Siurus

History

In 1756, the plot belonged to Gabriel Ståhle. In 1800 the owner was still the bailiff Gabriel Ståhle. He had a field of more than a barrel of land and a granary. Ståhle also had a share in a ship.

Fire insurance

The fire insurance was taken out in 1859 by the squire J. Lagerbom. The main building was on Isokirkkokatu, the second residential building on the southern boundary of the plot and the outbuilding on the side of Koulukatu. There was a driveway gate from the plot both to Isokirkkokatu and from the gateway corridor through the outbuilding on Koulukatu. The main building had been built in earlier times, but had been repaired and altered in the year of insurance. The building had been re-clad. There were five six-pane windows and six double-pane attic windows. Three of the windows had shutters that were double board. The exterior stairway to the commercial building had wooden railings. The roof of the house was brick. There were five rooms, an entrance hall, a shop and store room, a pantry and a sitting room for the shop assistant. There were four tiled stoves, two brown and two yellow and white. In the hallway was a cupboard, from which the attic stairs led, and another, a small storage cupboard. Two of the partition doors were full French doors and two were half French doors. The shop’s exterior doors were solid, oil-painted board doors. The interior doors were board doors with a four-paned window at the top. There was also a window above the door. There was also a window above the door to the front hallway. The closet doors were board. There was a vaulted cellar under the building.

The second residential building was old and had a pitched roof. It had a bakehouse. The building had two four-paned windows. The entrance was surmounted by a canopy supported by pillars. The outbuilding on the Koulukatu was old but in good condition. It contained a barn, stables, a tool shed and a food shed above the gateway.

In 1893 the house was reinsured by the shoemaker K. J. Sipilä. The main building was painted with oil paint and still had a tiled roof. The building had a porch and the interior consisted of four living rooms and a hallway. The rooms had three tiled stoves and one kitchen stove. An extension had been added to the old rear building in 1892. It was unplanked and unpainted, with a felt roof. There were now three living rooms and a boarded porch. The rooms had two tiled stoves and a kitchen stove with a baking oven. The outbuilding had been repaired and extended in the year of the policy. It had two dormitories, a woodshed, a barn with an attached hayloft, a latrine and a manure shed.

In May 1897 there was a fire in the house. The house was then owned by Captain Frans August Laurén, who had bought it the previous winter from the shoemaker Sipilä, and only moved in at the beginning of the same month. The cobbler still kept a workshop in a smaller building. The fire had started in the kitchen and had already spread around the room before it was discovered. When the kitchen door was opened, the fire spread to the ceiling paper in the hallway, to the wall and to the intermediate roof, and then from the attic to the roof. The situation looked ominous as the wind was blowing in the direction of the neighbouring house. Fortunately, it was daytime and a market day, so firefighters were on the scene immediately. However, water started to become scarce, even though it was brought in barrels. Those on the spot carried it with buckets from wells in the vicinity, as there were plenty of sprayers. Fortunately, a new pump was installed and water was brought in from the river. The fire was then put out within an hour, and there was not even a risk of it catching, because so much water had been used that the attic windows were flooded with water, and the rooms downstairs were a lake. It was found that the new pump had been of incalculable use, and when there was enough water, the fire brigade worked with enthusiasm. Arvi Forsman, a forest ranger, and Johan Leander Steenroos, a former sailor, were particularly good at extinguishing the fire and were rewarded by the insurance company.

The tragedy of the fire was revealed during an investigation held after the fire. A charcoal fire had been left alone on the kitchen stove while a maid was polishing cutlery on the kitchen stairs. Mrs Laurén had been at the market and the maid had been outdoors. Captain Laurén had come in by chance with his wife’s brother and they were in the hall next to the kitchen, where Laurén’s three-year-old son was sleeping. The maid came in and shouted that a fire had broken out in the kitchen. Laurén ran to the police station to give the fire alarm and the guests were so frightened that they forgot about the child. It was only after Laurén returned and asked about the child that one of the people present rushed in and brought out the badly burned child. The child died of his injuries a few hours later.

In December 1897, a new insurance policy was taken out because the damage had been repaired. At the same time, an extension to the side of the yard had been built of logs and a porch of board. The building was apparently fitted with a new stone foundation made of hewn stone. The building had been raised and covered with a clapboard roof. The building was panelled and painted with oil paint. The interior had been altered to combine the two former chambers into a single room with an entrance from the street, by dismantling the partition wall. The former kitchen had been converted into a pantry, and the hall and part of the annexe into a kitchen. All the ceilings, floors, doors, windows and fireplaces had been replaced. All three stoves were now porcelain tiled. The rooms were also wallpapered and painted.

Modification drafts

In December 1897, a new insurance policy was taken out because the damage had been repaired. At the same time, an extension to the side of the yard had been built of logs and a porch of board. The building was apparently fitted with a new stone foundation made of hewn stone. The building had been raised and covered with a clapboard roof. The building was panelled and painted with oil paint. The interior had been altered to combine the two former chambers into a single room with an entrance from the street, by dismantling the partition wall. The former kitchen had been converted into a pantry, and the hall and part of the annexe into a kitchen. All the ceilings, floors, doors, windows and fireplaces had been replaced. All three stoves were now porcelain tiled. The rooms were also wallpapered and painted.

In 1896, a shop entrance and a neo-renaissance gate were opened on the square. The windows of the residential building also had Neo-Renaissance panelling, while the walls were clad in classical horizontal panelling. The design is by John Fred. Lindegren. An 1897 alteration drawing by Lindegren for the building facing the square. Previously, the building had had a hall in the centre, with a chamber on the other side of the courtyard and a shop on the roof side. On the other side of the hall was a kitchen on the street side and a hallway on the courtyard side. The change involved a small addition on the courtyard side to create a hallway and some additional space for the kitchen, which could be moved to the courtyard side. The former kitchen on the street side was converted into a pantry. The wall between the commercial room and the chamber on the courtyard side was demolished. The lining of the building was proposed as a three-tiered neo-renaissance style.

In 1913, the baking oven in the second residential building was abandoned. In 1917, a second entrance was made to the building. The building along the square was extended from the courtyard. The extension added two more chambers. In 1923, a shop window was to be added to the commercial building.

In 1944, there is an alteration drawing in which all the rooms of the building on the square were converted to commercial use. The building had already had one shop door and a shop window. The adjoining chamber had also been attached to the shop, but now the last remaining parts of the wall were removed and the oven was moved to a new location. On the courtyard side, the shop was joined by two chambers, which had been combined into a single storage room, but both still had their ovens. The second commercial building was also connected by two chambers. The former kitchen behind them remained as a storage room. While the fireplaces had to be replaced in any case, some of the wall between the former kitchen and the new store was also moved. Both commercial premises had their own entrance and toilet, and a second toilet was built to replace the demolished chamber furnace. The entire facade was transformed into a shop window with four large windows. The windows were replaced by the old windows of the apartment, of which three remained.

In 1878, direct electric heating and a shower room were installed in the residential building

Current situation

Building on the market square
A short-cornered residential building, used as a commercial building, extensively renovated in 1858, neo-renaissance lining of 1892 (John F. Lindegren), hipped roof, large windows of 1944.

Building on the school street.
Short-cornered residential building, Neo-Renaissance cladding on the street façade, ribbed horizontal boarding on the courtyard façade, hipped roof

Outdoor building
A short-cornered outbuilding with a Neo-Renaissance cladding on the street façade, built to the same 1892 design by John F. Lindegren as the cladding on the other buildings. Stained glass windows were used on the street-side exteriors of a few other houses around the same time. The courtyard façade is clad with a clapboard lining.

Gates
Old gates of a type common in the first half of the 20th century.