In the late 1800s, Emmanuel Peterson made the voyage across the Atlantic, from Sweden to Canada, to see if Red Deer was a place in which he wanted to bring his family to live. He must have found the Red Deer area adequate,as he soon returned back home to Sweden to tell his family that they were to move to Canada.

He left Sweden again, this time along with his wife Hilda and four children. Of the children, only Hanna and Holger survived the crossing of the Atlantic, the other two (names unknown), died during the crossing.

Once they arrived in Canada, the young family settled and began farming in the Burnt Lake District (what is now the West Park neighbourhood in Red Deer). To start with, they built a small house. Two more children were born (David in 1895 and Elias in 1897) and a slightly larger house was constructed.

      Finally, in 1911, the Cronquist House was built. It was a charming, large eight bedroom Victorian-style farmhouse with a prominent Queen Anne tower.
      Although the house was named after the family, it was not called the Peterson house. When Emmanuel Peterson came to farm in the Burnt Lake District, he found that the name Peterson was too common amongst other farmers, and so he decided to change it to Cronquist.

Unfortunately not much else is known about the Cronquist family. We know that they were farmers, and that they farmed successfully in the area for several generations. Upon Hilda's death in 1943 (Emmanuel had already passed away in 1924), Hanna and Elias continued to live in the house together. Their older brother Holger had passed away just three weeks after their father had, and brother David married Grace Slade in 1930 and moved away. Hanna would tend to the house while her brother was at work as a crop insurer, a very lucrative job considering the times. Elias continued to live in the house until his death in 1974, upon which the lands were sold to a developer who had made plans to demolish the dilapitated, old house. It was rescued by the Red Deer International Folk Festival Society (now the Red Deer Cultural Heritage Society) and transformed into a multicultural centre. Click here for more pictures.