Sorwar

History

The Sorvar plot was owned by Yrjänä Åbeck in 1756. In 1800 it was owned by the bourgeois Gabriel Åbeck. He owned two barrels of arable land, a meadow, a food shed, a half share of a reef and barn, and a shed on the beach.

Fire insurance

The fire insurance was taken out in 1859 by the butcher S. Wallenius. On the site, along Kuninkaankatu, there is a residential building with a pass-through gatehouse. There is another building on the Isopoikkikatu side, which forms a corner with the main building. At the rear of the courtyard, on the northern boundary of the plot, there are two outbuildings.

The street-side building was old, in good condition, partially boarded and painted red. The western part of the building had two halls, a pantry, a kitchen and a hallway. On the east side of the gateway was a dormitory and a shed. At the entrance was a porch with a window above the door. The living rooms had seven six-paned windows and one three-paned half window. The outer door was a double door of simple board. In the hallway was a cupboard from which the attic stairs led. There were four semi-transomed doors. Two rooms had paper wallpaper and one had painted canvas wallpaper. The building had three square tiled ovens with brown glazing and a kitchen stove. There were two chimneys.

The building on the Isopoikkikatu side was an old log building in fair condition. The building was unplanked, but painted with red paint. The rooms were a baker’s shop, a pantry, a hall and a pantry. The fireplace was the oven in the bakehouse, which also had a stove and a tiled oven. There were two eight-paned windows and one six-paned window. There were two board doors as partition doors. The outer door was a simple double door. The door to the pantry was a one-piece board door. There was one chimney.

The exterior was old and in fair condition. It was not boarded up, but was painted red. The building had three boarded doors. The premises consisted of a barn and a shed with a porch between them. The building had three boarded doors. This, like the other buildings, had a boarded roof. The second outbuilding was an old, log stable and barn building. It was unboarded and unpainted and in fair condition. It had two simple boarded doors. In the middle of the yard was a small, square, unplanked and unpainted dormitory with a false floor and two double board doors. In addition, a double board gate, painted with oil paint, and a log basement entrance, were secured.

New in 1863 by the chartered surveyor H. F. Sandroos. During the same year the main building had been renovated inside: new floors and ceilings, new wallpaper, etc.

In 1883, the house was owned by Lydia Grönroos, daughter of the merchant-porter. According to the renewed fire insurance certificate, the building on the corner of Kuninkaankatu and Isopoikkikatu was in good condition. The side facing Kuninkaankatu had been partially rebuilt and extended in 1882, and was boarded up and painted with oil paint. The wing facing Isopoikkikatu had been built in 1883 and was unplanked and unpainted. The building had an asphalt shingle roof. There were seven living rooms, plus a kitchen, a baker’s pantry, three hallways and three boarded porches with windows. There were seven tiled stoves, five of which were fine white ones. There is a brick-vaulted cellar under the building. The roof of the brick hall in the basement was felt.

The outbuilding on the northern boundary of the plot is partly of log, partly of board and was built in 1881. The building was still unplanked and unpainted. It had three dormers, a barn and a vaulted cellar under the building. There is also mention of a small, separate, well-preserved latrine building made of board. A new gate, painted with oil paint, was also insured. The gate is now on the east side of the property, as there is a room where the old gate house was. The warehouses on the eastern side of the plot had been demolished.

Modification drafts

An alteration drawing by Arvi Forsman from 1898 covers both the residential building and the outbuilding. The residential building at the corner of Kuninkaankatu and Isopoikkikatu had an addition on the courtyard side, located between two porches. Two small kitchens were added to the new part. On the Kuninkaankatu side there was a small kitchen and on the Isopoikkikatu side a room with a baking oven. Both the Kuninkaankatu section and the Isopoikkikatu wing were semi-detached in plan. The Kuninkaankatu side had additional chambers at both ends. On the Kuninkaankatu side there was one entrance to a commercial building. The exterior building was partially widened, and the small wing on the eastern boundary was demolished. After the alteration, there were two cattle sheds, two dormitories and a latrine.

In 1908, Leonard Ahti drew up a handsome, neo-Renaissance gate plan for the property.

In 1923, changes were planned. The drawings were made by H. A. Toivonen. Two commercial entrances and two tall and narrow display windows were added to the street façade, as well as attic windows. The building has vertical clapboard siding ending in a round-arched scrollwork motif. The moulding of the six-paned windows was classical. An addition was made to the side of the courtyard to house a small kitchen. The entire section of the building on Kuninkaankatu now had a widening of the trunk. The old bakehouse was divided into a room, a kitchen and a hallway. One of the chambers was also converted into a kitchen, as was one of the hallways. The plan was to have six kitchens.

In 1935, changes were made to the division of the rooms in a pair of apartments. The next changes were made in 1953. They concerned the fireplaces in the apartments at the corner of Kuninkaankatu and Isopoikkikatu. The building had three apartments and perhaps one shop apartment. More changes followed in 1970. There had been only one shop entrance on the façade, but no shop windows. There had been a total of nine hexagonal windows on the roof. Now three large rooms were combined into a single shop area by demolishing the walls, and at the same time display windows were added. The shop door was also moved. The façade of the shop windows was made of water-resistant plywood. Two apartments were left, the larger with three rooms and a kitchen, the smaller with two rooms and a kitchenette. The apartments were equipped with amenities and the larger one also had a sauna. Most of the heating furnaces were demolished. In 1971, a carport was built in the outbuilding, replacing the former latrine, and a second carport was built next to it. In 1974, the shop and business premises were extended and a paint store was built in the basement. The entire outbuilding also became a single paint store. All partitions were demolished.

Current situation

Residential and commercial building
Residential building with elongated corners, partly as a commercial building, extensively renovated in 1863, pantile lining, smooth vertical planking on the courtyard façade, saddle roof, display windows from 1970

Exterior building
Elongated outbuilding, interlocking timbering

Gate
Type common in the early 20th century.