Polttla and Wähä-Essbjörn

History

The house of Polttila, i.e. house No. 106, was owned in 1800 by the bourgeois Ephr. Ilvan Sr. He also owned a field, a meadow, two food sheds, a workboat shed, 2 ½ reefs with barns, three beach sheds, two loading docks and two windmills. He also owned shares in ships. Little Essbjörn, plot 110, was owned by the carpenter’s widow Liisa Wickius and Essbjörn, plot 111, was owned by the locksmith’s widow Eeva Lagerström and the locksmith’s widow Briitta Ramström. Both owned a small field and meadow, Lagerström also owned a food shed and a barn.

Fire insurance

The first fire insurance policy for the burners was taken out by merchant Johan Michael Ilvan in 1847. There were six buildings on the plot at that time: The main building along the shopping street was an old log building in good condition, with the street side boarded up and painted with red water based paint. The roof was boarded. The house had a porch and a vaulted cellar under the house. The windows were six-paned, and there were eight of them. There were also two small-paned windows, no larger than the others, but with 24 panes, and one smaller window of the same size. These were also fritted. These were obviously porch windows. There are also three glazed false windows, and 11 attic windows. There were nine rooms: an entrance hall, two halls, two chambers, a kitchen and three dormitories with false floors. The double door to the porch was a double board door, there was a window above the porch door, and there was another, single-paneled door of the same type. The intermediate doors were half-transomed mirrored doors, of which there were five. There were also four board doors. Three rooms had paper wallpaper. Two of the fireplaces were square brown tiled stoves, one similar, painted white. There was also a kitchen stove. The second residential building on the plot was located on the Vähäraastuvankatu. It was made of new materials in 1836. The building was not lined, but it was painted with red paint. The building had a covered entrance, perhaps a porch. There were five windows and six in the attic. The four rooms of the building were an entrance hall, a hall, a pantry and a kitchen. The side doors were semi-transparent. The outer door was a simple board door with a window above it. Two of the rooms had paper wallpaper, and skirting and ceiling tiles. One of the stoves was flat and glazed in brown and the other was round and similar. The kitchen stove did not include an oven.

On the Kauppakatu side, near the gate, there was a stable building, which was old, painted red and boarded up only on the street side. On the southern boundary of the property was a baker’s building, old, unplanked and painted red. It was in fair condition. In addition to the bakery, the building had two hallways and a sauna. The sauna is clearly mentioned here as a separate room. The oven in the bakehouse and the stove in the sauna had their own chimneys. The building had three small square windows. Two of the intermediate doors were semi-transomed mirrored doors, with three boarded doors. At the rear of the property was a well-preserved log outbuilding with a shed, barn and stable. There were two access gates to the property, one from Kauppakatu and the other from Vähäraastuvankatu. Both were double plank and painted with oil paint.

The next insurance of the plot was taken out in 1878. The insurer was the trading company Sederström & Långfors. There were five buildings. The main building has a tiled roof. The living rooms have been renovated and have new floors, ceilings, wallpaper and tiled stoves. The doors and windows were also painted. The rooms are now listed as five living rooms, a shop, a storeroom with two stores and a newly built veranda. The second dwelling also has a tiled roof. Since the last insurance policy was taken out, one more room has been built. The small building at the side of the gate, on the side facing the shopping street, also has a tiled roof. It is no longer a stable but a dormitory. The stable and sauna building is unchanged, but changes are planned. A new outbuilding on the east side of the plot has been built in the last year. It is unboarded, painted red and has a tiled roof. The building has a stable and a barn, both with a hayloft, a latrine and a manure room. The old outbuilding is gone. The gates are in their old places.

In 1886, the merchant Ludvig Långfors is taking out a new insurance policy on the plot. The Polttla plot is now joined to plot No 111 on Vanhankirkonkatu. There are seven buildings on the new plot. The main building is now planked and painted with oil paint and covered with an asphalt roof. Both ends of the building have been covered with cornices. There are eight residential rooms, plus a kitchen and two shop fronts with fixed furnishings. On the courtyard side there are two porches with windows. On the street side there are two commercial staircases, one at the corner of the building and the other on the side of the street of the Vähäraastuvankatu. Both staircases are made of wood. There are 11 tiled stoves, plus a tiled kitchen stove with an attached masonry stove and frying oven. In the same year, the building has been thoroughly renovated, with the addition of new cornices, a new stone foundation, and a new roof and new planking, with an asphalt roof underneath. The house has also been painted. The building has also been given new high-sash windows. Inside, new floors and ceilings have been installed in the rooms. Partitions have been altered and added, doors have been replaced, white tiled windows have been installed and the rooms have been wallpapered.

There had been no changes to the other residential building, nor to the small building at the side of the gate, along the Kauppakatu. The outbuilding was unchanged. The loft and sauna building has disappeared from the site.

In February 1892, the house suffered a fire accident. The fire was caused by a coal falling from a tiled oven in the wine shop in the main building. Thanks to the rapid extinguishing of the fire, the damage was so slight that only the walls and roof papers were replaced.

The Wähä-Essbjörn plot (No 110) on the south side of the Polttla plot, at the corner of Vähäraastuvankatu and Vanhankirkonkatu, was insured in 1865. The insurance was taken out by J.W. Anckar, a commercial clerk. There were two buildings: the main building on Vanhankirkonkatu and the outbuilding on Vähäraastuvankatu. The main building was an old log building in good condition, boarded up and painted with red water based paint. The rooms were a hall, a pantry, a kitchen and a porch. The fireplaces included one tiled stove, one brick stove and a kitchen stove with a baking oven. The outbuilding was also old. It was unplanked and painted with red earth. The building had a shed with an attic above it and a wood-burning stove with boards. The gate and the fence on the side facing the street were also insured. The property shared a well with the neighbouring property (No 111).

Modification drafts

A modification drawing by August Helenius, for a small building on the plot, along Kauppakatu, dates from 1889. The one-room building will be flanked by a small section with a pent roof, with entrances from both the street and the courtyard. The roof will have a tripartite wide window, giving the building a neo-renaissance look. The site also includes a building on the corner of Kauppakatu and Vähäraastuvankatu, a separate building along Vähäraastuvankatu and an outbuilding on the eastern side of the site. The separate building along Vanhankirkonkatu has an undated façade drawing of a vertically planked building with four-light windows framed by classical panelling. Another plan by Helenius, dated 1898, is for a building on Vanhankirkonkatu, which previously had four rooms in a row. Now the plan is to build more rooms along the whole length of the building on the courtyard side. In addition, a small brick section will be added to the side of the building. The building will also have an entrance from the street. There will be four other entrances. One of the rooms will be a separate baking room, which will not be connected to the other rooms. In the other parts there is no cooking facilities. The lining of the building is proposed in neo-renaissance style. Between this building and the other building on the site, along the Vanhankirkokatu, there will be a fence in keeping with the style, with an unobtrusive gate.

In 1934, a fireplace is built in the bathroom of the building to heat the water. In 1937, in addition to the old shop windows, new shop windows and doors are added across the roof to the commercial building on the corner and to another commercial building on the side of the Kauppakatu. There will be five doors in addition to the corner door. In 1938, the shop window of the small building on the site along the shopping street will be enlarged. The entrance will be moved from a separate vestibule to a wall of windows. The tiled stove is replaced by a fireplace. In 1951, the commercial building on the corner of the main building, which houses the LSO butcher’s shop and a dairy shop next to it, is altered. Part of the premises are connected by removing partitions. The rooms on the courtyard side will be fitted with cooling towers and the building will be centrally heated, for which the ovens will be dismantled. A basement will be built under the building to house the heating plant and a storage cellar. In addition, the shop windows of the corner shop will be converted into single-pane windows. At the other end of the building, the windows will be divided into four smaller boxes. In the same year, a second shop door will also be built in the building on Vähäraastuvankatu. The grocery store will have its partition walls removed and will be converted into a single store. The refrigeration units will be relocated and one of the old separate commercial units will be connected to the grocery store as storage space. In 1972, the property is still owned and operated by LSO as a grocery store. The building on the Kauppakatu side was connected to the building on the Vähäraastuvankatu side by a section that looked like a high board fence from the street side, but which could not be perceived as a separate part from the interior. A large part of the building on the shopping street already served as a single shop, but now a whole other building was connected to it by an articulated section, with all the old partition walls demolished. Two small commercial buildings were left at the eastern end of the shopping street building. In 1974, the commercial premises were redecorated and a small café was separated from them.

In 1996, a new outdoor warehouse is built in the yard. The street-side building is renovated and the façades are modified to adapt to the new situation. The plans were drawn up by Jukka Koivula.

Plot 110

According to the 1899 modification drawing by Arvi Leikari, there are two buildings on the plot. The residential building is located along Vanhankirkonkatu, the other building and the gate along Vähäraastuvankatu. The residential building has two rooms, a kitchen and a porch, which is to be extended to provide a separate entrance to one of the rooms. The building will have a neo-renaissance lining. In 1903, two additional rooms will be added to the one-room outbuilding.

Plot 111

In 1886, the plot was connected to plot 106, and had already been demolished for its outbuildings. What remained was a residential building and one outbuilding. The residential building on Vanhankirkonkatu had a hall, two chambers, an entrance hall, a porch and a covered gateway at the west end of the building. It was now intended to convert the gate room into a chamber and the hall into a bakehouse. The chamber became a washroom. The façade of the building remained with wide horizontal boarding and the windows with six-paned sashes, although the number of windows on the roof was increased by one. The new chamber will have its own entrance from the courtyard, as it will be used as a place for drivers from the countryside to stay overnight.

Current situation

Commercial building on the corner of the market square
Long-cornered commercial building, probably early 19th century, horizontal planking, hipped roof, façade has undergone some restorative and adaptive changes in the 1990s (Jukka Koivula)

Small commercial building along Kauppakatu
Early 19th century building, converted from a warehouse to a shop in 1889 (August Helenius), horizontal panelling, neo-renaissance features, hipped roof, shop windows 1938

Building facing Vähäraastuvankatu
Short-cornered residential building of 1836 and 1857, widened frame and horizontal boarded up in 1898, neo-renaissance features (August Helenius), saddle roof articulated to the commercial building at the corner of the square in 1972.

External building
Warehouse building from the 1990s (Jukka Koivula)