Aaren

History

In 1756 the house was named Aaroni and the owner was Aaron’s widow. In 1800 the house was listed as Aaroni, i.e. Simosutari. The owner was the bourgeois Fredrik Granlund. He had more than 2 kapanala’s (an old measurement, one kapanala was 154 m2) of arable land, a meadow, a food shed, a tool shed, a taproom and a loading dock. He also owned a share of a ship.

Fire insurance

Fire insurance was taken in 1869. The house was owned by the master shipbuilder J. H. Justén. The main building on Kuninkaankatu was reported as recently built. The building was planked and painted with red water paint. There were two halls, one chamber, a kitchen and a hallway. The entrance porch was covered. There were three tiled stoves and a stove in the kitchen. In the north wing there was another dormitory with a storehouse.

The building in the courtyard was unplanked and painted in red ochre. It had a baking room with an oven and a stove. It also had a chamber with a tiled stove, a stable and a wood stove. The outbuilding on the Pappilankatu side consisted of two barns and a shed. The building was planked and painted with red water paint.

Modification drafts

The alteration drawing of the buildings on the plot dates from 1886. There was a residential building on the plot along Kuninkaankatu, and a building with a bakery, a chamber and storerooms on the eastern boundary of the plot. The barn building was located along Pappilankatu. The former sleeping quarters were converted into living quarters. The residential building had comprised a semi-detached dwelling with two halls, a main chamber, kitchen and hallway. There was a porch in front of the entrance. The room along Kuninkaankatu, which had been a sleeping room, was converted into a chamber, as was the second sleeping room next to it on the courtyard side. The hallway of the bakehouse and the chamber at the back were divided in two to create two separate hallways and closets. In front of the entrances a small board porch was made. Two windows were added to the bakery in place of one. In addition, a door was opened from the bakery to the storeroom at the end of the building. The courtyard wing spaces were all connected, although there were two entrances. The whole building was covered with an asphalt roof. The roof side was given a new lining, which was drawn narrower on the courtyard side than the one proposed. The windows on the street side were double-hung and the panelling terminated in a lily motif. On the courtyard side the bakery wing lining was described as wide, the windows as six-paned and their lining as classical.

A lightweight timber shelter was built on the side of the outbuilding, against the fence of the plot, as the wooden rooms had gone to other uses. The barn building had a barn and a shed attached to it, and as the barn was narrower than the shed, it was decided to build a small board section for storage in front of the barn, under the existing roof. A small separate toilet was located on the side of the barn. There was a well at the side of the gate, close to Pappilankatu.

In 1890, two shops were about to open in the building. The halls at the ends of the building were used. A double door from the street was added to both in place of the old window. In front of the doors were steps with iron railings parallel to the pavement. John Fred. Lindegren’s drawing does not show the lining or windows intended in the previous alteration, but the lining was now vertical and terminated in a scribbled edge. The windows were two-part, the size of the small six-paned windows that the frames had previously had. The panelling of the windows and doors was classical, the doors neo-renaissance, with glass mirrored doors at the top.

An 1898 alteration drawing by Arvi Forsman shows the building with Neo-Renaissance planking, vertical siding and T-pillar windows framed with street-side ornamentation and ending in a curved lily motif. On the courtyard side, the window framing was classical. The same themes were repeated in the gate as in the window framing on the street façade. The planking was similar to that in the nearby Luvila. In addition, porch and fireplace changes will be made.

In 1914, two display windows were added to the street façade and the shop doors were also modified to match the tall narrow windows. In 1920, the exterior of the building on Pappilankatu was renovated, with a new height and small square windows on the street frontage. In 1928, changes were made to the porches and the baking oven was relocated. In 1933, additional storefront windows were added to another commercial building. A window was added on both sides of the door. The second commercial building had been altered earlier.

In 1960, large display windows were added to the Kuninkaankatu façade for the shop at the east end of the building. The shop on the west side still had tall, narrow windows. A couple of residential windows still remain on the façade. In 1962, the remaining windows were converted to large ones. The building was then owned by the merchant duke Aljä Fähredtin. The whole roof was used for business, and by removing the dividing walls, the two business apartments gained more space. The hat shop became 72 m² by adding a courtyard wing room to the old hall and the chamber that had once been made from a sleeping room. The paper shop was made 61 m² by adding a chamber, originally a kitchen and the main chamber. The old double-storey entrance hall was used to make room for the toilets in both commercial buildings. The old bake house, which served as a kitchen, was preserved in the courtyard wing. The space next to it had been extended onto the old porch, creating a room. The storeroom behind the bakehouse had been converted into a chamber. These alterations had been made before the changes to the commercial apartments, but now the connection between the commercial apartment and the dwelling was closed. The dwelling retained wood heating, but the fireplaces in the business rooms were dismantled and both shops were fitted with Coleman-oil heaters, which had already been installed in the shop that had been renovated a couple of years earlier. Now the location of the stove was changed. In 1989, the two commercial units were combined and new toilet premises were added to the porch extension.

Current situation

Building along Kuninkaankatu: Long-cornered residential building, commercial building, vertical planking on the street facade, cladding on the courtyard facade, saddle roof, shop windows. The appearance of the siding retains the spirit of John F. Lindegren’s 1891 façade alteration plan. The courtyard layout remains similar to that of the 1886 alteration plan. Long-cornered outbuilding, vertical boarding