By Liz Brookshire
Program Manager, Pioneer Museum

2010 promises to be an exciting year at Pioneer Museum as wecelebrate 75 years of the Pioneer Museum. The first location for Pioneer Museumwas the reconstructed Vereins Kirche opened in May 1935. The original VereinsKirche, literally translated society’s church, was the first public buildingerected in Fredericksburg in 1847. Originally purposed to serve as a church,fortress, and storehouse for the Adels Verein, it also housed the first publicschool in Fredericksburg. By 1896 the old structure which stood in the middleof Main Street was deemed an eyesore and a hazard. The walls were torn away andit was used as a pavilion for the Golden Jubilee celebrating the fiftiethanniversary of the founding of Fredericksburg. The following year a courtdecree ordered that the remaining structure be removed from the middle of MainStreet. According to a series of articles written by Helen Weirich on thehistory of Holy Ghost Lutheran Church,

“The most protest came from a Catholic priest, FatherGerlach. He stated that it was an unfortunate idea to tear down the VereinsKirche; it was a reminder of past days, a venerable witness of so many sorrowsand joys, and an object of attraction and admiration of all strangers”.

Despite the objections of Father Gerlach, the old structurewas demolished and most of the beams were salvaged for reuse by members of thecommunity. Even the cornerstone was carted away. By the 1930s community memberswho fondly remembered the old structure had come to the conclusion thatdemolition of “die alte kaffee muehle” had indeed been a mistake.

In the New Deal years of the Great Depression as federalfunds began to flow into Fredericksburg, citizens seized the opportunity toconstruct a replica of the venerable old building. With plans drawn byarchitect Lee Kiehne and labor costs funded by the CWA, a committee of citizenswas appointed to oversee the construction. The cornerstone for thereconstructed Vereins Kirche was laid on December 23, 1933. A search for theoriginal cornerstone found it in use as a chicken watering trough and it wasreclaimed and incorporated into the new building.

The completed replica was formally dedicated with a two daycelebration May 11-12, 1935 that included parades, concerts and dances.Intended to serve as a library and a museum to “collect and house relics ofpioneer days”, it briefly housed the city offices and later served as Pioneer MemorialLibrary until a renovation of the second courthouse, now known as the McDermottBuilding, provided a new space for the library.