The Church Building

Maryanne Szuck
March 15, 2009

The first church, a 1813 log structure served the needs of the congregation in Berlin until 1834 when it was moved to Christian C. Snyder farm. This first church in Breslau served the needs of the congregation until 1856 when a brick building was erected. This same log building was moved again to the village of Breslau and became the residence of Fred Schaefer, a brick maker who bricked the log building at a later date. The house is still standing at 18 Woolwich Street North.

The congregation saw their church building neither large enough or substantial enough to accommodate the people, so in 1908 a new white brick church was built at a cost of $3500, using bricks from the Breslau brick yard and recycling bricks from the previous church building. Recycling is not something new! This building is currently our Christian Education wing.

The Breslau brickyard was situated between the mill pond and highway 7. A number of homes in the village were also built with these white yellow bricks. Maybe there is still yellow clay in these hills.
During this transition period of church rebuilding, worship services were held in the former United Brethren Church building at the corner of Maders Lane. 93 Woolwich Street South. This is where Alice and I live today.
The church horse sheds were torn down in 1953. Does anyone remember these church sheds?
In 1968 an addition was added to the front of the church, along with some renovations, and in July of 1968 the name was changed from Cressman Mennonite Church to Breslau Mennonite Church.

Pastor Oscar and Mary Burkholder built a house around 1919 with Mary`s inheritance money. Then the depression times came. At that time the pastor was paid according to freewill offerings. The offerings were poor, they had troubles meeting their mortgage payments and so the church took over the house ( 1938) to help them and thus provided a place for them to live as long as possible. The church parsonage was sold in May 1967 for $16,200.00 and the money was used in help pay for this 1968 addition. For those who don`t know where the parsonage house was situated. It is the red brick house at 162 Woolwich Street South.

The Marc building was built in 1976 - 1977. Marc stood for “The Mennonite Arts & Recreation Centre”. This building had various multiple uses for church and community.
By 1989 the need was felt for enlargement again. The Marc building was torn down in preparation for the new church expansion. Plans progressed for expansion with a new church to be added on to the existing building. A cornerstone was laid in 1990 and by 1991 the congregation moved into the new addition.

This addition consists of a beautiful sanctuary, gymnasium, library, nursery, three offices and a large sunlit foyer. It is attached to the original structure where Sunday School classes, a Parish Nurse office and smaller fellowship hall are housed. A bricked outdoor courtyard touches both the old and the new buildings. This was completed at a cost of approximately 1 million dollars.

The house next door to the church was purchased in June 2002, demolished in 2003 and in the same year made into a parking lot.

There has also been different lots of land added to the church property over the years.

The church buildings has been changed and expanded over the past 175 years from a simple log meeting house to our present day facility.

Questions about the Church Building

Was there a bridge over Hopewell Creek? Was the dam built then? How was the log building church moved through the village of Breslau?

If the walls of this log meeting house could talk what would it`s stories tell us?

How long did it take to build the 1908 church?

What further building changes will be done in the future at BMC? Nursing home, retirement villa, school purposes as stated in the original deed.