Marela and Jäkäri

History

In 1756, the owner of the western plot, Jäkäri, was a person named Simberg. The eastern plot, Marela, was owned by Abraham Marelin. In 1800 Jäkäri belonged to the bourgeois Carl Ahlström. He also owned more than two barrels of arable land and some meadowland. In addition, the poor widow of the former bourgeois Simberg lived on the plot. The eastern plot, known as the Marelin plot, belonged to the squire Christian Paqvaline. Another resident was the bourgeois Johan Brant, who did not own the property.

Fire insurance

The property was insured against fire by the merchant’s son C. R. Paqvalin in 1855. There were seven buildings on the property. The main building was located along the Kauppakatu. There were also living quarters in a baker’s building on the northern boundary of the plot. On the northern boundary there were also a granary and a shed and an outbuilding with cattle sheds. Along the Kauppakatu, at the eastern end of the plot, was a long lean-to building. The outbuilding facing Vähäpoikkatu was built to face it.

The main building was built in 1825 and was boarded up and painted with oil paint on the roof side and painted red on the courtyard side. The condition is good. There are two halls, a larger and a smaller hall, six chambers and a kitchen. The roof was covered with Holstein tiles. Under the building was a vaulted cellar. Both external staircases were wooden. There were 18 windows of spruce frames and seven attic windows. Two of the vestibule doors were semi-transomed double doors with a window above. The other ten intermediate doors were half-transomed single panes. Five rooms had paper wallpaper and baseboards. The tiled stoves included one brown-tiled column stove, six square stoves and two round brown-tiled stoves. There was also a kitchen oven. There were four chimneys.

The baker’s building was built in 1826, was in good condition and painted with red water based paint. The building had an entrance hall, a baking room and two chambers. The roof was made of tiles. There were four windows and they were four-paned. The entrance hall door was a double door with a window above it. There were three semi-transomed partition doors. In addition to the baking oven, there was one brick oven. There were two chimneys.

The building was built in 1830, with a mezzanine and a pitched roof. The building was painted red. The door was double plank, as was the hatch. The timber frame was board and batten. It had a board door.

The long outbuilding was built in 1830. It was in good condition. It had a hall, a threshing floor with a vaulted sauna stove, a barn and a shed, and a chalet. The building was painted red. There were two windows of six-paned wood, of slightly different sizes.

The second building on the street was built in 1836. It was in good condition and painted red. The roof was made of boards. The building had a hall, a baker’s room, a pantry and a dormitory. There were four square windows and four false windows. There were two semi-transomed partition doors and a mirrored door in the hallway, which was a double door. Above the door was a window. Fireplaces included a baking oven and a brick tiled oven. A second building, dating from 1835, was attached to the building at the corner. It was in good condition and painted red. The building contained a stable and a coach house. It had a double door and a single door.

In addition, the drive gate and the adjacent smaller gate were insured.

In 1883, the house was owned by merchant Gabriel Granlund, who renewed the insurance. One more outbuilding had been added to the property. It was located on the street between the outbuilding on the north side of the plot and the existing building on the street, so that the buildings formed an enclosed complex on three sides.

The buildings had been renovated and the main building in particular had been carefully restored. For example, the grating floors had been covered with old zinc sheeting and everything else had been carefully done. The building now also had a porch. The building was boarded up and painted with oil paint on all sides. The roof was made of brick. The interior was fitted with modern tiled stoves, two of which were white. All the rooms were wallpapered and most of the floors and ceilings were painted with oil paint.

The residential building on the north side was boarded up and painted with oil paint. The roof was still boarded. The basement under the building had been renovated. The dormitory building was also boarded up and painted with oil paint. The building had a tiled roof.

The outbuilding on the east side of the north side was rebuilt in 1883 from the foundation upwards. The building was partly of log, partly of board, and painted in red brick. The roof was made of felt. The rooms were a threshing room with a fireplace and stove on a masonry hearth, a hall, a wood stove, a barn, a dung heap and a chalk room.

The stables and coach house were as they were. The new part between the buildings was made of logs for one wall and plank for the other walls. The building was painted red. It contained a latrine and a paddock.

The street-side building was now boarded up and painted on three sides with oil paint. The roof was boarded. The rooms now consisted of a hall, two living rooms and a kitchen, and two dormitories. There were two tiled stoves, plus a kitchen stove with a masonry stove and frying oven. In addition, the driveway was insured.

Modification drafts

In 1883, there was a residential building on the plot along the street. Its eastern end was narrower than the rest of the building, but the roof was continuous along its entire length, leaving a canopy at the end. The second dwelling was on the northern boundary of the plot, at the western end. Next to it was a dormitory and a shed with a slatted roof. Along the street, in the eastern part of the plot, was a dwelling and outbuilding, joined by an outbuilding wing on the eastern boundary. At the eastern end of the plot, on the northern boundary, there was a further dwelling and outbuilding with a washroom, i.e. a sauna, a hall, a barn, a barn and a shed. The building was in a state of disrepair and it was intended to rebuild it as it was and cover it with an asphalt roof. The washroom had a six-sash window and the barn had two small four-sash windows and a window above the door.

In 1896, changes were made to the building on the eastern side of the Kauppakatu. The building contained both residential and outbuilding spaces. A roof entrance was opened in place of one window in the residential part of the west end. The door became a neo-Renaissance double door with a mirrored top and a glass top. The façade already had one door, which was boarded and single-piece. The entire building was boarded with horizontal planking and the façade featured six-paned windows with classical-style surrounds and narrow double-paned windows in the attic. However, some of the rooms were used as outbuildings, so some of the windows may have been false windows. There was only one chimney in the building.

In 1891, August Helenius drew up a plan to transform the Marela family into a representative neo-renaissance costume. At the same time, the building was also raised in the attic and a triangular phase was added to the centre of the façade. The windows were converted to double-glazed. This change was completed, but in 1901 the renovations were continued. August Helenius designed the extension of the building. A full-length extension was made on the courtyard side of the building, adding eight rooms and two entrances and vestibules. The building was considerably enlarged. The building’s fixed interior was also renovated, the windows were changed to tripartite and the windows in the hall were made taller. The building was given an impressive roof entrance. One outbuilding in the courtyard was demolished for the extension.

There is a separate, completed gate plan from 1901, drawn up by August Helenus. At the same time, there were also plans to replace the baking oven with a simple masonry bench, but this project was not carried out. In 1902, the coach house in Marela’s yard was repaired according to a plan by M. Isaksson. The building was given a neo-renaissance style planking. In 1907 a second kitchen was built in the main building of Marela. The fireplace conversion plan was drawn up by Onni von Zansen.

In 1905, Arvi Forsman drew up a plan to convert the eastern building on Kauppakatu to residential use. An extension with three chambers and two entrances would be built on the courtyard side, and the building would have neo-renaissance cladding. However, the conversion did not take place. Instead, a later 1908 plan by Leonard Ahti was implemented. All the spaces in the building were converted into residential use. There were two apartments, one with three rooms and a kitchen and the other with two rooms and a kitchen. The outbuilding, which was joined to the building, had sleeping quarters, a latrine, a baker’s pantry and an adjoining pantry. The street-side building had Art Nouveau panelling. In 1911, a brick sauna was added to the outbuilding facing the Kitukränni, designed by Leonard Ahti.

In 1955, a shop entrance and two shop windows were opened in the eastern street-side building. A florist and a hat shop were added. At the same time, garages were added to the outbuilding on the Kirukränn side. The carriage house in the other outbuilding had already been converted into a garage in 1950 by plastering the interior walls and lining the doors.

In 1979, the west side of the Marela building was converted into exhibition space for the museum, and in 1978-1980, the east side of the building was converted into offices for the museum and the display windows were replaced by windows for the living room.

Current situation

Main building
Long-cornered residential building, built in 1825, very rich neo-renaissance decoration in 1891 (August Helenius), saddle roof. French door and T-pane windows in 1901. The highest quality building of the Neo-Renaissance period in Rauma, Neo-Renaissance outfit completely original.

East-facing street-side building
A short-cornered residential building, built in 1836, originally as a dormitory, the premises were partly occupied in the late 19th century, and in 1908, when the whole building was converted into apartments. Art Nouveau lining dating from 1908 (Leonard Ahti)

Exterior building
Brick sauna building, 1908

Outbuilding as an extension of the sauna
Longitudinal outbuilding, gabled roof, with a hipped roof, built in 1835

Row of outbuildings on the northern side of the plot
Masonry outbuilding, parts from the 1830s, storage rooms, outhouse and living quarters

Barn
Longitudinal gabled outbuilding from the 1830s, pantile lining

Coach house
Coach house and storage building originally from the mid 19th century

Well
Brick well building, hexagonal, pitched roof

Gate
The Neo-Renaissance gate was made to resemble the one designed by August Helenius in 1901.