Randla

History

In 1756, the plot belonged to Sandberg. In 1800 the house was owned by Fredrik Ahlgrén, a bourgeois, who also had a small field sown and a barn. In addition, two paupers lived on the plot, Isak Filander, a guardian, and Anna Berg, the guardian’s widow.

Fire insurance

The fire insurance for the eastern half of the plot was taken out by watchmaker A. Ahlstet in 1850. The main building was located along Kuninkaankatu. It was old and in poor condition, panelled and painted red. There were six windows and seven attic windows. The rooms consisted of a hall, a room, two chambers and a kitchen. There were three tiled stoves, one flat and two round, glazed in brown, and a kitchen stove without oven. There were four semi-transom doors and a board door divided in two in the middle. One of the two closets had an attic staircase leading from the other. Three rooms had wallpaper. There was also an outbuilding on the property, which was old, and an unboarded and unpainted barn, plus a lean-to. There was also a mudroom on the property, which was old and grey.

On the eastern side of the plot, along the street, was a residential building. In the middle of the courtyard was another dwelling building in the same direction, and at the back of the courtyard was an outbuilding. In the middle of the courtyard was a log shed.

In 1873, Petter Gustaf Nordberg, a master painter, took out an insurance policy for the buildings on the eastern side of the plot. The residential building on Kuninkaankatu was old, in good condition, boarded up and painted red. The roof was boarded. There were four rooms, a hall, two chambers, a hall and a kitchen. There were three tiled stoves and a kitchen stove. The residential building in the central part of the plot was also old, in fair condition, painted in red water based paint and with a pitched roof. The building had a hall, a pantry and a painter’s workshop. The fireplaces had a tiled stove and a baking oven. At the back of the courtyard was a thatched building, which was old and grey. It had a dormitory and a coach-house, and a barn above both. The third part of the same building belonged to the owner of the other half of the plot. In the middle of the plot, attached to the end of the barn was an outbuilding, which was old and in poor condition. It was painted red and had a barn and a feed store. A gate and fence were also insured.

In 1886, the sailor Isak Wahlroos took out an insurance policy for the buildings on the western half of the plot. The main building of the house had been repaired. In the summer of 1885, it had received a new foundation, the walls had been raised, the lining had been replaced, the windows had been replaced with high windows and the building had a felt roof. The building was still unpainted. The interior of the rooms, floors, ceilings, wallpaper, and doors had also been renovated. The building now had three living rooms, a kitchen and a hallway. In addition to the three tiled stoves, a new kitchen stove with a frying oven and stove was also tiled. The building also had a windowed plank porch with a closet.

The outbuilding at the back of the courtyard was described as old, in poor condition, unplanked and unpainted. It contained a barn, a feed store and a toilet built together. A section of the shed was also mentioned, as well as a boarded up, old wooden shed as an extension. The section to the gate and the fence surrounding the site are also mentioned.

In 1891, the sailor Frans Rosvalla took out an insurance policy on the buildings on the same plot of land. In 1887, the main building had a wing built on the side of the yard, so that the building formed a corner. The new wing was also covered with felt. The old part had been boarded up and painted with oil paint, while the new part was still unboarded and unpainted. The building now had four living rooms, two kitchens and two hallways. In front of both of them there is a windowed plank porch. One kitchen had a baking oven. The outbuildings had not been altered. The second half of the plot also appeared unchanged according to the site plan.

Modification drafts

In 1893, the insurance on the second half of the plot was renewed. The house was then owned by the caretaker Viktor Enblom. The main building on Kuninkaankatu was in good condition, although it was ‘built in former times’. It had recently been thoroughly renovated, planked and painted with oil paint and covered with felt. The building had four living rooms and a boarded porch. There were three tiled stoves and one kitchen stove. The house in the courtyard was also old, but was restored to good condition in 1893. It was unboarded and unpainted, and covered with felt. The building had a boarded porch. There were three living rooms, with two tiled stoves and one baking oven. The outbuilding was built in 1887. It was boarded and covered with thick shingles. The building was still unpainted. The new outbuilding, like its predecessor, was built onto a timber-framed building which was intact.

There is an alteration drawing of the buildings in the western half of the plot dating from 1885. There was a residential building on the plot along Kuninkaankatu. It had a hall, two chambers, a small kitchen, a hall and a porch. At the back of the courtyard was a small outbuilding. On the adjacent half of the plot there was a residential building along the street and another smaller outbuilding on the eastern boundary of the plot and an outbuilding on the southern boundary of the plot. The dwelling had horizontal sills and four-paned windows with classical mouldings.

There is an alteration drawing of the eastern half of the plot from 1887. It shows that the residential building along the street also had a hall, two chambers, a hall and kitchen, and a porch. The other dwelling house had a baker’s room and a room. The outbuilding had a wing that faced the courtyard and partially overlooked the other half of the property. The clapboard siding on the residential building along the street was two-part horizontal siding, the double-hung windows were clapboarded in a Neo-Renaissance style. In addition to the straight upper moulding, there were cassette mouldings below the windows. The two pilasters dividing the façade also had Neo-Renaissance styling, while the corner pilasters did not. The baker’s building in the courtyard had a horizontal plinth. The attic section had smooth plasterwork. However, the end of the attic section had vertical planking ending in dormers and the main window in the room next to the bakehouse differs from the six-paned windows in the building. It was nine-paned and ended in a small-paned arched window.

In 1887, a wing was added to the west side of the dwelling on the courtyard side to create a living room, a kitchen with a baking oven, a hallway and a porch. T-pane windows were added to the new section.

In 1913, two shop entrances were added to the roofline of the west half, with display windows next to them. The second shop was not only a street-side room, but also a hallway and kitchen connected to it by demolition of partitions.

In 1920, a street door and a display window were added to the second building. In 1925, another commercial building was added with a display window.

In 1942, there was a plan for the east side street front building, which included a small extension on the courtyard side. The shop front was given larger windows. The number of display windows and their number increased to three. There were also plans to change the attic windows to circular ones, giving the building a more functional look. The small residential building in the courtyard was modernised and a toilet was added.

In 1951, an apartment was built in the attic of the building on the east side of the plot. The gable height of the building was increased at the same time. The courtyard façade was made two storeys high by opening the windows of the dwelling. The roof slates on the street side were indicated on the drawing as brick and the roofing material on the courtyard side as felt. At this stage, the building had two commercial apartments and display windows in the roof.

The street-side buildings on the west side of the site were converted in 1968. There had previously been two small shops on the street side and the large room between them had been used as a warehouse for another shop. Both shops had had entrances from the street. Next to the entrance was a narrow, high shop window. The windows in the central storage room were T-shaped windows of a living room. The window moulding was classical. There had been a kitchen behind the second store room and another separate room in the courtyard wing. On the courtyard side were two cold porches. The building had had wood-burning heating. There were no indoor toilets, but the kitchen had a water supply. Now they wanted to enlarge the commercial premises. The log partitions were demolished, except for the wall between the kitchen and the room in the courtyard wing. The new shops were 38 m2 and 49 m2 in size, the second of which had a storage room made from a room in the courtyard wing, measuring 23.5 m2. Both shops had WCs on the porch. All the fireplaces were dismantled as the house was electrically heated. The ceilings of the rooms were lowered by 15 cm. The appearance of the building was changed when three large display windows were added to the roof and two shop doors were relocated. On the courtyard side, the locations and types of porch entrances were changed due to the construction of the toilet facilities. On the courtyard side, some of the windows were completely closed, others partially.

In 1970, it was the turn of the second commercial building to be converted. By demolishing partition walls, the former shop and two office rooms were converted into one large shop space, with a smaller shop room next door. On the courtyard side, there were offices and a warehouse. The attic floor was converted into a two-room apartment with a kitchenette and a toilet. All the fireplaces were dismantled, as the downstairs office was fitted with a hall boiler for central heating. The appearance of the building was changed, with one entrance instead of the previous two shop entrances. The former door and shop window were replaced by one large, larger window.

In 1977-78, two new commercial buildings were planned for the site. The designer was Juhani Hovi, a civil engineer from Pori. In 1980, the premises of the old commercial buildings were also combined by demolishing the walls.

Current situation

East side street-side building
Short-cornered residential building, now a commercial building, ribbed horizontal planking, two-storey extension on courtyard side, saddle roof, display windows

West-facing street-side building
Long corner residential building, now a commercial building, street frontage with ribbed horizontal masonry, courtyard frontage with cladding, saddle roof, large shop windows 1968, adaptive repairs to street frontage and latest courtyard extension 1990s (Jukka Koivula)

Courtyard building
Short-cornered residential building, vertical boarded, now a workshop.

A dormer building
Long-cornered barn building, restored in the 1990s.

Outbuilding
Exterior building with horizontal timbering

Gate
New gateway with a goldsmith’s trade (Jukka Koivula) as the starting point for the upper decoration.