Since 1865

A craft carried forward.

I come from a family of craftsmen, designers and builders. This is where they started, and what they made.

Restored black-and-white studio portrait of an older couple: a woman in a dark dress standing beside a seated older man in a dark coat

Xavier and Crescentia Pfeifer.

1849

In March 1849, Xavier and Crescentia Pfeifer left Ebnat, in Württemberg, for Canada with two small children, Nancy and Frank. They had lost two children in Ebnat the summer before.

Doon

Xavier was a carpenter's son. The family settled in Doon, and when the village's Presbyterian church went up, the pews were left to him. The family themselves were Catholic, and had their children baptised at St. Clement's in Preston.

“…pewing the church which was to be done by Xavier Pfeifer.”

From the record of the building of the church at Doon.

Restored black-and-white portrait of Frank X. Pfeifer as a bearded young man in a light jacket, 1872

Frank X. Pfeifer, 1872.

1865

In 1865 their son Frank, nineteen years old, bought fifty acres in Aldborough Township. The assessment roll valued it at $200. Two years later fifteen acres were cleared, and the household of five kept one cow, one sheep and two hogs.

1870

In 1870 Frank leased the farm to his younger brother John, on one condition: that John look after their parents there. In 1877 John bought it from him for $400.

Restored black-and-white photograph of the Pfeifer farm in Aldborough Township: a white farmhouse and a large timber barn beyond a pasture with two calves

The farm in Aldborough Township.

Restored black-and-white studio portrait of John H. Pfeifer as a boy in a suit, standing beside a draped table

John H. Pfeifer as a boy, and at twenty.

John

This is John as a boy, and again at twenty. I'm named after him.

The farm

John married Hannah Eberle of Duart. They raised seven children on the farm: Clara, Elizabeth, Theresa, Bill, George, Joseph and Charles.

Restored black-and-white family portrait of John and Hannah Pfeifer with their seven children, about 1905

John and Hannah Pfeifer and family. Back row: Bill, Theresa, Clara and Lizzie. Front row: George, John, Charles, Hannah and Joe.

Restored black-and-white photograph of the original two-storey white clapboard Pfeifer farmhouse behind a spreading tree

The original farmhouse.

Talbot Road

There was a cider mill on the farm, on Talbot Road, worked by horse power. The family often left a crock of cider on the back porch for thirsty workers.

Barns

John was a builder as well as a farmer. He built barns for the neighbours, and the family kept a photograph of the last one, on Silver Street.

Restored black-and-white photograph of a large gambrel-roofed timber barn under construction on a stone foundation

The last barn built by John Pfeifer, on Silver Street.

Restored black-and-white photograph of a work crew in caps standing on and around a large flat-bottomed boat hull under construction

Building a hull at New Glasgow.

New Glasgow

His sons learned beside him. As young men they worked with their father building boats at New Glasgow, about five minutes from the farm.

Charlie and Joe

Joe and his younger brother Charlie were inseparable, and they built a great deal together. In 1927 they went to St. Isidore, Quebec, with their brother Bill, and built a canning factory there.

Restored black-and-white photograph of Charlie, Bill and Joe Pfeifer with friends: eight men in shirts and ties holding golf clubs, standing in a row beside a weathered barn

From the left: Charlie, George and Joe Pfeifer, with friends.

West Lorne

Back home, Charlie and Joe built houses in West Lorne: one on Argyle Street in 1923, from cement blocks made by hand; a service station and home on the old farm in 1933; two on Graham Street, in 1945 and 1946, the first designed like a home seen in London, Ontario; and in 1953, a building on Main Street with a home upstairs and two businesses below.

Argyle Street, West Lorne, 1923.

Black-and-white photograph of a small white service station and home with gas pumps and a 1930s car in front

The service station and home on the old farm, 1933.

Black-and-white photograph of a two-storey brick house with white shutters and a central doorway on Graham Street, West Lorne

Graham Street, West Lorne, 1945.

Black-and-white photograph of a one-storey white house with an attached garage on Graham Street, West Lorne

Graham Street, West Lorne, 1946.

Black-and-white photograph of a two-storey brick and stucco commercial building on Main Street, West Lorne, with cars parked in front

Main Street, West Lorne, 1953: a home upstairs, two businesses below.

Black-and-white photograph of Charlie Pfeifer standing in the doorway of the brick Main Street building, behind a planter of flowers

The Main Street building, built in 1953.

Restored black-and-white photograph of Charlie Pfeifer in a cap, shirt and braces, standing with his hands on his hips on a pile of logs

Charlie Pfeifer at the mill.

Sawmills

In 1935, when disease hit the county's chestnut trees, Joe Grey offered Charlie and a friend all the logs if they would cut them. They set up a mill on the spot and worked until the bush was cleared. The next year Charlie was managing a sawmill in Canborough.

The saw

A newspaper once said he was "noted throughout the locality for his skill in setting up saws for fine and accurate work." Here he is in 1978, still fixing saws. His favourite material, the family wrote, was wood.

Restored black-and-white photograph of Charlie Pfeifer in work clothes and a cap, holding a large circular saw blade in his workshop in 1978

Charlie Pfeifer, still fixing saws in 1978.

St. Henry's Church.

St. Henry's

St. Henry's Church stands on Middle Street in Aldborough. Charlie married Marie Casey there in 1934, and Matilda, Xavier and Crescentia's daughter, is buried in its cemetery.

Waitlist

First packages release summer 2027.

Join the waitlist

What I carry forward

Make the materials yourself if you have to.

Set the saw up right before the first cut.

Look after your own.

Use wood honestly.

Build for the neighbours as carefully as for yourself.

One room, built well.

I'm proud to come from a family of craftsmen, designers and builders. John Pfeifer Design carries that work forward, one backyard studio at a time.

Black-and-white photograph of John Pfeifer and his father, Philip, standing in front of the timber frame of the first studio prototype at dusk, looking up at it under string lights

John and his father, Philip.