by Sue Orsen
It was probably the most substantial building ever constructed in Victoria.  It surely was the most impressive building in Victoria, not counting the two historic churches, St. Victoria Catholic and Lake Auburn Moravian. 
In the eyes of architects or engineers, even the churches may have come in second place.  There were hardly fourth and fifth places in the old days.  Old Victoria didn't concentrate on esthetics as much as function.  The adjectives "hard-working" and "industrious" weren't applied to Germans by accident.
But today the beautiful old building, constructed in 1928 as the Lake Auburn Home for the Aged, is gone.  Its existence is now only in ink or memory, having taken its final breath after a long struggle with demolition this last month of 2006.  With modern eyes in modern times, the old thing simply had no further use.
The Old Home was taken off intra-venous feeding about two years ago, but its heart kept beating as it rested still and stately on the eastern shores of Lake Auburn.  Greg Forseth, Minnesota Specialized Trucking and Excavating, the company hired by the City of Victoria for its demolition, admitted the building didn't let go easily.  As a matter of fact, it got to be downright maddening.
Two dormers had been removed on Thursday, November 30^th, 2006, like tumors on an old dog.  Its backside was scraped and inside slowly gutted the week of December 4^th, until only its facial features were recognizable.  It was a good face.  The brick exterior was in excellent condition and the window frames appeared well painted and puttied. 
The lonely front facade lingered in this rather hollow condition for several days, partly because the operating equipment took a beating.  At one time there was oil in the fuel line and then there were broken cables and damaged hoses.  The mighty Old Home fought the iron claws of death to the bitter end.
"I've never seen so much rebar in my entire life and I've taken down lots and lots of buildings," said Greg the Operator.  "There's hardly any wood in the place.  All these ceilings and floors are six inches of reinforced concrete.  The landfills won't take the steel rebar.  We've got to separate it from the cement.  It was a good building.  It was built to last.  I wish I could have bought it.  I would have turned it into our family home."
It was Wednesday, December 13^th, when the sharp teeth of the yellow track-hoe began to push and pull at the forlorn facade, but it wouldn't budge until the giant fist knocked out a window and then grabbed at the sill.  Cement dust billowed into the morning air as large chunks slammed to the ground.  A flock of geese flying in formation above Lake Auburn didn't seem to notice.
Two of the tall skinny evergreens that brushed up against the remaining brick facade were plucked like weeds.  Three more window panes were shattered.  Glass cracked and clinked, probably like on Kristalnacht.  Large pieces of cement were pinched into powder in midair, one after the other.
Long cranky rebar, 80 years old and tougher than nails, swung back at the trackhoe and tried to crush its foe.  New hoses and cables gave the machine renewed strength, however, and the Old Home finally succumbed on Tuesday, December 19^th.  It was a slow and painful death.

It was the Lake Auburn Home for the Aged for sixty years, from 1928 to 1988, and the place could house up to 22 residents.  The kitchen and dining room were in the basement.  The social hall on the main level had a piano where the residents joined in singing old familiar tunes when a volunteer pianist showed up.
The editor of the Victoria Gazette occasionally played "The Beer Barrel Polka" and "When Irish Eyes are Smiling" for the residents, not to mention "How Great Thou Art" and "America the Beautiful."  Marvel Heath and Margaret Winter arranged a lot of things at the Old Home in those days of the '70's and '80's.

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