Concordia College - Corona Borealis Yearbook (Edmonton, Alberta Canada)

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Beginning of Building Operations in 1925 After our architect had made a trip to our colleges in St. Paul, Milwaukee, and River Forest for the purpose of acquainting himself more thoroughly with Missouri Synod architecture, plans made rapid progress. On May 18, 1925, Synod ' s Board of Directors approved of the tenders which had been submitted bv the Poole Construction Co. for the construction of buildings, $97,384; C. R. Frost for plumbing and heating, $19,417; and H. H. Depew Co. for electrical work, $2,598. Materials to be used were tapestry brick, reinforced concrete, and building tile. In a bi-lingual service on May 20, 1925, led by Pastor J. C. Mueller, ground was broken by Principal Schwermann. For the cornerstone laying on July 5th, 1925, also the pastors and lay delegates of the Dis¬ trict were present. From their convention at Stony Plain they, together with fellow- Lutherans, were conveyed the twenty miles to Edmonton and return by special train. Vice-President Fr. Brandt of St. Louis delivered the German and the Rev. C. T. Wetzstein of Regina the English sermon. The cornerstone was laid by President A. J. Mueller and the offering of $215 was designated for equipment. Dedication on January 10, 1926 And then came the day of days—January 10, 1926—the day of dedication. The weather had hitherto been unusually propitious for building operations. Would it hold? Saturday night it began to rain, and on this basis it was safe to predict snow and sub-zero temperature for the following day. But on Sunday morning the sun arose in all his splendor and in a cloudless sky graciously smiled on us till dusk. Forty- three above zero was the maximum for the day, one that the Lord had made! The festive celebration began at two o’clock. President A. J. Mueller, Mr. H. A. Magoon, Mr. Hy. W. Horst, and the Rev. J. C. Mueller took part in a brief opening ceremony. Since the chapel offered room for only 200 people, accommodation was found for more than 800 other guests in all available rooms of both buildings, where a public address system—quite a novelty for those days—had been set up. The first pioneers of Western Canada had been chosen as speakers. Pastor E. Eberhardt, for the German and Pastor H. Buegel for the English sermon. Cordial felicitations were con¬ veyed to the assembly by Vice-President J. Lucht of Saskatchewan. Joyousness was added to the dedication by the presence of some seventy pastors and several teachers of the four western provinces, who held a pastoral conference from Thursday to Mon¬ day. The day’s offering of $335 was used for equipment of classrooms. On the fol¬ lowing night pastors and students assembled in the chapel for an academic celebration in which only the Latin language was used for the address as well as for the hymns and prayers. Prof. W. A. Baepler had chosen as his theme, “The importance of a know¬ ledge of classical language for a minister of the Gospel”. A banquet in the dining hall brought the festivities to a happy conclusion. Nothing was more fitting to close this chapter in the history of our school than a letter written for the dedication by Mr. John Burkhart, a layman of the congregation at Hoffenthal, Saskatchewan, which extolled the goodness of the Lord in a marvellous symphony of praise and thanksgiving taken from pertinent prayers of David and Solomon. (Cp. “Unsere Kirche”, March, 1926). Building of Residences in 1930 In 1929 a building committee composed of Pastor E. Eberhardt, Prof. M. W. Riedel, and Mr. John Armbruster began to plan the erection of residences for our teachers. Mr. Hy. Horst, as the representative of the Board of Directors again made a trip to Edmonton the end of March, 1930, and assisted the committee with expert ad- 12

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Our sojourn in rented quarters ended on December 23, 1925. On that day a short farewell service was held in the old administration building, where we had spent four years and two months and where a total of 126 boys had been enrolled. The first student to enrol in it was William Hedrich of Trochu, Alberta. A class of 13 was graduated from the high school department on June 29, 1925, at which occasion Jacob L. Ulmer delivered the salutatory and Albert F. Reiner the valedictory. Of their num¬ ber Walter Rosnau, later a River Forest graduate, was the first to enter the service of our church as Christian day school teacher in Stony Plain (1927), and Philip Unter- schultz became the first pastor, at Rochester, Alberta (1930). Four students had been laid to rest in God’s acre, no fewer than three during 1923. The complete high school department of four classes had been organized and four professors called. In one of the letters of that period Mr. Hy. Fforst wrote: “Those must have been wonderful days— the getting ready, the opening and final occupation of our first Concordia in Canada”, indeed, they were! Ebenezer! Plans for New Buildings, 1924 Acting upon instructions of Synod at Ft. Wayne in 1923, the Board of Direc¬ tors had settled the question of permanent location in favor of Edmonton on September 10, 1924. This same convention in 1923 made an additional appropriation of $75,000, thereby making available a total of $147,000 for the purchase of land and the construc¬ tion of new buildings. Dr. F. Pfotcnhauer and Mr. Hy. Horst arrived at Edmonton on November 20, 1924, to advise the local Board in building matters. With their ap¬ proval the Board agreed to purchase the Fraser estate (together with several lots owned by the city), covering in area 8.11 acres, at the cost of $13,800. This price included min¬ eral rights, ownership of which prevented coal companies from mining underneath the property. This site is reputedly one of the finest in the city. Situated on Jasper Avenue and Seventy-first Street, it lies high above the beautiful valley of the Saskatchewan river, borders the scenic Highlands golf course, ana adjoins the Fair Grounds and Bor¬ den Park. The distance to the heart of the city is a ten-minute bus ride. Several smaller buildings were included in the purchase and also a large eight-room house, said to have been erected in 1908, which was remodelled at a cost of $1,938 and has since August 28, 1925, been occupied by the principal. In this November meeting of 1924 the well- known architectural firm of G. H. MacDonald and H. A. Magoon, whose fees were 5% of the building cost, was appointed to take charge of building operations; and the building committee consisted of Dr. F. Pfotenhauer, Mr. Hy. Horst, Rev. J. C. Mueller, chairman, Prof. A. M. Rehwinkel, secretary, Rev. E. Eberhardt, Messrs. Jacob Ulmer, Sam Gabert, and R. Wechsel. In 1920 the members of Western Canada had promised to contribute $22,000, chiefly for the purchase of real estate. Early in 1921 Pastor E. Eberhardt had obtained leave of absence from his congregation at Stony Plain and canvassed the majority of parishes in northern Alberta. On February 23, 1921, he reported that pledges amounted to $19,000, his own congregation having subscribed $7,700. Since tne building program envisioned at that time had been postponed for three years, many of the pledges had not been redeemed, while in other parts of the West no action had been taken at all. It was for this reason that the building committee requested the principal of the col¬ lege to place in person the needs before our fellow-Christians. This he did in Alberta and British Columbia when in the spring of 1925 he visited thirty-two congregations in forty-two days, and in Saskatchewan and Manitoba when in the fall of the same year he called on forty-one congregations in forty-two days. One of the highlights of this trip was occasioned by a little twelve-year-old lad who asked for the subscription list and signed one dollar. Questioned as to where he would get this money, he replied: “I’m going to catch ‘mooshrats’.” His faith was strong enough to believe that God would even supply muskrats, when the needs of the kingdom required such. 11

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vice. In the ensuing meetings arrangements were made with the city land department to exchange on even terms the eleven lots at the north end of our property (along a street car line) for eleven more serviceable lots along Jasper Avenue immediately to the east of the college grounds, across Seventy-first Street. The contract for four houses, designed by architects MacDonald and Magoon, was let to Thomas Ingram on June 24, 1930. This building program was completed in the fall of the same year at a cost of $39,466. The Tax Case in 1930 The Edmonton Charter exempts the following lands from municipal and school taxes: “The land not exceeding four acres of and attached to or otherwise bona-fide used in connection with and for the purposes of any university, college, high school, public or separate school, seminary of learning or hospital owned by a corporation ... so long as such land is actually used and occupied by such institution but not if otherwise occupied”. Before proceeding with any plans for new residences, our Board addressed a letter under date of August 3, 1929, to the city assessor with the question: “Are teachers’ residences considered to be ‘buildings used in connection with and for the use of colleges’ and therefore exempt from taxation?” The assessor referred the question to the city solicitor with the statement: They wish to have full assurance on the matter of exemption before proceeding [with an extensive building program]”. The solicitor gave it as his opinion that land occupied by residences used by instructors of the college are exempt, and this opinion was communicated to our Board by the city assessor. It came, therefore, as a rude shock when, after the residences had been erected in 1930, our Board of Control received notice from this same city assessor that these houses had been placed on the list of taxable property. Our complaints and arguments resulted in the decision of the city’s legal department to place the matter before the Supreme Court in the form of a test case. The case was presented on September 20, 1932, before the trial judge, and his judgment was in our favor. He held that residences occupied by our professors are used “for college purposes” and therefore entitled to tax exemption. In an appeal on June 8, 1933, the appellate division reversed the judg¬ ment of the trial judge. Their contention was that ‘‘the land on which these pro¬ fessors’ residences are located is used and occupied by men who are in the employ of the institution, which does not constitute occupation by the institution”. There¬ upon the case was submitted to the Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, where on February 6, 1934, our appeal was lost, three of the five judges upholding the decision of the local appellate division. Go-education Introduced in 1925 On August 11, 1925, our Board was confronted with the request to enroll a Lutheran girl who had the intention to become a Christian day school teacher. The request was granted, and as a consequence three girls were admitted in the fall of 1925. During the years 1925-28, when they numbered three, four, and seven respectively, lodg¬ ing was given them in the homes of our teachers. Two old houses, bought with the property in 1924, were then joined west of the adm.nistration building and converted by our teachers into a girls’ dormitory. In the fall of 1928 twelve girls moved in, and the following year there were nine. Miss Melanie Lange of Claresholm, Alberta, oc¬ cupied one of the rooms as matron, 1928-30, and taught music and domestic science. The school-year 1930-31 opened with only four co-eds present. Coeducation, except 13