Interior Hardwood Company Limited
William Theodore Sass (1866–1938) was just 15 years old when he started working as a factory hand at a furniture company in the city then known as Berlin, Ontario. In 1901, at the age of 35, he founded the Berlin Interior Hardwood Company. Following the company’s successful launch, local industrialist Homer Ford (1869–1931) became a partner and the business was incorporated in 1903. In the years preceding the First World War, Berlin became the target of anti-German sentiment in Canada and manufacturers in the city faced the threat of a boycott. A controversial municipal referendum was held in 1916 and the city adopted a new name: Kitchener. When the Government of Canada placed its furniture order for the newly constructed Centre Block in 1920, the company was known simply as the Interior Hardwood Company.