The Mennonite Settlement Museum celebrates the thousands of immigrant Russian and Polish Mennonites who settled in western Marion and eastern McPherson Counties in the early 1870s. The museum includes:rn rnThe historic Peter Paul Loewen House, a traditional Russian Mennonite clay brick house-barn built in 1876 in the Mennonite settlement village of Hoffnungsthal. It is the only restored house of its kind in North America. The house is on the National Register of Historic Places,rn rnThe Jacob Friesen Flouring Windmill, a detailed replica of the 1876 flour mill that stood in the Mennonite settlement village of Gnadenau,rn rnThe 1886 One Room Kreutziger School, the Kreutziger School was in service from to 1886 to 1960, andrn rnOn the planning board, the historic Heinrich F. Bartel House, a Polish Mennonite settlement house built of stone in 1879.rn rnThe principal collections of the Mennonite Settlement Museum are a small but very important collection of handmade Russian Mennonite furniture; another smaller collection of important Polish Mennonite furniture; 19th century household furnishings, typical of the material culture of the settlements and 19th and early twentieth century agricultural implements and tools.
