
Here is a 1914 Cuyahoga Countymap showing the Kuntz property
at 13826 Lake Avenue in theupper right-hand corner.
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This picture is a blow-up,showing it turned perpendicular,
going west on the top and easton the bottom.
You can see the property andfrom Lake Avenue to Lake Uri.
A number of years ago the LakeHood Historical Society sent me
some copies and they currentlyhave in their archives the
original blueprints for thecastle, and here I'll show you
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one of them the originalstaircase blueprint.
From the blueprint you can seethe design, the architecture and
the woodworking that Theodorecalled his mark.
He essentially took his cabinetmakers and his craftsmen and
developed the entire interior ofthe house.
Here's a picture of thatstaircase taken years ago when
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the family was still livingthere.
You can see the ornatearchitecture, beautiful
woodworking and furniture ofthis master staircase.
Moving to the outside of thecastle, here's an original tower
blueprint from the LakewoodHistorical Society and here is a
picture of the finished towerand you can see it matches the
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blueprint extensively.
My dad used to tell storiesabout visiting his grandmother
there.
He doesn't remember visitingwhen his grandfather was alive,
but he would visit hisgrandmother, maria and roam the
castle.
There was a bowling alley inthe basement and he would mess
around with that.
When he got bored, setting thepins up manually, he would go up
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into the castle tower.
It's about a three-story tower,maybe four if you count
Pinnacle.
You could crawl up to the topand look out towards the lake.
This picture shows the southernside of the tower.
If you looked out this windowof the tower you'd be looking
towards Lake Avenue, but if youwent to the other side of the
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tower you'd have a marvelousview of Lake Erie.
Here's the original carriageporch blueprint.
This was the front of the house.
The house was built when fewpeople had automobiles, so this
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is where you drive yourhorse-drawn coach or horseless
carriage park and enter thehouse.
Here is an artist's renditionwith the porch.
It shows the magnificentwraparound porch that starts in
the front, goes to the easternside and then around the
northern side of the house.
So let's move on and take aquick look at some of the
exterior features.
Here is a wonderful aerialphotograph from the Margaret
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Manor Butler Collection at theLakewood Historical Society,
dated about 1934.
At this point Theodore and hisfamily had lived in the house
for close to 30 years.
Here is a picture of what theycalled the carriage house, but
it really was actually a barnwith stables, stalls, horses and
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cows in it In its own right abeautiful house, and the family
lived there during theconstruction of the castle that
wasn't completed until 1903.
Here is a postcard of the housepointing to the house and the
grounds.
Moving on, here's a picture ofthe north side of the house
facing the lake.
You can see the window up inthe tower.
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Third floor must have hadspectacular views of Lake Erie.
This picture was probably takenfairly early after the
completion of the construction,because the landscaping is still
immature and the trees arestill young and they haven't
grown up, like you saw in theaerial photograph earlier.
Moving towards the east side ofthe house and you can see the
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entrance to the gardens or grass.
And then you can see the northside of the wraparound porch
which we saw from that picturebefore.
It started in the front, wentto the side and is now in the
back, moving to the front of thehouse or the south side, facing
Lake Avenue.
You see the porches again thetower, the carriage porch where
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you would come and drop off andpark your car.
And then here's another picture, taken a bit later, based on
the maturity of the trees andstarting to see some vines on
the carriage porch it looks likewinter giving a perspective of
what it looked like from LakeAvenue as you drove into the
driveway.
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Let's shift gears to theinterior.
Here's a picture of Maria andTheodore inside their house, and
next to them is an example ofthe room and furniture in the
house.
As you can see, there'sbeautiful furniture, beautiful
woodworking.
It's a little ornate.
In my opinion, one of thethings noted in the house is
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that there were these murals,and I'll show you some pictures
of them.
But you had these murals thatwent from the top of the windows
to the ceiling some beautifulmurals on the ceiling itself.
We'll look at those in a second.
Going back to the woman at thebottom of the staircase from the
previous slide now I have apicture taken a little later in
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color.
You could see in more detailthe woodworking.
The craftsmanship Looks likethe same chair in this picture.
If you walk up the stairs yousee the woodwork throughout the
house.
If we take a quick turn aroundand look down the stairs you can
see I believe that is probablythe front entrance or certainly
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an entrance.
You start to see some paintingsand furniture in the
woodworking.
Here's more of the interior ofthe house.
You can see the furniture andthe woodwork.
Each room had different typesof wood.
It got very detailed and pretty.
One last picture of a lamp anda table and another interior
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picture with murals I referencedearlier.
Here's a ceiling mural and oneof the dining room murals.
I love this one because itshows them eating breakfast.
This could be when they wereliving in the barn while the
castle was being built.
There's a horse visiting.
It's a cool picture.
I would love to know if thismural was ever here.
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So let's take a quick look atwhat life on the estate looked
like.
Here is a larger picture fromthe Margaret Manor Butler
Collection from the LakewoodHistorical Society.
This picture was taken in 1934,discovered in the Lakewood
Historical Archives by GregScent, and it's fantastic.
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It's a view that in my 66 yearsI'd never seen before.
It shows not only the castleand the grounds but the paths
down to the lake.
Most pictures from our familyalbums were from ground level.
Here's a great example of apicture of the beach on the lake
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.
This is one of the fewproperties in Lakewood with
direct access down to the lake.
Most of the lakeshore is veryhigh cliffs.
This property had a littlebeach that you could walk the
grounds down to the beach.
There was a pump house thatpumped water up to the house and
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they would host picnics andcookouts down at the beach, and
there's some swimming areas inthe lake as well.
It must have been spectacularon a beautiful Cleveland summer
day.
There were paths from the houseto the lake.
On a beautiful Cleveland summerday, there were paths from the
house to the lake.
To the right you'd go down tothe beach the path to the upper
left where the bench is, leadsto a cliff overlooking the lake.
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Eventually they built what theycalled the Roundhouse At the
top.
Here's a picture of Theodore.
In front of it he has his cane,so this was after the factory
accident that injured his legand after that he always walked
with that cane area.
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From the aerial photo it wouldhave been a spectacular place to
enjoy an adult beverage on abeautiful summer night watching
the sunset over Lake Erie.
Here is a picture of Joe, tedand Ewald in front of the castle
.
I have dated this picturesomewhere around 1907, based on
the relative age of Joe andEwald.
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My grandfather, ewald, was bornin 1901, and his brother, joe,
was born in 1902.
They appear to be roughly five,six or seven in this picture
dating it to around 1907 timeframe.
Here is another picture,identified around 1910, of Maria
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and Theodore in front of theirhouse.
Here's a blow up to give you abetter perspective of their
outfits.
I think they really embracedthe culture of the United States
.
I asked my dad if he rememberstalking with his grandmother and
he said she had no accent.
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Her English was very good.
They spent a good bit of timelearning English and
assimilating into the UnitedStates as a prominent business
couple trying to maintainHungarian roots.
Here is a family picture aroundthe 1920s.
You can see Theodore and Mariain the front and the rest of the
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children in birth order.
Not pictured is their firstchild, joseph Peter, who
unfortunately only lived to two.
I believe he died during one ofthe flu epidemics of the late
19th century.
After that, ted was born, hewas called Theodore Jr, but he
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had a different middle name.
He was the oldest surviving sonof Theodore and Maria.
Then came Marie, ted's sister.
Also not pictured is WilliamJoseph, a special needs child
with developmental disabilitiesand did not live with the family
.
He lived in Chicago, illinois,then my grandfather Ewald,
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followed by his brother Joe,born 12 months later.
Next was Irene and then Angie,his younger brother Leo and the
youngest Dorothy.
As the saying goes, all goodthings must eventually come to
an end.
Now let's talk about the saleand the end of the era.
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The time frame is 1945 to 1961.
The sale of the castle, the onelast look the public open house
in 1960, and the eventualdemolition of the Kuntz Castle.
The Kuntz family's longassociation with the Lakewood
estate ended in 1945, when theproperty was sold to Robert
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Murrow for $60,000.
Here is a picture from 1955,after the Murrows bought the
property and about five to sixyears before they demolished the
house.
After Theodore died, maria livedin the house by herself.
It was actually at the timewhen my dad now 92, and his
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brother Ewald, now 96, remembergoing to visit the house and
visiting their grandmother there.
It was a lot of upkeep.
The children were grown marriedand were moved on and had their
own houses, some in Lakewoodand some, like my grandparents
and his youngest sister, dorothy, on the east side.
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It became overwhelming forMaria to care for it alone, so
they sold it in 1945.
Under the Murrow ownership, themansion gained the new nickname
of Murrow Castle.
Unfortunately, around 1960, thecastle and the surrounding land
was acquired by the EgglestonDevelopment Company for $110,000
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.
Murrow realized the castle wasan overwhelming undertaking to
maintain and had unfortunatelyoutlived its useful life useful
life.
The developers' intent was toredevelop the five-acre property
into a new residentialsubdivision consisting of 16
custom-built homes.
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Before closing this chapter,the Murrows and the developers
allowed one last celebration ofthe historic home, what they
called a public open house.
On December 18th 1960, theCleveland Plain Dealer published
an article entitled Last Look,then the Castle Will Crumble.
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They published smalleradvertisements inviting the open
inspection Saturday and Sundayafternoon, december 17th and
18th.
Plans pictures, architecturesketches, will be shown of the
luxury homes in the newdevelopment at that time known
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as New England Drive.
Then the cranes came, thewrecking balls came.
This Cleveland Press photo fromMarch 8th 1961 of the wrecking
company tearing down the house.
All that's left at this pointis the tower.
Then the following morning, onMarch 9th 1961, the Cleveland
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Plain Dealer published thisphoto of the castle falling with
the caption the tower fallswith a crash.
The house is now gone.
This is a photograph and thecorresponding article in the
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Cleveland Press March 8th 1961,and all it says is gone.
With the demolition of theGingerbread Tower comes to an
end one era in Lakewood andstarts a new one.
The Westside Realty Companywill build 16 homes in the
$50,000 to $100,000 range in thearea to be known as Edgewater
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Estates.
It's always been referred to inour family as the rise of
Kirtland Lane, the redevelopmentof the property.
Here is a June 22, 1962Cleveland Press.
Article 22nd 1962 ClevelandPress.
Who article?
We're about a year and a halfafter the demolition Bob Brennan
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, the real estate writer for theCleveland Press published an
article entitled Castle MemoryLingers in Kirtland Lane Homes.
He included a few pictures.
The first home occupied onKirtland Lane is listed as an
air-conditioned New Englandmodel bought by Carlisle and
Laura Milner.
Landscaping here was installedlast week.
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Here is a picture of theoriginal model home for Kirtland
Lane.
Kirtland Lane.
It's listed as a brick andframe home has four fireplaces,
first floor utility room,kitchen and family room.
Here is an interior picture ofthe Carlisle Milner's home
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entitled Spacious Setting forRelaxation.
This next picture is entitledThree Levels Face the Lake.
This is the rear of the homebeing built at 1041 Curtland
Lane for James Stouffer's ofStouffer's Restaurant.
It will have a traditionalfront elevation with an
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attractive two-car garage.
The home will have living anddining rooms, kitchen, breakfast
room, library, bedroom and bathon the main level, plus four
bedrooms and two baths on thesecond floor.
Basement level consists of afamily room, patio, barbecue and
a boat storage room.
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This picture is entitledSouthern Colonial is Among the
Var of early American homes onKirtland Lane.
His home has a library on thefirst floor, a circular stairway
, three bedrooms, two baths anda den on the second floor,
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wrapping up.
Here is an aerial photo ofKirtland Lane.
Most of the homes have beenbuilt.
Kirtland Lane runs down themiddle of the property and
Dakota Sack is probably wherethe original house stood.
Let's shift gears to Clevelandin the late 19th century.
This was a growth and expansionera for not only the city of
Cleveland and Midwestmanufacturing, including the
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Raccoons Company.
This picture shows the CowgillRiver and the brown areaund's
company.
This picture shows the KaugaRiver and the brown areas is
called the Irish Town Bend.
It used to be called the IrishTown Bend neighborhood and
redeveloped into a park.
Margaret Lynch, an archivist forthe Irish American Archive
Society, found that Irish TownBend had not only Irish but a
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whole bunch of Hungarians.
When she was looking at thecensus realized that many of the
people in the census recordslisted their native country as
Hungary.
What struck her was many ofthose residents listed their
occupation as cabinetmaker.
Residents listed theiroccupation as cabinetmaker,
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woodworker, craftsman, factoryworker, machinist.
The Irish town bend initiallyattracted skilled and
semi-skilled workers of Irishdescent, but over time more
Hungarians moved and lived inIrish town bend.
The rationale is because it waswithin walking distance of the
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theater of Kunz company which isshown on the map.
The original Sewing MachineCabinet Works was at 122 and 124
Elm Street.
Irish Town Bend has anothersignificance there's a residence
there at 41 Franklin Avenue,significant because Theodore
took up residence there in theIrish Town Bend neighborhood.
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When he arrived in Cleveland hewas on the boat from France.
He arrived in Cleveland.
He was on the boat from France.
He arrived in New York.
At that time Ellis Island wasnot in operation so he emigrated
quickly into the United States.
He got on a train and headedfor Cleveland.
But to give you some perspectiveof this picture shows Columbus
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Road and Riverbed Street, whichis still there today.
Then right behind it, betweenthe row of houses on the yellow
line, would have been FranklinAvenue.
At the top of the picture youcan see this church, which is
the St Emmerich Church.
But right here in this box withthree two-story and
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threeow-wide houses is what webelieve is Franklin Avenue and
therefore we believe Theodorelived in one of those houses,
most likely the first one on theleft.
If you Google 41 FranklinAvenue, you won't find it.
The city of Clevelandrenumbered the streets not only
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once but twice.
This address doesn't existbecause it was replaced in the
early 20th century.
Margaret Lynch and her brotherdid a triangulation work and
pinpointed this location whereTheodore resided, his wife, some
of his siblings or cousins andother relatives when they all
first moved to Cleveland.
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Moving down the river towardsthe lake, we see a picture of
the Theodore Kuntz Company.
His cabinet work was set up for122 and done 124 Elm Street in
1878.
He took over the space from abankrupt sewing machine company.
In fact, he actually worked forthat bankrupt sewing machine
company.
Even though Metzenzeifen wasknown for metallurgy and
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ironworks, they had cabinetmakers there and we believe
Theodore's father might havebeen a cabinet maker.
Giving Theodore anapprenticeship in his early
teens.
This allowed him and gave himthe skill he needed to work for
the Cleveland Sewing MachineCompany.
When the company couldn't payhim, he took his pay in the form
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of equity and later bought themout, renaming it the Theodor
Kuntz Company.
Here's a picture from 1879, acompany photograph taken in
front of the factory.
We believe everyone is fromMetzenzeifen.
Almost everyone would considerthemselves Hungarian.
You can see from this picturethere are two sewing machines.
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Theodore is the gentleman withthe hat in the middle, not
looking at the camera.
There are some young employeesat the top left-hand side of
this picture, but they were allproud of what they were doing.
The company had really startedto grow.
Here is a picture of theSuperior Viaduct around 1885.
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And at this point you can seethe cabinet works, what they
call plant one on the far leftwith the box, what they called
Plant 1 on the far left with thebox, the lumberyard and the
flats in the early 1880s showsthe business was starting to
grow.
A lot of people, a lot of wood.
He also had a lumberyard inLakewood which is a subject of
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another discussion becauseapparently it was one of the
most notorious fires inNortheastern Ohio, still talked
about by some elders of the mostnotorious fires in northeastern
Ohio, still talked about it bysome elders of the community.
Then, around 1910, the DetroitSuperior Bridge opened.
You can see the five plants inthe upper right-hand corner, the
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viaduct and the new bridge overin the flats.
You can sort of see where thepowerhouse is today.
Since I am giving thispresentation in a church, I
thought we'd spend some timetalking about church furniture.
Theodore was known mostly forsewing machines and that was
certainly his core business, butit wasn't his only business.
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Theodore expanded into morediversified manufacturing over
the years by the late 1870s,through the 1880s sewing
machines was the business.
The good news was that by 1879,for all intents and purposes he
was the sole supplier for thewhite sewing machine company.
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Sewing machines were verypopular and considered pieces of
furniture.
These machines were expensiveand prominently displayed in
parlors and living rooms.
By 1887, plant 1, which took upthe block of Washington Center,
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elm and Winslow Streets in theflats was solely dedicated to
making sewing machines.
Shortly thereafter Theodore gotinto the school furniture
business which he branded asEclipse.
He actually got into it byrequest.
The Cleveland Board ofEducation needed a local
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supplier they could trust andasked him to make furniture
which Plant 2 then produced,school furniture and eventually
church furniture.
Beyond Clipp's school furniturethere was the bicycle rim
business called.
In 1897, theodore was granted apatent number 596424, for
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wooden wheel rims.
Now Theodore already had about40 patents, mostly for sewing
machines.
But this shows how he got intothe business in the late 1890s.
I've seen advertisements fromEuropean cycling magazines from
1904 into the 1920s.
These rims were consideredhigh-end, relatively expensive,
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used by performance riders likeFrance quality riders, and they
were quite popular in Europe.
He also was in the truck andautomobile body business,
popular in Europe.
He also was in the truck andautomobile body business.
Plant 3 was a dedicatedmanufacturing automobile bodies
for Winton White, peerless,stearns and Murray companies.
Truck and automobile bodiesmade of wood were eventually
(31:51):
overtaken by steel in the 1900s.
He also was in the stadium andauditorium seat business, an
offshoot of the school furniturebusiness.
By 1930-31, theodore Quince hadsupplied 62,781 chairs to the
new Cleveland Municipal Stadium.
If you've ever sat in that oldstadium, those seats were
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manufactured in Cleveland byTheodore Quince.
He also made seats for otherstadiums, including Boston and
other older stadiums.
Unfortunately when they toredown the municipal stadium they
didn't save any of the seats.
If anybody has one I'm sure theLakewood Historical Society
would be happy to accept it.
(32:36):
They're hard to find, but aninteresting artifact for
Theodore's business.
Let's move on to the churchfurniture legacy, a natural
expansion of the schoolfurniture business.
He didn't organically grow thebusiness.
He acquired our churchfurniture company around 1909.
(32:56):
It was founded by GeorgeForbrower who apparently was a
fellow practitioner at St Rose'sCatholic Church, and the story
goes that George was aging, hishealth was failing and he wanted
to get out and he sold thebusiness to Theodore.
Shortly thereafter he startedto see advertising brochures,
(33:17):
showcase, theater quints churchfurniture like one entitled Da
Vinci's Last Supper.
What I find fascinating aboutthe church furniture business
allowed him to take his artistry, craftsmanship and
cabinet-making skills to reallyexpand it and utilize the true
talent.
The school furniture business isboring, not a lot of room for
(33:40):
beautiful hand carvings andelaborate woodworking.
It's very utilitarian andfunctional.
But the church furniturebusiness is different, as shown
by this beautifully carved inwood version of Da Vinci's Last
Supper.
Another couple of brochuresadvertise what he calls the
kunst craftsmanship.
Another couple of brochuresadvertised what he calls the
(34:01):
Kunstcraftsmanship and thefurniture and the pews designed
and built by Kunstcraftsmen.
At one time more than 5,000churches in 48 states had
handcrafted woodwork from theTheodor Kunst Company.
I picked up a 1916 churchfurniture catalog.
Here is the cover of it and inthe title page there were two
(34:23):
pictures of the factory.
The first one says thefactories cover four blocks.
The second says over 30 acresof hardware lumber.
By 1916, theodore Kuntz Companyhad grown and expanded.
Here are examples of churchfurniture from the 1916 catalog.
(34:45):
Here's pew end number 114,altar number 12, tri-seat number
576, and high pulpit 389.
That takes us to the Church ofthe Ascension.
Here is a picture of my92-year-old dad in front of the
(35:07):
church when we visited, afterGreg had uncovered some
wonderful artifacts tying thecurrent furniture in the church
to the Theodor Kuntz Company.
Here is a letter dated April 19, 1916.
It's a letter to ReverendWallace Gordon, presumably the
rector of the church, inquiringabout providing church furniture
(35:28):
In May 13, 1916,.
A letter to R H Wilcock, whowas listed in other
documentation as the chair ofthe building committee.
Essentially, this is a letteracknowledging the fact that they
are going to respond with aproposal for the church's needs.
And what ties this all out isthat on February 16th 1918, we
(35:50):
have a copy of an invoice thatdefinitely shows that business
had been conducted betweenTheodor Kuntz Company and the
Church of the Ascension.
Let's take a quick look at thecurrent pulpit, the
craftsmanship, the choir pewsand the church pews.
And then one last letter, datedMay 21st 1918, was a letter to
(36:15):
Mr RH Wilcock, againacknowledging the payment of
$1,590 and, of course, thankingthe church for their business.
The sales cycle went frominquiry to proposal to invoicing
to payment it up.
Theodore Quince thanked thechurch for their business and I
(36:38):
thank you and the HistoricalSociety and the church for
allowing me to pontificate onthe life and times of Theodore
Quince.
I'm John Quince, host of thisspecial edition of the Disruptor
podcast.
Take care, have a great day.
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