COLUMN: Flashback May 20, 1960 – Time runs out on efforts to delay house-barn demo

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/05/2021 (1856 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The historic G.G. Kornelsen home, the last remaining landmark of early Mennonite settlement in Steinbach, crumpled into splinters before the onslaught of a bulldozer, as time ran out on efforts by the Mennonite Historical Society to have the building transformed into a community museum.

A last-minute delegation to A.D. Penner’s office across the street, failed to convince the auto dealer to further delay the demolition of the building, on property he had purchased more than a year earlier.

Penner pointed out that he had allowed any interested historical group the opportunity to buy the property, for what he had paid for it, and more than a year had passed without anyone taking him up on his offer.

“It is now necessary to clean up the lot without further delay, while Penner Construction equipment is available for the job.”

Early in the afternoon of May 17, 1960, Johnny Barkman levelled the blade of the powerful D9 Caterpillar, and seconds later, the barn section of the aging structure crumpled like matchsticks. The bulldozer came up against much greater resistance when it reached the house portion of the house-barn where it ran into stouter timbers.

Despite a few delays, while the bulldozer operator stopped to pose for local photographers, within an hour the job was completed and the Kornelsen building was reduced to a pile of rubble.

The historic home at the corner of No. 12 Highway and Main Street in Steinbach passed from the hands of the Kornelsen family in 1950 after they had preserved it as a community monument for the past half century.

The house, which was built late in the 1870’s by Klaas Friesen, was sold together with the attached livestock barn and three acres of land, in 1909 to G.G. Kornelsen for $900.

Kornelsen bought it partly because he wished to preserve the house/barn as an authentic monument to the pioneer Mennonites for the coming generations. The price was low, because both house and barn were in very bad shape at the time, so Kornelson was able to buy it without violating his principle of never going into debt.

The Kornelsens moved into the house in 1909, restoring it to again being inhabitable, and over the years, made constant improvements to the dwelling portion of the building, spending considerable sums to maintain it in a good state of repair.

It was half a century after their purchase, Kornelsen’s widow and her daughter Mary, a well-known Steinbach school principal, sold their family home to A.D. Penner for $15,000.

At the time Mary Kornelsen said she wanted to make it clear to the public that $15,000 was not their asking price.

“We did not ask Mr. Penner for $15,000 and would have accepted much less. Mr Penner’s generous offer probably had something to do with the fact he had been a school pupil of my father at one time.”

Penner told The Carillon when he purchased the GG Kornelsen property, he had no immediate plans for disposal of the historic home, and would do nothing for six months, to give the Mennonite Historical Society an opportunity to purchase the property, at the price he paid for it, for use as a museum.

If no move was made to purchase the property for use as a historical site, he would feel free to tear down the building and use the site for some other purpose, he said.

Probably no one was more deeply affected by the destruction of the building than local historian John C. Reimer, who has been working since 1934, collecting artifacts for a Mennonite museum in Steinbach. He had hoped to be able to transform the historic home into a museum to house these items.

Reimer said that in spite of the loss of this valuable landmark, the Mennonite Historical Society will continue with plans to establish a museum in Steinbach in the near future.