Ruikksepp

History

In 1800 the plot belonged to the bourgeois Gustav Stengrund. He had two barrels of arable land, a meadow, a food barn, a quarter share in a reef and barn, one and a half beach huts and a windmill.

Modification drafts

In 1883, there was a residential building with five rooms and two porches along Kuninkaankatu and another residential building along Länsikatu. This building was in such bad condition that it needed extensive repairs to the walls, floors and fireplaces. It was also planned to raise the height of the building to make the attic more spacious. The building had a semi-detached part with two larger rooms and a hallway and an entrance hall between them. At the north end there was a hallway and a baker’s pantry extending through the house. After alteration, the building was horizontally boarded, with six-paned windows and Custavian frames. Each window had an attic window. The outbuilding was located on the northern boundary of the courtyard. Now they wanted to build a new one on the western boundary. Partly log, partly boarded outbuilding. No stone foundation was added.

In 1888, they wanted to open double doors in place of the main window on the Kuninkaankatu side of the building facing Länsikatu. They wanted to turn the room into a shop. In front of the door would be a high, street-facing staircase, accessible from both sides. The same application was repeated in 1898, but the plan was apparently not immediately implemented. In 1888 there were also plans to replace the plank wall in the entrance hall with a log wall to separate the entrance hall from the heated vestibule. A window to the west street was also made in the chamber. The building is described as a horizontal-panelled building with classical framing around the six-paned windows.

From 1896, John Fredr. Lindgren. The building on Kuninkaankatu has four rooms on the roof side and a kitchen and two porches on the courtyard side, as one of the rooms is a separate apartment. The residential buildings have a three-part neo-renaissance lining and the windows have straight-line neo-renaissance frames, the windows are four-paned. The outbuilding is on the northern and western boundary of the plot. The outbuilding contained a barn, stables, privy, two dormers, a calving shed and three log cabins. The outbuilding was vertically boarded.

In 1902, they wanted to replace the door at the Kuninkaankatu end of the building that faced Länsikatu, with a tall and rather wide shop window, and to make the entrance to the commercial building in the corner of the building. In 1904 it was decided to build a canopy in front of the outbuilding. In 1906, the plan was to replace the outbuilding with a new stone one. The drawings were made by H. A. Toivonen.

In 1912, Arvi Leikari drew up a plan to transform the façades of the residential buildings into Art Nouveau-style buildings. The cladding is vertical board and the upper part of the T-shaped windows is small square. The building facing Kuninkaankatu has one commercial door and a display window next to it. A lantern is shown above the corner door of the building facing Länsikatun and a shop window is shown on both Kuninkaankatu and Länsikatu sides. Changes would also be made to the apartments. On the Kuninkaankatu side, the building is to be widened on the courtyard side with two kitchens, two chambers and two entrances. On the west side of the building, an extension would be made to include a small kitchen with a baking oven. The old baking room would be converted into a chamber and the front chamber into a kitchen. Already in the same year, plans were made to open a door and a shop window to another commercial building on the Kuninkaankatu side. This plan also includes a high gateway to the roof. Apparently not all the changes were made immediately, as there is an alteration drawing from 1915 showing the windows of the residential rooms on the west side of the building still in the neo-renaissance style. The display window of the commercial building at the corner of the building is already in the Art Nouveau style, and the lantern above the door has also been realised.

In 1934, the Ruik-Seppä plot and the neighbouring plot were simultaneously connected to the water mains. The water was brought to the kitchen at the side of Kuninkaankatu, next to the barbershop, and to the kitchen of the photographic studio at the other end of the building. The toilet was not built, although it was also planned for the neighbouring Ruikka.

In 1937, all the rooms in the building facing Länsikatu were converted into commercial premises. The bakery in the last row was kept as a studio and the other rooms were connected by demolishing partitions. The fireplaces were demolished. According to the 1939 plan, the remaining residential windows of the building along Kuninkaankatu had to give way to large shop windows. In reality, two more windows were left in place.

In 1952, the commercial premises of the Kuninkaankatu building were combined into a single store. The attic floor was used for storage and a staircase was built from the commercial building. There had already been three display windows, but now that the number of doors was reduced to one, one door and the adjacent display window were replaced by a large window. In 1965 the shop windows were enlarged. The last of the windows in the flats were removed. The windows were also lowered.

Current situation

Building on Kuninkaankatu
Long-cornered residential building, now a commercial building, with vertical boarding, cladding on the courtyard façade, saddle roof, large sash windows dating from 1965, there were already shop windows before that.

Building facing west
Residential building with elongated corners, now a commercial building, later vertical boarding, cladding on the courtyard facade, saddle roof, shop windows.

Exterior
Brick exterior.