The old Minchau blacksmith shop building, a national historic site although unrecognized as such, is maybe about to be changed forever.
Scaffolding is being unloaded perhaps to be used to eradicate some of the old building's historicity.
The old building, at corner of 81st Avenue and 101 Street, is about to celebrate its 100th anniversary. It is the last blacksmith building still standing in southside Edmonton.
Empty, with no tenants or occupants, and with its owners intent, it seems, on destroying it to build a high-rise already approved by the City, its future is uncertain.
Its historic status does not ensure its survival. The old Davies residence at 84th and 106th with similar municipal status was destroyed.
The old building is a reminder of a political crack-down. Blacksmith Adolf Minchau was a right-wing German-Canadian. A first-generation Canadian, he applauded Hitler's reforms in Germany, perhaps even saying that he was "making Germany great" again!
As president of the German-Canadian friendship society he was one of Edmonton's most prominent Germans as WWII started. In the early stages of WWII, late one night the area of his blacksmith shop and his adjoining residence was cordoned off and engulfed in a tumult of army, police and other security forces as Minchau and many other German men living in the area were rounded up. He spent years in an internment camp and had his property seized. Later he was released and his property returned.
This event was later remembered by Bill McLean, a one-time friend of Adolf's son. Bill McLean's recollections were collected and published in the Memories of Bonnie Doon book.
The history of the Minchau blacksmith building is described my book Old Strathcona Edmonton's Southside Roots.
With private ownership, historic elements of the city are left to the initiative and prejudices and greed of private owners.
If the Minchau building is not as grand as the old mansions on 100th Avenue or as substantial as the old City hall, or as funky as the old art deco business blocks on Jasper Avenue at 92 Street, unlike them it has not yet been destroyed - it is all we are left with, to try to preserve.
Let's do what we can to preserve and protect it.
Thanks for reading.
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