William W. Hiltz
Plot 21, Section 31, Lot 23
Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto
Hiltz was born on a farm near Erin, Ontario and received his early education at Erin and Georgetown public schools, and at the Brampton High School. Seeking to be a teacher he graduated from Milton Model School and the Hamilton Normal School after which he obtained teaching position in Halton County. In 1899 he was appointed principal of the Weston High School and two years later became assistant principal at the old Hamilton Street School. It was about this time that Hiltz became interested in the house building business. He resigned his position with the Board of Education and established his own realty and building enterprise.
Entering the wonderful world of politics, Hiltz became a school trustee in 1911 and chairman of the Board of Education the following year. He then served as city alderman for 1914 to 1920 and city controller from 1921 to 1923 and was elected mayor in 1924. As mayor he demanded that the federal government fulfil its promise to build the cross-waterfront railway viaduct and to complete the city’s new Union Station, both ideas having been promised years before. The government in power listened and the station and the viaduct were ready by the end of the decade. Hiltz, who had a street in the Queen Street East/Greenwood Avenue part of the city named in his honour, died at his 682 Broadview Avenue home, which he built himself, on February 26, 1936.
Mike Filey
Mount Pleasant Cemetery: An Illustrated Guide
Second Edition Revised and Expanded