Spärri

History

In 1756 the plot belonged to the widow of Sperri. In 1800, the owner is mentioned as Niilo Sparnborg, a bourgeois son. He also had some arable land.

Fire insurance

Fire insurance was taken out in 1874, when the house was owned by pilot J. H. Fredriksson. There were five buildings on the plot: a residential building on the street side and a wing built together with it on the western boundary of the plot, another residential building on the western boundary of the plot and an outbuilding built together with it, and a small building on the northern boundary at the rear of the plot.

The dwelling was old, built and boarded in the past, painted with oil paint and with a tiled roof. The rooms consisted of an entrance hall, four chambers and a hall, with a covered, boarded external staircase. There were four tiled stoves. The wing building was also old, painted in red brick and with a tiled roof. The rooms included a kitchen, hall and dormitory, and a chalk room with an attic above. The fireplace was a kitchen stove with an iron stove.

The second dwelling was an old, partly log and partly boarded building, painted in red paint and with a boarded roof. The building had a baker’s pantry and a shed. The fireplace was a baking oven with a stove. The outbuilding, which was joined to the bakehouse, was an old, unplanked, unpainted and with a pitched roof.

The outbuilding at the rear of the property was in fair condition. It was an unplanked and unpainted log building. The building contained a stable. The driveway was also insured.

Modification drafts

There is a modification drawing from 1887, which shows the buildings on the plot at that time. On Kuninkaankatu there is a semi-detached building with two large rooms and a hallway and an antechamber between them, as well as an end chamber at the eastern end of the building. On the courtyard side, on the western boundary of the plot, there is a wing consisting of several building elements, which continues to the northern boundary of the plot. In the courtyard wing is the first kitchen associated with the street-side building, with a porch in front. Light into the kitchen is provided by the windows of the porch. The porch continues and beyond the kitchen are various boarded cupboards and then two rooms of small frame depth, apparently an old two-roomed shed. This is followed by a section of the baking room, standing on its own corners, with a baking room and pantry. Beyond this is another boarded-up storeroom. All of these are covered under the same roof and boarded with horizontal boarding. The windows are six-paned on the courtyard side and four-paned on the roof side, taller than those on the yard side. The outbuildings comprise a barn, shed and barn extension on the western boundary and an originally separate stable on the northern boundary. All these are connected by a single plank façade which conceals not only the log, narrow-framed buildings but also the privy section in front of the barn. The outbuilding section is lower than the residential section and is shown on the drawing as having a pitched roof, while the residential section has a tin roof.

In 1919, a shop door was opened in place of the east window on the roof. The door is in Art Nouveau style. The design is by Jon Sundqvist. The façade cladding on the roof façade is now drawn as a tripartite, but the window frame moulding is still classical.

In 1934, a bathroom was designed for the Spärri. At the same time, it was proposed to demolish the baking oven and convert the adjacent room into a kitchen.

In 1956, the shop space was extended to include other rooms along the street and spaces in the depth of the building. There were two shops and large display windows were made for them along the whole side of Kuninkaankatu. Before the conversion, the street frontage had two shop doors and narrow tall display windows, but still had one residential window. The high gate was replaced by a low one. In 1957, a small extension was made to the courtyard side and more rooms were incorporated into the commercial building. Both shops remained wood-fired.

All the spaces in the building were put into commercial use in 1965. The kitchen and pantry, previously used for storage, were added to the west side shop. The rooms of the former dwelling, which had been converted into storage rooms, still remained as separate rooms. A boiler room and two toilets were also added. For central heating, fireplaces and chimneys were removed. A couple of windows were also removed on the courtyard side, as the shop was given a loading bay type entrance with double doors.

In 1984, a high gate was designed into the roof side. In 1994, the shop building was thoroughly renovated. The large display windows on the façade were replaced by smaller ones, similar to those that had previously been in the building. The doors of the commercial premises were also changed to match the Art Nouveau style of the windows. Markus Bernoulli was responsible for the design.

Current situation

Street-side building
Residential building with long corners, now a commercial building, horizontal boarded, cladding on the courtyard facade, saddle roof, display windows. Restorative and adaptive alterations in the 1990s, including reducing the size of the display windows and making them similar to those in the attic.

Gate
Replacement of the old-style gate.