Brubacher House (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada)

Brubacher House, formerly referred to as Schmidt Farmhouse and John E. Brubacher House, is a historic house museum in Waterloo, Ontario. It is located on the Haldimand Tract and the traditional territory of the Attawandaron, Huron-Wendat, Anishinaabeg, and Haudenosaunee (Six Nations) peoples. The farmhouse functioned as a residence for members of the Brubacher family during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As a museum, Brubacher House has aimed to encourage dialogue about, and educate the public on, the history and culture of Mennonites in Waterloo Region.

Brubacher House was constructed in 1850 to be the family home of John E. Brubacher (1822-1902) and Magdalena (Musselman) Brubacher (1827-1877), a Mennonite couple with Pennsylvania German heritage. John E. and Magdalena were born in Waterloo Township and married in 1846. Magdalena and John E. raised their fourteen children in Brubacher House until Magdalena’s unexpected death in 1877. In 1882, John E. married Magdelena’s widowed sister, Esther Musselman (1842-1946). John E. passed away in 1902, leaving the farmhouse to Esther. From 1903 until 1954, ownership of Brubacher House shifted between various relatives and descendants of the Brubacher family. In 1954, the house was sold to Caroline and William Schmidt who had no direct familial ties to the Brubachers. Residents throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries used the land surrounding the home for agricultural production. In 1965, the University of Waterloo acquired Brubacher House along with nine other farmhouses as part of the University’s campus expansion. In 1968, a fire significantly damaged the home’s interior. After substantial restoration work, Brubacher House was converted into a museum. The farmhouse was designated under the Ontario Heritage Act as a site of “historic value and interest” in 1975, and on 28 June 28 1979, Brubacher House museum opened to the public. In 2019, Brubacher House was recognized by the City of Waterloo as an important Cultural Heritage Landscape.

The establishment of Brubacher House as a historic house museum began with the advocacy of members of the Mennonite Historical Society of Ontario and University of Waterloo faculty during the mid- to late-1960s. They proposed that the University of Waterloo preserve and restore one of the original farmhouses on their expanded campus due to the local historical, educational, and cultural value of the buildings. After the University of Waterloo sanctioned the project, Brubacher House was selected for restoration. The University of Waterloo, Waterloo Regional Heritage Foundation, and Mennonite Historical Society of Ontario collaborated to convert the home into a museum that depicted life in a Mennonite farmhouse from the 1850s-1890s. The Mennonite community in the region was instrumental in Brubacher House’s transformation. Local Mennonite and expert craftsperson Simeon Martin led the restoration process. The University of Waterloo continued to own Brubacher House and manage the museum alongside the Mennonite Historical Society of Ontario and Conrad Grebel University College. Live-in museum hosts were hired to conduct day-to-day programming and to be responsible for the care of the historic house.

In 2024 visitors to Brubacher House could tour the kitchen, pantry, bedroom, and parlour on the main floor as well as a summer kitchen in the basement. Artifacts, such as furniture, textiles, and tools, from the Brubacher family and other local Mennonite families furnished these spaces. The historic house museum featured texts of Mennonite religious significance, including an 1814 copy of Martyrs’ Mirror and a copy of Die Gemeinschaftliche Liedersammlung, a hymnbook compiled by Bishop Benjamin Eby and published in 1836. Liedersammlung was the first book printed in Waterloo Region and an integral component of Mennonite faith practices across Ontario throughout the nineteenth century. In addition to touring the interior of the home, visitors could explore Brubacher House’s grounds, which featured a nineteenth-century style four-square kitchen garden. Brubacher House also hosted community events, featureed an artist-in-residence program, and offered event space rentals.

Brubacher House, two-storey fieldstone farmhouse, was built on Block Two of the Haldimand Tract. The Haldimand Tract included six miles of land on either side of the Grand River. This land was pledged to the Six Nations of the Grand River in 1784 through the Haldimand Proclamation. It was agreed that the Crown would put the funds generated from surrendered blocks of the Haldimand Tract toward supporting the Six Nations; however, the Crown did not honour their commitment and most to all of the revenue never reached the Six Nations peoples. In the early 1800s, a group of Mennonites from Lancaster County formed the German Company to purchase Block Two of the Haldimand Tract, which consisted of 60,000 acres of land that would eventually become Waterloo Township. The German Company acquired the land in 1805, stimulating a wave of Mennonite migration from Pennsylvania into the area during the early nineteenth century. Susannah (Erb) Brubacher, John E. Brubacher’s grandmother, was one of the shareholders in the German Company, and Brubacher House was built on Lot 25 of the German Company’s holdings. As part of Brubacher House’s efforts toward inclusivity in the early 2020s, programming was added to the site to acknowledge the Indigenous history of the land and reflect on the role that Mennonite land purchases and settlement in the Grand River Valley have played in the dispossession of Indigenous peoples.

In 2024 Brubacher House,continued to showcase a Pennsylvania German, Georgian architectural style of the late nineteenth century and was open to the public for tours in the afternoons from May through October.

Additional Information

Street Address: Frank Tompa Dr., Waterloo N2L 3G1

Mailing Address: BRH-200 University Ave W, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1

Phone: 519-886-3855

Website: Brubacher House Museum

Author(s)	Julia Nicolaisen
Date Published	10 Aug 2024

Cite This Article

MLA style

Nicolaisen, Julia. "Brubacher House (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 10 Aug 2024. Web. 3 Dec 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Brubacher_House_(Waterloo,_Ontario,_Canada)&oldid=179413.

APA style

Nicolaisen, Julia. (10 Aug 2024). Brubacher House (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 3 December 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Brubacher_House_(Waterloo,_Ontario,_Canada)&oldid=179413.

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