In this heritage battle, Schneider Haus will be on top

There are Important Heritage Buildings, and there are Very Important Heritage Buildings.

And when their interests conflict, guess which will win?

Schneider Haus, on Queen Street near Mill Street, is the oldest house in Kitchener at 200 years old.

It was the home of Joseph and Barbara Schneider, who arrived in June 1807 as the first non-Aboriginal settlers in this area.

They had come all the way from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, looking for good farmland. They found uncleared bush and swamp. But within 10 years, they had built a sawmill and a wood-frame home. They cleared a road from their farm property to connect to the main road from Dundas. They called it Schneider Road. Today, we know it as Queen Street.

The house stands today, beautifully restored with gardens and outbuildings where meat was smoked, bread was baked, and food was kept cool. There are costumed guides ready to help anyone understand how daily life was lived, all those years ago. It is a national historic monument.

Over the years, the original 448-acre farm around the house gradually gave way to other homes and a beautiful park named after Queen Victoria.

In the 1920s, two homes were built right beside Schneider Haus. In the 1980s, the Region of Waterloo purchased those homes.

“They were purchased for the purpose of demolishing them,” said regional Chair Ken Seiling.

The idea was that the homes would eventually be cleared to make a more spacious vista for Schneider Haus, with authentic gardens built there to show visitors how it was done in the mid-19th century. The extra space would allow for more groups.

The homes were rented out as office space and also used in the 1980s and 1990s as emergency housing for large families, Seiling said. But they’ve stood vacant for three years. The region has found other, more cost-effective ways to provide emergency shelter for large families than using homes like this.

Now the region wants a permit from the City of Kitchener to demolish the homes and get on with the job of expanding the gardens around Schneider Haus.

But they may get resistance from the city, for a different set of heritage reasons.

Both Schneider Haus and the two neighbouring homes are in a special heritage district around Victoria Park, which is in place to “protect and enhance groups of properties or neighbourhoods that collectively give an area special character,” says the city’s website.

The Victoria Park heritage plan discourages the demolition of homes in the district.

The value of a conservation district is in having a group of homes that are all similar in style and vintage, connecting to a specific time in history. If the city allows a few of those homes to be demolished, the whole neigh-

bourhood could be diminished, bit by bit.

It’s a reasonable concern. But this particular conflict is one that the city is almost certain to lose.

After all, these houses aren’t coming down to make way for a highrise condominium tower, an office tower or a grocery store.

Rather, they’re coming down to make way for a more significant expression of our heritage.

Schneider Haus, after all, is the first home of its kind. It’s more meaningful than the two houses beside it. Not even the most ardent conservationist can argue with that.