In 1907, the newly incorporated Manitoba Development Company surveyed town sites along the route of the newly established Midland Railway of Manitoba. A triangular land parcel in the northeast corner of 6-4-3W, in what is now the Rural Municipality of Roland, was surveyed in a grand plan that included seven streets and over 140 lots. Originally to be called Roosevelt, possibly a corruption of the nearby Rosewell School District, the plan referred to the site as Kronsgart.
Only 17 of the first 60 lots offered for sale at Kronsgart sold, mainly for their commercial potential. By the spring of 1908, there was a general store, lumberyard, machine shop, post office, grain elevator, and hotel, as well as two residences. Almost immediately, the hotel drew the ire of local Mennonite farmers, who objected to its sale of alcoholic beverages. Their problem was short-lived, however, for the hotel was destroyed five months later by a fire caused by a lantern left untended in the cellar by the bartender. By 1911, ownership of most lots had transferred back to land developer Christopher T. Haskett but it eventually reverted to the municipality for non-payment of taxes. Today, the former town site is primarily an agricultural field.
General store at Kronsgart (circa 1928)
Source: Mennonite Heritage Archives, MHC 675-2.0Site Coordinates (lat/long): N49.27965, W97.84549
denoted by symbol on the map above
Geographic Names of Manitoba, Manitoba Conservation, 2000.
“Abandoned railway town-sites or stations in, or near, the Mennonite West Reserve” by Bruce Wiebe, Preservings, No. 31, pp. 34-40, 2011.
We thank Bruce Wiebe for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 8 July 2019
Historic Sites of Manitoba
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