Fate of shuttered Kennedy House drives petitions, local concern

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This article was published 29/11/2018 (2522 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two things are worth knowing about the illustrious Capt. William Kennedy, whose stone mansion sits abandoned and crumbling on a panoramic rise overlooking the Red River.

First, Kennedy was a prominent Métis businessman, and his house on River Road in the Rural Municipality of St. Andrews stands as a testament to Métis success in the 1800s.

Second, Kennedy (1814-1890) led two expeditions into the Canadian Arctic to find Sir John Franklin, who he’d once met before Franklin’s disappearance in search of the Northwest Passage. (Franklin and the other 128 men aboard the HMS Terror and HMS Erebus died during the expedition, which was launched in 1845.)

Lady Jane Franklin funded Kennedy’s search expeditions, and Kennedy ended up marrying one of her courtiers, Eliza Cripps. He brought Cripps to the Red River Colony, and later had Captain William Kennedy House built on his Cree mother’s property.

The fate of the historic landmark is now on the line, according to advocates.

Kennedy House has been shuttered for 3 1/2 years, after the province evicted the Maple Grove Tea Room operated by Valerie Brown because the building no longer met safety codes.

No work has been done since, and locals fear the Manitoba heritage site, which has provincial park status, is being allowed to deteriorate until repairs become cost prohibitive.

A 3,000-name, online petition requesting the government take action was recently sent to provincial Heritage Minister Cathy Cox. (The minister’s office receives an email every time a person signs the petition.)

The work is needed “before erosion, black mould and vermin ruin this historic site,” said Rob Sarginson, a member of the Red River North Regional Heritage group that organized the drive.

After Kennedy House was closed for fire code reasons, an engineer’s report determined it required about $700,000 in work to stabilize the foundation. The former NDP government committed to funding the repairs. However, the work has been stalled since the Tories took power in 2016.

Sarginson said he has been told there is now leakage in the foundation and water is getting in. Allowing the building to deteriorate “is erasing a chunk of Manitoba history that really should be more public,” he said.

Irene Foster, 88, of Clandeboye, has been going door-to-door gathering written signatures on a 300-name petition. A member of the St. Andrews municipal heritage advisory committee, she has also written the government, the lieutenant-governor, and even the Queen, requesting help with Kennedy House.

As it is Crown land, the Queen is the ultimate owner, Foster said. She got a reply, albeit not the one she was hoping for: “They don’t interfere with political issues. They leave that to their ministers,” Foster said.

Many people connected with Kennedy House believe the repairs have become caught up in the provincial spending freeze, an allegation Manitoba Sustainable Development denies.

“The department is still in the process of confirming the best option(s) for reopening Capt. Kennedy House and therefore, while the grounds remain open, the building is to remain closed for the foreseeable future,” a spokesman said in an email.

The spokesman said the province said is also “contemplating other possible future options for public use and access of the building.”

The former tea house in Kennedy House used to draw 3,500 customers a month, and was a hub for tourism in the area, advocates said.

“It’s a wonderful setting on the Red River, the gardens are lovely, the house isn’t in that bad a shape,” said Foster.

It was often a resting place for people or groups touring the Red River settlement architecture in St. Andrews.

“You do need the tea room. That is a drawing card. You need a place for tea, coffee and washrooms,” said Foster.

Kennedy House was built in 1866, using stones quarried from the Red River banks at nearby St. Andrews Rapids, according to the Manitoba Historical Society website. It was a fashionable home by Red River settlement standards, designed in a Gothic Revival style, and was expanded in 1920.

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca