Multala and Sillangorv

History

No owner is recorded for the plot in 1756. In 1800, the owner of the half of the plot called Multala was Anna Armell, daughter of a customs officer. In addition, the old squire Matti Lungrén lived on the plot. His property is recorded as the sowing of a barrel threshing floor. The man was otherwise poor. Peter Cederstein, a dyer, owned the piece of land known as the Sillanpää. His house was worth more than the one on the other half of the plot.

Fire insurance

The buildings on plot 67, along Kuninkaankatu and by the river, were insured in 1855. The house was then owned by J. J. Pohlman, a master dyer. There were five buildings on the plot, the main building along Kuninkaankatu and the river, the second building with living quarters on the western boundary of the plot, the end facing Kuninkaankatu. The third building, which housed a barn, was located on the southern boundary of the western extension of the plot. The other two buildings were along the river. They were the dye house building and the dye house drying room building.

The main building was a gabled building, old, in good condition, boarded up and painted red. The roof was made of boards. The building had nine rooms: an entrance hall, a hall, six chambers and a kitchen. The building also had a boarded porch with windows and a double door with a boarded door. The other windows were square and there were 12 of them. There were two attic windows. There were five tiled stoves: one flat and brown glazed, one white flat, one brown column, one brown round and one unglazed round. There was also a kitchen stove with a stove and a baking oven. There were five chimneys. There were nine semi-transparent mirrored doors. Three rooms had paper wallpaper and paper ceilings, and two rooms had paper wallpaper.

The second residential building had been erected the previous year. It was made of logs and partly boarded and painted red. The building contained a bread room, a chamber for the servants, a chalk room and a dormitory with a mezzanine. The roof was made of boards. There were two windows with six panes. There was one half-transomed doorway, a set of single and double board doors and hatches to various rooms. The building had one large brick tiled oven and a baking oven. A drying rack for the dye house was also built on the west end, in line with the building. The driveway gate and the small access gate adjacent to it were also insured, as was the fence with a small gate. The barn building and the two buildings of the dye works were not insured.

In 1859, a new insurance policy was issued. It insured the dye works building, which was completed in the same year, and was situated on the north side of the river, on the site of the property, which had previously been a garden. The building was made of logs, was not boarded up and was painted with red water based paint. There were six rooms: four large dye rooms and two smaller chambers. There were three tiled ovens in total, a large dyeing kiln with five chimneys and another smaller kiln with two chimneys. The building had a brick roof. The building had 11 windows with six-paned frames. The windows also had boarded shutters. The fire insurance policy also listed special equipment and machinery in the dye works.

In 1860, the insurance policy was renewed. There had been no changes to the main building and the bakery building, but a new building was listed as having been erected in 1859. It was located at the western end of the western extension of the property. The old dye works buildings had been removed from the site when the new one across the river was completed. The new building in the yard was of log construction and contained a cellar with a brick tiled stove, a dormitory with a mezzanine, a stable, a barn and two latrines. Gates and fences are also mentioned in this declaration.

In 1884, the merchant N. G. Karlström renewed the insurance. There had been some changes in the buildings. The main building was said to be boarded up and painted with oil paint on the east and south sides, and red paint on the other sides. The previous summer the building had been repaired: it had new floors and fireplaces, five of which were fine white tiled stoves, wallpaper, high windows, etc., and the outside of the building had been planked. In the second residential building, it was reported that there is now a laundry room instead of a bakery. The old outbuilding has not been altered. The cellar of the outbuilding, built in 1859, is no longer used as a cellar but as a shed.

A new brick ice cellar building had been built on the site in 1875. It had a stone foundation and was plastered and sheltered from the sun on the east and south sides. On the north side was a hall made of plank. The dye house across the river had been converted into a brewery and fitted out accordingly. An outbuilding and a wooden ice cellar were also built on the other side of the river.

Policy documents were next renewed in 1890. The property was then owned by the brewmaster J. M. Fröjdman. The dwelling was now reported as having been thoroughly repaired the previous year. It was unplanked and unpainted. The roof was boarded. There were seven living rooms, a kitchen, a fireplace and an open veranda with a tiled roof. There were eight tiled stoves (six of them fine white). In addition, the kitchen had a hearth with a stove and a baking oven. The other building containing the living quarters had not been altered. The outbuildings built in 1859 had not been altered either. The brick ice cellar building now had an asphalt shingle roof. The buildings on the other side of the river, associated with the brewery, had been repaired.

Modification drafts

The modification drawing for the residential building on the Kuninkaankatu side of the plot dates from 1883. The building had five rooms on the Kuninkaankatu side, the width of the building’s body, and a hallway and a smaller hall chamber in the middle. On the courtyard side, at the eastern end of the building, there was a widening with a pantry and a large kitchen. There was a porch in the corner of the building. In addition, one of the rooms had its own entrance.

The modification drawing by John Fredr. Lindegren dates from 1889. The entire façade was given a new decorative neo-renaissance lining, similar to the Mattla lining designed a year earlier. Common features include arched attic windows that rise above the eaves. More rooms were also added to the building. The walls of the existing rooms were slightly repositioned so that the building had a hall in the middle, on the street side, and chambers on either side. On the courtyard side there was a hall, two rooms and a kitchen. On the street side there was a new, narrower section with two rooms, and on the courtyard side an open veranda. The layout plan shows that there were a number of other buildings on the site: one long building on the western boundary, the end facing Kuninkaankatu, and three buildings along the river. On the other side of the river were production buildings and a bridge over the river.

In 1895 it was decided to divide one of the large halls into two smaller rooms, and to equip the new room with an iron fireplace, from which an iron pipe was drawn to the chimney of the tiled stove in the adjacent room.

In 1905, changes were made to the building on the western boundary of the plot. It had apparently been partly used for manufacturing purposes, but now fireplace alterations were made to add a baker’s and pantry apartment, a room, kitchen and hall, and a two-room commercial apartment at the street end. Tall display windows were added to the sloping end and a triangular porch was added facing the fence, with access from both the street and the courtyard. A couple of years later, it was decided to divide the bakehouse into a room, a kitchen and a hallway. The plans were drawn up by Arvi Leikari.

In 1917, Onni von Zansen drew up a plan for alterations to the main building. The open porch would be replaced by an extension with a kitchen, hall and a couple of entrances. At the end of the building, on the river side, there would be an extension with a pent roof, with a roof entrance and another door from the courtyard. The tiled stoves were proposed to be demolished and replaced with a heating system that would heat all the rooms from two kitchens and one other room. However, both the construction of the second kitchen and the modification of the fireplaces were not carried out. The other buildings on the site are also included in the layout plan: the residential building on the western boundary of the site and the stone cellar and wooden outbuilding on the river bank. On the other side of the river is a large wooden brewery building. The river is covered by a deck for almost the entire length of the plot. The brewery building is subject to constant alterations.

In 1942, a basement was dug under a residential building on Kuninkaankatu to house a boiler. The furnaces were dismantled elsewhere, except in the kitchens. Three small toilets were also built in the building. On the street side, facing the river, there were three residential and two office rooms. On the courtyard side there was a kitchen, a room, a hall and another kitchen, and a glazed veranda, which is mentioned on the plan as a label store. In 1974, the building had been partly residential and partly office, but now all the rooms were to be converted to residential use. There were two apartments. At the same time, the toilets were renovated and a shower room was added to the larger apartment. The kitchen wood stove in the larger apartment was also removed, but the smaller apartment still had one. In 1977, changes were made to the second residential building on the plot. The fireplaces were demolished and new amenities were added. There were two apartments.

In 1980, a brick basement building was converted into an apartment. The adjacent outbuilding was converted into a carport, which was accessed by a river crossing, as was the residential building. The plans were drawn up by Markus Bernoulli.

Current situation

Street-side residential building
Short-cornered residential building, extensively remodelled and lined in neo-renaissance style in 1889 (John F. Lindegren), hipped roof

Residential building on the western boundary of the site
1854 long-cornered residential building, neo-renaissance lining 1905

Stone building
Plastered building, originally a beer cellar, but converted into a residential building in the 1980s (Markus Bernoulli)

Outbuilding
Longitudinal outbuilding.