Despite recent efforts to save it, the historic A. Minchau Blacksmith Shop building in Ritchie was torn down Monday.
However, it appeared workers were trying to save some of the building’s original beams.
Early in 2018, the building’s owner applied to demolish the building, which dates back to 1925. Adolf Minchau became a prominent Strathcona business figure. He came to the area in 1907 from Russia.
The Heritage Forward group pushed to save the historic Edmonton building from the wrecking ball. A historical resource impact assessment was requested. The move by the province paused any demo permit, according to the heritage organization.
A demolition permit was issued this past July.
A Heritage Forward member called the history of the Minchau building “possibly the single most Edmonton story I can think of.”
Historic building enthusiast Dan Rose explained in an Instagram post in March 2018 that Minchau immigrated in 1907 and “worked for John Walter as a millwright before opening a blacksmith shop of his own catering to the carts, carriages and industrial businesses passing through the ‘end of steel.’
“As WWII kicked off, his German-ness was enough to arouse suspicion of authorities and Adolf Minchau was sent to an internment camp as a suspected enemy alien,” Rose wrote. “The business was confiscated but, after the war the family picked up where they left off and the blacksmith business continued in this location until the 1980s.”
The building was on the inventory of historic properties, but had no official designation.
It was also on the National Trust for Canada’s Top Ten Endangered Places List in 2018.
“The Minchau… it’s kind of a modest building that punches above its weight in terms of adding character to the neighbourhood,” explained Chris Wiebe, the manager of heritage policy and government relations for the National Trust for Canada.
“It went through various iterations as a blacksmith shop… and it speaks to the industrial nature of that area.”
Wiebe said the one-storey brick building was one of a rapidly dwindling number of old industrial structures in Old Strathcona, leading up to the old train station. The area is experiencing huge development pressure.
READ MORE: Historic Edmonton building could see date with the wrecking ball
“The land on which it sat was actually zoned back in 1987 up to 12 storeys… it got spot zoned in the 80s. There’s tremendous development potential for the land. I think that has put tremendous pressure on the building.”
In Alberta, as is the case in B.C., municipalities cannot designate historic sites without the owner’s consent. That’s why the Heritage Forward group likely made the ask to the provincial government, Wiebe said.
But the Minchau shop “wasn’t deemed provincially significant.”
Wiebe worries that Edmonton might be losing more and more of its history — like the “quirky” area around Minchau — and the structures and blocks that make it interesting.
“Edmonton is really good at saving the iconic places but it needs to work harder at saving the supporting cast.
“It gets a sort of fragmented feel.”
The construction industry is really geared towards new development, he added. In Europe, Wiebe said, there are rules and incentives in place that push for the upgrading and restoration or existing structures over tearing down the old and building new.
“Edmonton has an amazing unsung heritage character that really needs to be sensitively thought about now,” he said. “I think we’re seeing erosion of some of those more modest character buildings.
“It’s really the supporting cast that’s under threat here.”
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