Historical plaque honouring Preston educator stolen from site of first school in Upper Canada

Another historical plaque has been stolen from a Cambridge heritage site.

The plaque was installed in 1994 to honour Otto Klotz, in front of 849 Queenston Road in Cambridge, a home thought to be the first Common School established in Upper Canada.

The former schoolhouse received a heritage designation from the province in 1978.

Nearly two decades later, the plaque was installed by the Waterloo Historical Society to honour the educator considered “instrumental in establishing the first free school in Wellington District.”

Tom Reitz posted the theft on the Cambridge Ontario Facebook group Thursday morning and said the crime has been reported to the Waterloo Regional Police Service.

"If you see the plaque – laying in shrubs, along the rivers, in a booth at a flea market, in a scrap yard – please notify the Waterloo Regional Police Service," he wrote.

The theft comes in the wake of two other thefts of historical bronze plaques in 2022 and 2023.

A commemorative plaque was reported missing from a trail in the Dryden Tract, just west of Cambridge, in 2022 and in 2023, a plaque was taken from the front of Trinity Anglican Church.

Other plaques have gone missing from benches commemorating lost loved ones in Riverside Park.

It's believed the plaques are sold for scrap, although it's doubtful any credible metal dealer would accept historical plaques.

Bronze is currently priced at about $2.50 per pound and the plaques weigh up to 20 pounds.