In 1912, the Bethlehem Church of Kronau SK was lit completely by oil lamps. Now, only one oil lamp remains in the building which has changed quite significantly in the past century.

“When we opened in 2005, there was a lady who at the time was over ninety and she went to this church when it was open, when they moved here they converted to electricity before then it was all oil lamps…they just threw them into a pit and she went back and was able to salvage one. And so she presented it to us just before the opening,” recalls Rhonda Lamb, the treasurer of the Kronau Heritage Association.

This building now serves as the Kronau Museum after serving almost ninety years as a place of worship for the Lutheran community in and around Kronau. 

This oil lamp is one of several pieces which were in the original church building. “All the pews from 1960 are still there, there’s a lot of original stuff in there. We actually have rented it out a lot for things like small weddings, baptisms, funerals, those types of things for very minimal rent because we want people to be able to use it” said Lamb.

This church was originally built in 1912 about four kilometers outside the hamlet. In1950, the church was moved to its current location inside the limits of Kronau. As the church population slowly moved out of Kronau to the larger nearby towns and cities, the church no longer had a large enough congregation to remain active. By the time 1996 rolled around, the church had to close its doors.

The heritage community in Kronau however, was not about to let a beautiful building with such a rich history go to waste. The board of volunteers banned together to turn this important space into a museum to help further preserve the history of Kronau and tell stories. 

“It was built in 1912, in a field. It followed the other standard small little churches that you find in rural Saskatchewan and so many of them have been lost to either being left, they’ve fallen apart or people have bought them and then renovated them into homes”. said Rhonda Lamb, the treasurer of the Kronau Heritage Association and coordinator of museum events. 

While the church hasn’t operated its weekly Sunday service in many years, there are still many residents who fondly remember that time. 

“We had a Christmas program every year. Our congregation was small. Maybe ten at the most children going to Sunday school so it was a little bit of a struggle putting on a Christmas program but we always did every Christmas until the kids all grew up and there wasn’t any more coming into the community with young children” said Ina Leippi, a former Sunday school teacher at the church, after its relocation.

While the church is no longer neighboring the Bethlehem cemetery, the cemetery is still in operation and holds a special place with many members of the community.

“The cemetery was designated a municipal heritage site, the province was promoting the cemeteries in the country be designated as heritage sites if possible, and so ours was designated a heritage site, the community got together and fixed it all up and we had a stonemason put up a nice monument and so it is being well looked after now” recalls Leippi.

Ron Euteneier, a lifelong resident of Kronau understands firsthand how important the cemetery is to the community. “We have an annual heritage day there, which we haven’t had for the past two years because of Covid. It’s been a tradition for well just about as long as I can remember.”

Euteneier is personally connected to Kronau’s history in many ways. His great grandparents, grandparents, parents, cousins, and several other family members/ friends are currently buried in the cemetery. He has also seen the unfortunate decline in the public interest for the preservation of the hamlet’s history.

“We’re associated with the museum as well. It’s basically run by seniors at this time. It’s pretty hard to get too many younger people involved because of course, they’re all so active with other things, and the seniors are beginning to play out.” “Unless we can get some younger blood involved, we could be in dire need of having some help.