jchamp54
Mennonite house-barn at Blumenheim
Excerpt from a 2005 article by Claude-Jean Harel on the Saskatchewan River Valley Museum in Hague: "In a way, this type of structure is symbolic of another view of the world. It was devised by the Mennonites in seventeenth-century Poland where farmland was more scarce and restricted to small, narrow parcels of land. It was designed specifically to house a farm family, agricultural livestock, and produce in one structure. The unique design of house-barns allowed them to use land to its fullest capacity by containing farm buildings within a limited space. This also contributed to and reinforced the Mennonites' closely-knit communities since the structures were built within very close proximity to one another in communities of 20 to 60 family units. When the Mennonites immigrated to Canada, they retained this unique style of architecture because it allowed them to preserve their agricultural way of life as well as their religious and cultural beliefs. 'The family members went straight from the kitchen to the barn by a shared door,' explains [Gerry] Kuehn. 'Some of these houses had some kind of transition room between the two areas, a bit like we would have a mud room today—one that would lead into the barn and the house at each end'." www.greatexcursions.com/blogs/explore_regina/2005/08/1908...
Mennonite house-barn at Blumenheim
Excerpt from a 2005 article by Claude-Jean Harel on the Saskatchewan River Valley Museum in Hague: "In a way, this type of structure is symbolic of another view of the world. It was devised by the Mennonites in seventeenth-century Poland where farmland was more scarce and restricted to small, narrow parcels of land. It was designed specifically to house a farm family, agricultural livestock, and produce in one structure. The unique design of house-barns allowed them to use land to its fullest capacity by containing farm buildings within a limited space. This also contributed to and reinforced the Mennonites' closely-knit communities since the structures were built within very close proximity to one another in communities of 20 to 60 family units. When the Mennonites immigrated to Canada, they retained this unique style of architecture because it allowed them to preserve their agricultural way of life as well as their religious and cultural beliefs. 'The family members went straight from the kitchen to the barn by a shared door,' explains [Gerry] Kuehn. 'Some of these houses had some kind of transition room between the two areas, a bit like we would have a mud room today—one that would lead into the barn and the house at each end'." www.greatexcursions.com/blogs/explore_regina/2005/08/1908...