Pihala

History

In 1800, the plot belonged to Carl Lönnberg, the son of a stove maker, who also had some arable land.

Fire insurance

Fire insurance was taken out in 1859. The house was owned by master carpenter C. C. E. Söderström. The main building at the corner of Eteläpitkäkatu and Isopoikkikatu was an old, well-preserved, gabled building. It was boarded up and unpainted. There were eight six-square windows and one wider, nine-square window. The building also had five narrow attic windows. There were five rooms: a hall, a pantry, a kitchen, a hallway and a carpenter’s workshop. Three of the fireplaces were kitchen stoves and three were square brown and white tiled ovens. Three rooms had wallpaper. The four partition doors in the apartment were semi-transparent mirrored doors. The attic stairs, as usual, started from a closet in the hallway. There was also another cupboard in the hallway.

The second building was located along Isopoikkikatu as an extension of the main building, with a covered gateway closest to the main building. The gate was painted with oil paint. The old building was unplanked and unpainted and in fair condition. It had one six-paned window. The building contained a baker’s shop, a lean-to and a stable. There was also a sauna oven, bricked in with the baking oven.

The log outbuilding was old and grey. It contained a shed, a barn, a stable, a gable and an above-ground cellar with a brick chimney. The building was located on the western boundary of the plot and was built in with the main building.

An inspection carried out in 1894 found that the buildings, then owned by the labourer Gustaf Palmroos, were in such a poor state of repair that their fire insurance values had to be reduced.

Modification drafts

The modification drawing by Arvi Forsman dates from 1900. Before the alteration, the plot had been fire-insured with a residential building along Eteläpitkäkatu, an outhouse along Isopoikkatu and a row of outbuildings built together with the main building on the western boundary of the plot. Now the residential buildings are to be built together and the building on the south side of the street is to be extended with new porch and kitchen sections. In addition, a new porch will be added to the wing on the Isopoikkikatu side. The semi-detached building on the south side had a hallway and kitchen in the middle, two chambers on either side of them and a further chamber at one end built as a gable. Now the kitchen will move from the street side to the courtyard side of the hallway into an enlarged room. The new kitchen will have a baking oven. The former baking room and sauna will become a separate apartment. One room at the north end of the wing will be demolished. It is thought that the site was previously accessed through a covered pass between the bake house and the rest of the dwelling, but as this part will now have rooms, space will have to be made elsewhere for the gate. The whole building will have a neo-renaissance lining and a new foundation. The exterior of the building will also be improved, with minor internal alterations.

In 1970, changes are made to the interior of the building. The main reason for this is the installation of conveniences, small toilets and kitchen sinks in the apartments. A wood-burning stove replaces the baking oven in one of the apartments. Wood stoves will also be retained in the other two kitchens. One large room is proposed to be divided in two, and both new rooms will be fitted with wood-burning stoves. A few years later, in 1873, the building is again being altered. Apparently the two apartments have already been joined and the fireplaces removed. Now one room is converted into a sauna with a small steam room with an electric stove, a washroom with a shower and a dressing room.

Current situation

Residential building
Originally an oblong residential building, probably from the 1700s, the east wing is later, neo-renaissance decoration 1900 (Arvi Forsman), saddle roof

Outbuilding
Household premises, carport

Gate
Old-style gate.