Negrych Homestead

Designated a Provincial Heritage Site in 1992 and a National Heritage Site in 1996, the Negrych Homestead is the only in-situ Ukrainian farmstead in North America preserved intact in itsoriginal location.

Among its ten buildings are unique and extremely rare features:

• The only Canadian example of a long-shingle Carpathian roof on the bunkhouse, which housed the adult men.
• A fully preserved working peech – the massive log and clay cookstove that formed the heard of every Ukrainian home

• The main house, built in 1899 from round logs of tamarack, with saddle and notch cornering and featuring an ingenious door locking system. Traditionally it housed the women, children and guests and was occupied until the 1980s

Wasyl and Anna Negrych immigrated to Canada in 1897 from the Kolomyja region highlands of Western Ukraine. They boarded the S.S. Arcadian in Hamburg with their seven children, one a babe in arms. Their journey took them to Antwerp, Belgium, Quebec City and Winnipeg, where they were housed in immigration sheds. From there, they travelled to Dauphin where a land agent brought them, via horse and wagon, to the quarter section of land they bought with the compulsory $10. There, on the banks of the Drifting River, they built their homestead.

Immediately work started on a temporary shelter of poplar poles and cowhides, to be replaced by the main house in 1899. The house remains in excellent condition, requiring only the occasional whitewashing. Over the next years, five more children were born to the family, and work continued clearing farm land, acre by acre. During this time, the bunkhouse, barn and numerous granaries were built, using primarily materials found on the farm and housing cows, pigs and chickens. There are few metal hinges to be found on the buildings as the family made their own wooden hinges.

The Negrych family members were avid horticulturists and maintained several orchards and gardens. The primary orchard, located in the center of the farmyard, still supports a variety of the original fruit, berries and herbs planted – rhubarb, apples, plums, chokecherry, pin cherry, gooseberry, hopes and catnip.

What makes  this  Ukrainian homestead  remarkable is that two of the children born in Canada to Wasyl and Anna ran the farm according to traditional practices until their deaths. Annie passed away in 1988 and Stephen in 1992. Adhering to their father’s wishes, they never introduced electricity, waterworks and sewer, central heating or telephone to the site. They chose to honour their  parents’  courage  and tenacity by preserving, rather than  modernizing, the family homestead. Evidence of their occupancy can still be found in the well-preserved main house where Annie was born and where she lived all her 83 years. Meanwhile, Stephne lived in the bunk house after retiring from a 38-year career in teaching.