On Friday, the former McLeod Treatment Programs group home on Franklin Street Northwest was lifted and carried about four blocks down Franklin Street and Washington Avenue West to be relocated to the historic Harrington-Merril House site. The building was scheduled for demolition until local historians saved it after discovering it was the original barn built with the Harrington-Merril House in 1858.
The former barn is homeward bound to its original site at the historic Harrington-Merrill property at 225 Washington Ave. S.W., Hutchinson. The house on the property is the oldest wood-framed structure in Hutchinson and one of the oldest in McLeod County.
Thein Moving Co. of Clara City did the heavy lifting to move the old barn back to its original place near the Harrington-Merril carriage house. Now Historic Hutchinson will work on raising $50,000 to pay for the move as well as restoration.
After approximately 80 years, a lost piece of Hutchinson history was returned to its rightful place. And if you were driving on Franklin Street Northwest or Washington Avenue West between noon and 1 p.m. Friday, you may have seen it rolling down the road.
For years, Hutchinson history buffs believed the building known as the Franklin House, which served as a group home for McLeod Treatment Programs since 1976, was once a barn. But not just any barn. It belonged to the historic Harrington-Merrill House site, which was first built in 1858 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
After months of research, that rumor was confirmed, and with no small effort by members of Historic Hutchinson, the barn was lifted and returned to the Harrington-Merrill site, where it is now waiting to be fully restored.
Confirming an old rumor
When Historic Hutchinson was founded about 20 years ago, Jay Beytien, a founding member and lifelong resident until his death in 2010, used to tell a story about the Harrington-Merrill House.
“He said there was a barn there, and that barn is the group home,” said Jim Fahey, another founding member of Historic Hutchinson. “He told us this story about how a person had come home from (World War II), he was on the fire department, and they hosed this building down to swell it up in the middle of the summer and somehow moved it.”
For years, members of the group paid little attention to the story. Then this past year McLeod Treatment Programs closed its doors and the city purchased the site for redevelopment. The house was slated for demolition, and members of Historic Hutchinson decided it was now or never to determine whether the barn rumor was true.
Fahey and local contractor Ken Bauer were allowed into the building, and as they searched the house it began to tell its story.
The construction of the house and the age of the wood was one of their first clues. They could also see that the floor of the house was different from the structure holding it up, as if it had been built separately and then placed on top. The clincher, however, was in the attic.
“You could see the four bolts hanging that would have been what held the cupola on the roof,” Fahey said. “Then we knew we were on the right track.”
Later on, as demolition of the inside and exterior of the house continued, more signs of its past life as a barn continued to show. The barn’s old boarded-up windows and door were identified, and even teeth marks were found where horses had gnawed on the wood.
Saving history
from the landfill
After finding evidence that the Franklin House was indeed the former Harrington-Merrill barn, the next question for Historic Hutchinson was figuring out how to move it. Although the group has several projects, such as preserving the historic Episcopal Church and Hager Jewelry clock that was downtown, the group dropped everything to focus on saving the barn.
With a developer looking to turn the site into townhomes, Historic Hutchinson was given until March 2022 to move it or lose it, but such a large project requires money. Fahey estimated it would cost about $50,000 to move and restore the barn.
Historic Hutchinson first asked the city to pay the bill, which council members declined. That meant it was up to the group to take on the financial risk, which it did with little hesitation.
“If any of these things are demolished and go to a landfill, that’s a one-way trip. You don’t ever have the opportunity to put them together,” Fahey said. “And when you think about how insane it is that we had the opportunity to get not just a similar building, but the building back, that’s amazing.”
With the barn safely returned to the Harrington-Merrill House site, Fahey said the pressure of a deadline is off, and Historic Hutchinson is looking forward to begin raising funds. He credits city staff workers for being helpful during the move. He also thanked organizations such as the Hutchinson Area Community Foundation and I.J. Burich Foundation for their support, as well as the support of private donors.
“The town has supported this (Harrington-Merrill House) project over the years really well,” Fahey said. “To raise the money for the barn, we’re looking forward to that. People were so gracious when we did the windows in the church. We were able to raise $50,000 in a short time.”
The Hutchinson Park Elementary TigerBots team of Jacob DeMeyer, Brooklyn Irvin, Mason Krcil, Gabe Magnuson, Logan Piehl, Max Schlueter, Lizzy Tanata and Brezlin Theget may be young, but that hasn’t stopped them from impressing judges and qualifying for state this weekend.
The Hutchinson Park Elementary TigerBots have named their robot “Rhino.” It’s meant to specialize in cargo retrieval and delivery.
While competitions still aren’t the same as they were before the pandemic, the team is excited to attend live events and meet other robotics enthusiasts while competing on Lego League tables such as this.
What’s the first thing you envision when you imagine a robotics competition? If you pictured robots attacking each other, you’re not quite there. If you saw robots being used to complete challenges and rack up points, you’ve got the right idea.
The Park Elementary TigerBots, which represent Hutchinson Public Schools’ youngest robotics group in the Lego League, have been busy this year preparing their robot, Rhino, for just such competition. The eight-member team already impressed judges with their score at regional competition, but when they move on to state competition this Saturday, Feb. 26, judges will be paying attention to a lot more than their coding and robot design skills. In this year’s theme — Cargo Connection — teams explore elements of how cargo is packed, transported, sorted and delivered.
“Last year the tournaments were all virtual, so all of the tournament interaction was just with adults,” said coach Jason Durheim. “It’s been so nice to be back in person this season.”
The hybrid tournaments this season haven’t been the same as a typical experience, but they’ve allowed students to be around other students and teams.
For the robotics portion of the Lego League, teams take turns operating their robot on the table, navigating through obstacles and completing packaging-themed trials. Each team has the same obstacles to overcome, but the question is who built the robot more reliably able to complete the most objectives? Missions include an air drop, bridge orientation, cargo loading and unloading, and cargo delivery.
Lego League teams are also tasked with exploring a way to improve transportation and delivery infrastructure. The TigerBots decided to tackle the problem of packages sliding around and not stacking neatly when transported. The team designed reusable packages, inspired by Legos, which could be used by any company or individual. Not only must the team come up with the idea, it must also pitch the idea to a panel of judges.
“We call them the Tiger Box,” said fifth-grader Gabe Magnuson. “They have studs and anti-studs like a Lego brick, so they don’t slide and cause damage.”
Fourth-grader Mason Krcil said the packages have a Bluetooth lock, which can be activated and deactivated with a digital device. The goal of such an innovation would be to help with security at home.
“Whenever you want to unlock you just hit the thing on the phone,” he said.
Overall, the team has estimated each box will cost $1.18 in plastic, but manufacturing costs are unknown. Fifth-grader Brooklyn Irvin said that with the packages designed, the team has written a script that lists the benefits at Christmas and introduces the concept to judges.
“They thought it was really good,” said fourth-grader Lizzy Tanata. “We got an award for our core values. ... They thought we should work on the cost and damage part of it, but we figured that all out.”
Competition on the robot table is especially tough this year. The top two teams from each division at regional competition advance to state. The top two teams at state typically advance to the national stage, but due to COVID, only the top team will proceed. In the TigerBots’ regional division they placed seventh among 16 team. But because their score was still considered high among the overall 32 teams, they qualified to advance to state as a wild card.
While the team is fine-tuning its presentation, research and robot, it isn’t hung up on trying to achieve victory. Team members said they wanted to participate, learn and have fun.
“My favorite part about being in the TigerBots is learning skills and having fun, and learning better how to work together,” Krcil said. “And I learned a little bit more about creating stuff.”
Fourth-grader Jacob Demeyer said the team learned a lot about discovery.
“Sometimes some of us had trouble researching, but now we’ve helped each other,” he said.
Durheim was proud of how much the fourth- and fifth-grade students have accomplished this year, especially since the competition is open to kids as old as eighth grade.
“Three quarters of the team is brand new,” he said. “They have learned so much and judges at the regional tournament were in disbelief of how much this young ... and new team accomplished.”
Rep. Dean Urdahl
Rep. Glenn Gruenhagen
This is the 2012 redistricting map which shows the current Minnesota legislative borders.
Here is the U.S. Congressional district map released Tuesday, showing district boundaries for the next 10 year.
Hutchinson will have a new state representative and senator next year.
According to the state legislative district map released by the Minnesota Judicial Branch last week, which will be used for the next 10 years starting with the November elections for terms beginning in 2023, Hutchinson will no longer be split into two House districts, currently 18A and 18B. Instead, Hutchinson falls within the new District 17A, along with most of McLeod County, as well as a portion of Meeker, Wright and Sibley counties.
Rep. Dean Urdahl represents what is currently 18A, while Rep. Glenn Gruenhagen represents what is currently 18B. However, the new map shows Urdahl’s residence in Acton Township will fall in what will be District 16A. Gruenhagen lives south of Glencoe, just over the Sibley County line, in what will become District 17B.
The new district map is part of the state’s decennial redistricting process, which uses census data to draw new political borders. This process is left to lawmakers to complete, but with a split Legislature (Republicans control the Senate, Democrats control the House), no map was approved by the Feb. 15 deadline. That meant it came down to a five-judge panel to create the map.
In statements released by the Minnesota GOP and DFL parties, they praised the work of the redistricting panel and said it would take time to analyze the new map.
The Leader reached out to Urdahl and Gruenhagen, who declined to comment on changes to their districts, but Urdahl did announce he will run for reelection in his new district, which includes Litchfield and the western portion of Meeker County.
With both Gruenhagen and Urdahl no longer eligible to represent District 17A in the House, Hutchinson will have a new representative in 2023. On Friday, Dawn Gillman of Dassel announced she plans to run for the open seat as a Republican. Jennifer Carpentier of Hutchinson also announced during the Democratic caucus in early February that she plans to run for the seat.
The two-week filing period for candidates to officially submit affidavits is May 17-31. The primary election is Aug. 9, and election day is Nov. 8.
Sen. Scott Newman of Hutchinson also shook things up Monday when he announced his plans to retire from the state Senate at the end of the year. District 17 includes all of McLeod County, as well as portions of Meeker, Sibley, Wright and Carver counties. Newman’s announcement opens the door for a new Senate candidate to take his place, and Gruenhagen announced Monday night that he plans to run for the vacant seat.
As for U.S. Congressional districts, all of Meeker and McLeod counties will remain in Minnesota’s Seventh Congressional District, which is currently represented by Rep. Michelle Fischbach, who announced her plans to run for reelection.
