Iso-Simula

History

In 1756 the house belonged to Juhana Strandstén and in 1800 it was owned by Captain G. J. Jägerhorn, a retired lieutenant A. B. Candou, who had moved to Stockholm, and the poor patron Jaakko Sandstén.

Fire insurance

The house was insured against fire in 1860. The owner of the house at that time was the merchant C. G. Lindström. The main building on Isoraastuvankatu was old but in good condition. It was planked and oil-painted on all sides. The building had a boarded porch and a brick vaulted cellar underneath. The roof was made of boards. The windows were four-paned and there were twelve of them. There were also three attic windows. The rooms consisted of a hall, four chambers, a kitchen and a hallway. The hall closet had a stairway to the attic and the kitchen had a separate pantry. The porch door was a double board door. From the porch to the hallway was a half French door, and the seven intermediate doors were also of the half French type. Three of the rooms had watercolour wallpaper, the panels and ceiling tiles were oil-painted. Three rooms had paper wallpaper. Three of the tiled stoves were yellow-tiled and two were painted. The kitchen stove also had a baking oven.

The building facing Isoraastuvankatu was old and painted red. It had a baker’s shop, a coach house, a wood stove and a food shed. The building had two, small square windows. In the western part of the property was an old lean-to building, painted red on the north side. It consisted of a hall, two chambers with three tiled ovens, a stable, a barn and two feed sheds. This building had four square, square-headed windows. In addition, on the side of the plot facing the Pappilankatu, there was a log, square-bottomed sauna building. In the middle of the large garden was a gazebo, which was panelled, painted with oil paint and had five windows. There was also a small garden area between the main building and the building on Vanhankirkonkatu. The plot was fenced and had a gate opening onto Isoraastuvankatu. The garden was also fenced and had a gate from the courtyard. There was a well on the plot.

In November 1867, the house suffered a fire accident, which destroyed the building on Vanhankirkonkatu. The fire also destroyed the fences on the property and the well deck. The fire had started from the feed store and had reached such a magnitude that only some of the walls of the residential part of the building, apart from the stone foundation, remained standing. At the time, the building was occupied by Frans Henrik Sjulander, a sailor who owned the house together with Pehr Magnus Cajander, the town viscount who lived in the main building. Dozens of neighbours were interviewed in addition to the residents of the house to establish the origin of the fire. It turned out that the Sjulanders had recently managed to repossess the house and had just moved to Iso-Simula. Sjulander’s wife and Cajander’s maid had both been milking at around 7pm and had finished their work, but both had their lanterns in good condition and could not have been the cause of the fire. The barn was used by Cajander, so Sjulander had no business being there. The maid had come out again to lock the gate of the house, and the fire had been out. Sjulander’s wife had fetched the children from inside and gone with them to Cajander’s. No one in the house had noticed any suspicious movement around the house. Instead, many of the witnesses had seen a peasant already convicted of burglary moving around the house. Craftsmen’s apprentices had also been seen moving around in the evening. Someone claimed to have been just on their way home from the workshop.

A few days later, an arson attempt had been made at 185 Pappilankatu, in a house owned by the widow of the builder Hafverman. However, the fire that had started in the shed was soon extinguished and the damage was minimal. In the end, both fires were discovered to have been started by a Rauma apprentice painter who lived in the neighbourhood. A couple of his comrades had apparently also been aware of the incident.

After the fire in January 1869, the house was reinsured by the shipowner F. H. Sjulander. The main building had undergone repairs and alterations during the summer. The building on Isoraastuvankatu had been given a wing on the Vanhankirkonkatu side, on the site of the burnt building. The building had been boarded up and oil-painted. In all, it now comprised nine living rooms and two hallways. There were eight tiled stoves and two kitchen stoves, one with a baking oven and the other with a walled iron stove. The stables and barn were now in a new outbuilding, built the previous summer, located on Pappilankatu. The building also contained a latrine and a storeroom, as well as a barn. The sauna had given way to this building. The building containing the bakery had not been altered, nor had the gazebo. In 1893, the house was still in the same ownership, and an inspection found that both the main building and the baker’s building had been given asphalt shingles.

Modification drafts

The oldest modification drawing dates back to 1887. A door was opened on the facade on the Isoraastuvankatu side of the building for a printing office. The door was a double door, the upper part of the mirrored doors was glass. The stairs to the shop were double-sided. At the time, the building was planked with panelling ending in round-arched dormers. The building was not raised. The windows were six-paned with classical panelling. There were two-part attic windows above every other window. The roof of the building was boarded.

There is an alteration drawing from 1898, which also shows the interior of the building. The narrower wing facing Vanhankirkonkatu was a semi-detached house at the bottom. There were larger rooms on either side of the entrance hall and the chamber behind it, plus a main chamber at the east end. The wing continued with a kitchen, in front of which was a small hallway. Part of it may have been made to connect the buildings. The wing on the side facing the big street was wider. It had a central hall base. On either side of the hall were two chambers across the width of the building. At the southern end of the building there was an annex with a kitchen and a hallway. In connection with the conversion, the chambers at the corner of Isoraastuvankatu and Vanhankirkonkatu and part of the hall were combined to form a store room with a door from the corner of the street. In the drawing, the windows of the building were drawn in a T-shape and framed in a neo-renaissance style, ending in a lily motif. The wall panelling of the building remained unchanged. The exterior of the building facing Isopoikkikatu was also rendered in the same way as the roof of the residential building, with a similar window on the end. The decorative motifs of the gate followed the window panelling. The exterior of the building consisted of three dormitories and a latrine. On the courtyard side, the outbuilding was vertically boarded. The rooms had a false floor and hatches. At the end of the roof, the mezzanine was right on top of the window. The plans were drawn up by Arvi Forsman.

In 1902, extensions and modifications were made. The porches had apparently been built before, although they were not marked on the previous drawing. Now the porch on the Vanhankirkonkatu side was extended to include not only two entrances but also a log kitchen. The porch at the corner of the building was also extended to provide two entrances. A third porch was located in front of the south end of the foyer. One of the previous kitchens was converted into a pantry. There were now two apartments, one of which had a commercial unit attached to it. In 1911, four display windows were made in the commercial building, the width and position of the normal windows. The panelling also remained the same. At the same time, there were plans to add a kitchen window to the side of the courtyard, but this was not completed.

In 1926, the residential building underwent fireplace modifications. A cellar with a fireplace had been built under the outbuilding and a baker’s pantry had been built on top of it, but the fireplace was now changed. In 1933, the basement room was referred to as the engine room and the upstairs room was a painting room. There were also minor alterations to the commercial building. In 1956, plans were made to add large display windows along the entire side of the Isoraastuvankatu and to extend the outbuilding’s workshop rooms and build a boiler room under the house. Toilet facilities were also planned. However, plans changed rapidly and eventually the boiler room was built next to the commercial building and the shop window plans were abandoned, as were the plans for new commercial premises. The location of the toilet was also changed. A garage was added to the outbuilding on the west side of the site in 1966. At the same time, the building in the middle of the plot was proposed for demolition.

In 1987, a shower room was added to one of the apartments in the building. At the same time, a handsome old-style gate was built along the street. In 1991, a sauna was built at the western end of the building on the southern boundary of the plot.

Current situation

Residential and commercial building
A long-cornered residential building, east wing probably from the 1700s, north wing from 1869, pantile cladding, hipped roof, shop windows and business premises, a very handsome and typical wealthy bourgeois house. Facade panelling 1898, Arvi Forsman, shop windows 1911. There were plans for large shop windows in the 1960s, but they were not built.

Outbuilding next to the gate
A clapboarded outbuilding with a roof clad in the style of a residential building, but with a courtyard clad in the character of an outbuilding.

Outbuilding at the back of the yard
Vertical boarded-up, rectangular outbuilding from the late 19th century, fire in 1966. Restored to its former appearance

Gate
An old-fashioned gate.