Patola

History

In 1800 the house was owned by the patron Matti Ahlgrén.

Fire insurance

In 1847, the house was insured against fire by the merchant-porter Gustaf Wilhelm Wahlroos. The main building, on the edge of the Kalatori, along Vanhankirkonkatu, was built in 1844 partly of old logs and was planked and painted with red watercolour. There were seven six-paned windows and five attic windows. The entrance was covered. The rooms were an entrance hall, two halls, a pantry and a kitchen. The entrance hall door was a semi-transomed double door with a window above it. The four doors between the rooms were also half French doors. Two of the stoves were brown-sided and one was a circular tiled stove. The outbuilding against the needlepoint was built in 1844 of old logs. It was unpainted and unplanked. There were stables, a barn and a shed. On the south side of the property was an old grey baker’s building with one window. In addition to the bakehouse, the building had a hall and a pantry. At the far end of the plot, on the east side, was a log shed, standing on corner stones, with the corner shuttering protected by planking. In the centre of the plot was a cellar with a log building on top.

In 1863, new insurance was taken out because of changes in the buildings. Gustaf Wilhelm Wahlroos, a merchant-porter, was still the owner of the property. The walls of the old house were boarded up and oil-painted on two sides and painted with red paint on two sides. The building had been added to in 1862. The west end of the building had been extended and a gable had been added at the east end. The new parts were unplanked but painted red. The main building had grown to nine rooms. It had an entrance hall, two halls, five chambers, a kitchen and three porches with windows.

The granary building was built in 1857. It was unplanked, but painted red with clay paint. The building also included an old fence, which had been raised. The whole building consisted of three dormers with an attic above. The old bakery building was also painted red. The outbuilding with its cattle shed had been extended, widened and raised and painted red. The rooms were a stable, a barn, a cowshed and a wooden shed. The gate and fence, as well as the fence around the garden land at the corner of Vanhankirkonkatu and Neulavahe, were also insured. There was also a fenced cattle yard area between the barn and the baker’s building. There was still a cellar in the yard. A latrine had been added to the extension of the baker’s building. The layout plan shows a well in the middle of the yard, as well as on the Kalatori and next to the building on the east side, in the town area. The layout plan also shows that more fences had been added in the area between the church ruin and Patola. There were two fences close to the house when the previous policy was taken out, whereas after the change there were five by the same owner.

In 1866, new insurance was taken out again. The owner of the house was still the same. A new residential building had been built on the site at the corner of Vanhankirkonkatu and Neulavahe on the site of the former garden. It had been erected in 1864. The building was unplanked, but painted in red paint. It consisted of two chambers, a baker’s room, a threshing room and an entrance hall. The chambers had tiled ovens, the baking room had a baking oven and a stove, and the threshing room had a fireplace with an oven. The main building and the sleeping quarters had not undergone any major changes. The loft was now the former loft, as the building was without a fireplace.

Modification drafts

The oldest surviving drawing dates from 1856, and concerns an outbuilding to be built on the southern edge of the plot, facing the old cemetery. The building will have a plank-framed carriage house, and will be in line with and built in with the existing food fence on the site. The building will also have a log dormitory and will therefore have three rooms. The drawing signed by G. W. Wahlroos is very simple. For example, the doors and possible windows of the building are not shown at all. The drawing has a ruler indicating scale, similar to the one used on ship plans.

The following modification drawing is undated and unsigned. It is for a residential building facing Vanhankirkonkatu. There are two large and two smaller rooms along the street. There are two porches on the courtyard side. The larger room has had two stoves placed in the courtyard corners, but one new window will be opened to the side, replacing one hallway with two windows close together. The wing on the side of the ruins of the old church will have a street door. The building will be horizontally plastered, with a double-paned attic window at each window.

From 1891, there is a document by John Fredr. Lindegren. On the site was a gabled building facing the Kalatori and the church ruins. The second building is an extension of it.There are also outbuildings on the south and west sides of the plot and a residential building on the edge of the Kalatori. The change was to create a kitchen on the courtyard side of the angled building, between two porches. The new part would be clad in three-tiered, neo-renaissance-style panelling. The new window would be a T-pane, classical in its framing. There is an alteration drawing from 1992 for the relocation of the entrance to the shop in the building on the Kalatori. The shop door will be opened to the window. The old door will be replaced by a window. The drawing shows two buildings along the Kalatori, both with hipped roofs and horizontal walls. They have six-paned windows with classical panelling. Between the two buildings is an enclosed gateway with a triple-headed lintel. The new shop door is a mirrored double door with glazing at the top. The stairs to the shop are stone and parallel to the building. It is accompanied by an iron railing. There is an 1896 modification drawing to open the shop door to the Kalatori. The shop door will be a double door with windows at the top and neo-renaissance windows at the bottom. There is still a window above the door. The following year, a new alteration drawing of the same thing was made. This time, the window is replaced by a sealed mirrored double door.

The next drawing is from 1899 and was made by Arvi Forsman. The large plot has a large angular building facing the Kalatori and the ruins of the old church, and another residential building facing the Kalatori. On the south side of the plot there is an outbuilding, which also includes residential rooms, and on the west side of the plot there is a long outbuilding. The changes concern the room layouts, the fireplaces and the façades.

The smaller building on the Kalatori side has three rooms, a hall and a baking room with a very large baking oven. The entrance to the building is not only from the street, but also from the courtyard. After the transformation, the building has four kitchens, one of which has a baking oven. In addition to the kitchens, the building has a total of 12 living rooms. There are five entrances on the courtyard side and one on the Kalatori side. In the courtyard building there is a pantry, a hall and a room with a masonry fireplace. The building also has two plank barns. The long outbuilding has two log-framed rooms, three plank doors and a lavatory.

According to the drawing, the buildings have a single, tripartite, neo-renaissance style cladding. The main building has a frontoniaihe on both the Kalator side and towards the church ruins. The doors of both shops are topped by a tin canopy. On the Kalator side, the gate between the buildings has a Neo-Renaissance design. The courtyard buildings are vertically planked.

In 1907 there were plans to add a new kitchen to the courtyard side of the residential building and to open shop windows onto the Kalatori. The windows were apparently not made, as they are not included in the next drawing, when in 1911 plans were made to open a new shop door on the corner of the Kalatori. In 1914, it was decided to demolish the baking oven in the second building on the Kalatori and to divide the room into a kitchen and a pantry.

In 1921, shop windows are to be opened on the entire Kalatori side, which will also unite the interior spaces into a large shop. New warehouses are proposed to be built on the courtyard side. The plans were drawn up by W. Williams. There is no certainty that the plan will be realised. In 1928, plans for the Rauma workers’ cooperative shop were drawn up in Helsinki by the KK’s building department and signed by Georg Jägerroos. There were now to be four large one-piece shop windows along the Kalatori with a door between them. The façade of the church facing the ruins has T-shaped windows with simple framing. The windows in the attic are circular. The panelling is narrow horizontal boarding. There is no trace of the fronton motifs that were present in many of the earlier drawings. Changes were also made to the commercial building. A basement was to be built on the courtyard side, which was to house a boiler room. The commercial and office areas were to be converted to central heating, but the residential part was to remain heated by a furnace.

In 1936, an extension is built to the Osuusliike Suoja commercial building, for which the second building on the Kalatori side is demolished. The extension will house a meat and dairy shop, as well as a warehouse and a cold store for both. The new part of the shop will have a pent roof and three large display windows so that the whole wall will be one window. The plans were drawn up by Oiva Nummiala. The existing buildings in the courtyard will be demolished and a new stone storage building will be built at the back of the courtyard.

A drawing from 1963 shows that the bakery building at the back of the courtyard – originally a warehouse – is to be converted into a maintenance workshop. The brick bakery building has been partly occupied on three floors. In 1971, the commercial premises are to be converted from separate shops to a single open space where building and agricultural supplies and household appliances will be sold instead of groceries.

Current situation

Residential twin building
Short-cornered detached dwelling, north wing built in 1844, horizontal planking, display windows, hipped roof. The exterior is characterised by a scanty interior resulting from a 1928 alteration (Georg Jägerroos). Both the horizontal boarding and the rounded attic windows are part of this. In the 1980s, the panelling of the windows in the residential and commercial rooms was restored to the decorative features of John F. Lindegren’s 1898 design.

Exterior
Brick-plastered storage building from 1936 (Oiva Nummiala).