The Hutmacher Complex, northwest of Manning in western North Dakota, is very important in the German-Russian architectural history. Frank Hutmacher’s family, who were immigrants from the Black Sea German villages of South Russia (today southern Ukraine), made their farmsite buildings in a similar style with stone slab used by their forefathers in Russia. The project is being restored by efforts through Preservation North Dakota and the State Historical Society of North Dakota.
For 2007 and 2008, with the help of volunteers and grant funds from Save America’s Treasures, there is an effort to restore the stone house. It is located back in the rocky western hills of Dunn County, southwest of Killdeer. A Hutmacher lived there until 1979 without running water.
Ann Erling, a GRHC student assistant, spent a weekend at the Hutmacher farmsite. Erling said, “Working on the Hutmacher Home was an amazing experience. During my weekend in Dunn County I sifted clay, mixed mud, and helped to rebuild a roof of sticks and dirt! It was hard work, but when one of the women who grew up in that earthen home arrived on the work site I knew the work I was doing to preserve history was appreciated. I kept imaging what it would have been like to live in that home until 1979, and it’s hard to imagine, but working on the Hutmacher farmstead for one weekend really opened my eyes to North Dakota’s homesteading history.”
Further information about the Hutmacher farmsite is at the Preservation North Dakota website: www.prairieplaces.org and at the GRHC website: www.ndsu.edu/grhc/history_culture/arch/index.html.
Photograph by The Dickinson Press, Dickinson, North Dakota, July 22, 2007
