Kuuri

History

In 1756, the plot belonged to the postmaster Sonck. In 1800, the house was still owned by Eleonora Sonck, the widow of the former postmaster. She had a small field.

Fire insurance

Joel Nordberg, a leather worker, took out fire insurance on the west side of the house he owned in 1892. The residential building on Kuninkaankatu was in good condition. It was partly built in 1888, but partly repaired at that time. The building was boarded up, painted with oil paint and covered with an asphalt roof. It was a gabled building with one wing facing the courtyard. There were four living rooms, two kitchens, two hallways and two board rooms. One of the kitchens had a baking oven as well as a stove.

The outbuilding at the back of the yard, on the southern boundary of the property, was also insured. It was old, unpainted and unboarded, and covered with double boards. The building had two dormitories with an attic floor. A large part of the plot was a garden.

According to the fire insurance plan, there was a residential building on Kuninkaankatu in the other half of the plot. The outbuilding was at the rear of the yard as an extension of the outbuilding on the other part of the plot. There was another building in the middle of the courtyard in a north-south direction.

To the west of the Kuuri plot there was another plot (No 196), with an angular residential building following the boundaries of Kuninkaankatu and the then Rantakatu, and an angular outbuilding following the west-south boundaries.

When the insurance policy was renewed in 1898, the status of the enclosure had changed in that the rearrangement of the plan had been carried out on its western side. The buildings on plot 196 had been demolished and replaced by a street, the present Anundilankatu. Both wings of the main building had thus become part of the street.

According to the fire insurance, the main building was built partly in 1868 and partly in 1888, when the old one was also thoroughly renovated. In the same year, the building was also partially re-boarded, painted and covered with asphalt shingles. The exterior was said to have been partly built in the old days and partly in 1896, when the old part was also repaired, planked and painted with oil paint. The building was also covered with felt. The premises now comprised a dormitory, two carpenter’s sheds, a coach house, a stable and a barn with a loft, a latrine and a paddock. Half of the gate belonged to the west side of the property. A fence, painted with oil paint, was also insured.

Modification drafts

In 1897, changes were made to the property. They concerned the western half of the plot, which had a residential building along Kuninkaankatu and an adjoining wing extending to the courtyard. At the rear of the courtyard was an outbuilding consisting of a row of sheds and a barn. On the eastern side of the plot there was a residential building along the street, an outbuilding at the back of the yard and a residential building in the middle of the plot. To the west of the plot was another plot, number 196. The Kuuri plot did not yet overlap with the present Anundilan Street, as it did later. There was a residential building on the neighbouring plot, which in 1883 had become angular when the residential buildings on the Kuninkaankatu and Anundilaankatu sides were joined. There was also a separate outbuilding on the plot facing Anundilankatu.

In the western part of the Kuuri plot, a new wing was built with two rooms, one of which was located on Kuninkaankatu. After the change, the residential building had two apartments. One had a large room with a baking oven, two chambers and a hallway. The second dwelling had a large room on the street side and a chamber, kitchen and hallway on the yard side. Both apartments had their own porches. The building had horizontal siding and the framing of the double-hung windows was classical.

The old barn, the adjacent shed and the barn and latrine part of the outbuilding were covered under the same roof after the change.

In 1888, changes were made to the buildings on the eastern part of the plot. The residential building on the street side was a semi-detached house with two large rooms at the ends and a room and hallway in the middle. A new kitchen had been added to the porch on the courtyard side. The building in the middle of the courtyard had a baker’s pantry and a pantry and a porch with a pent roof. At one end of the building was a small shed with a pulpit roof. The outbuilding on the southern boundary of the site had a barn, shed and barn, and a small hipped-roof shed to the side of the building. The new latrine building was separate and close to the barn. Between the latrine and the barn was a fenced enclosure. The buildings were of horizontal timbering and had classical six-paned window frames.

In 1899, a corner door was made in the building at the corner of Kuninkaankatu and Anundilan Street. At the same time, a new kitchen with a baking oven and an entrance were built on the courtyard side. The dovecote on the side of the street was converted into a tiled living room.

The modification drawing by Arvi Leikari dates from 1910. The building at the corner of Kuninkaankatu and Anundilankatu had another addition to the courtyard, which included a kitchen with a baking oven. One of the previous kitchens was converted into a room and the kitchen, which had previously had a baking oven, was replaced by an ordinary kitchen stove. The street facades of the building were given an Art Nouveau look. The cladding was tripartite, the windows were T-shaped, but the window frames were Art Nouveau. Commercial premises were located both in the corner of the building and at the other end of the Kuninkaankatu and Anundilaankatu sides. There were three shop doors and four display windows, as the corner shop had a window on both sides. Several plans to change the windows followed. Early on, there were plans to convert all the premises to commercial use and to build shop windows in all the street-side rooms. Leikari drew up plans for the building on the corner of the street in 1919, and for another three years later. The second plan would also have involved the construction of a new large residential wing on the courtyard side. However, the plans never materialised. There were also plans for a display window in the 1930s.

In 1941, façade alterations were made to the street-side buildings. One building had already had three shop entrances and display windows. Now one of the windows was enlarged and one of the entrances, which had had narrow windows on either side, was removed and replaced with one large window. The other building had had one shop door and one display window, and three six-paned windows in the living room. Now a second shop door and two large display windows were added.

The bakery and laundry building in the centre of the plot was converted in 1933 into an apartment with a kitchen and living room. The porch area was extended, and a space for a small toilet was added.

On the southern boundary of the plot were two outbuildings, one of which had its end facing Anundilankatu. In 1945, a commercial building with a store room and an office was built at this end. Two large shop windows and a shop door were added to the Anundilankatu end.

The building to the east of the Kuninkaankatu buildings had already been partly used as a commercial building before it was converted to commercial use in 1955. The roof side had previously had one shop window and one commercial door, but now large shop windows were added to the whole side. There were two retail units, one with a room, and the other with a room and a storage room on the street side. On the courtyard side, a porch was used as a common workroom for the shops, which also housed a central heating boiler. The wood-fired stoves were dismantled during the conversion. Two small toilets were also added to the building.

In 1922, there were plans to build three separate small kiosk buildings on the fence opposite Anundilan Street. One of these was completed, and in 1934 it was joined by a second kiosk. In 1959 these were replaced by a new large kiosk building, but in 1972 a separate barbecue kiosk was added.

Current situation

West side street-side building
Residential building with elongated corners, now a commercial building, ribbed horizontal boarding on the street façade, vertical boarding on the courtyard façade, saddle roof, display windows. On the courtyard side, the old buildings on the lot had the same character as the 1888 alteration drawings.

East side street-side building
Residential building with long corners, now a commercial building, neo-renaissance lining, saddle roof, shop windows

Courtyard building
Residential building with a long corner, gable end lining

Commercial building on the northern side of Anundilan Street
New building 1979 (Juhani Hovi)

Southern commercial building on Anundilankatu
New building 1979 (Juhani Hovi)

Gate
The old sealed gate on Kuninkaankatu.