The old pharmacy

The city’s pharmacy operated in this building for almost a hundred years (1836-1930). The house almost burned down three times when serious fires occurred in the pharmacy’s laboratory. The house has been in the current owner’s family for 128 years so far.

Conrad Berggårdh’s book Kristinestads apotek och dess innehavare under 150 år (1786-1936), published in 1936, describes the pharmacy’s operations:

Carl Gustavf Thodén bought the house N:o 170 in the IV block at Strandgatan and turned it into a pharmacy. The pharmacy was thus located on the street that was an entrance to the town centre from the north. The pharmacy probably had two large and one smaller room on the north side of the building. Less than a year after Thodén received the privilege of the pharmacy in Kristinestad, he passed away at the age of 27.

The pharmacy was taken over in 1837 by Fredrik Wilhelm Jurvelius, a relative of Thodén, and he bought the house in 1839 from the widow Thodén. In 1846 the building almost burned down. The fire had started in the laboratory when distilling spirits (which was not an uncommon cause of fire in pharmacies).

The pharmacy was bought in 1882 by pharmacist Karl Albert Dahlin for 50,000 marks.

In the spring of 1890, Dahlin sold the pharmacy and the building to pharmacist Emil Reims for 115,000 Finnish marks, so that the pharmacy was valued at 100,000 and the house and plot at 15,000 marks.

Henrik Johannes Sandlund bought the pharmacy and house in 1895 for 142,000 Finnish marks (pharmacy 125,000, house and plot 15,000) and Dahlin’s villa in Korkeasaari 2,000 marks (Solhem villa, as well as the pharmacy building, is still in the family in 2023, 128 years and counting). During his time, the third threatening fire in the pharmacy occurred when Provisor Rafael Olin, a laboratory technician at the pharmacy, was busy preparing phosphorus, when the phosphorus ignited and set the room ablaze. Olin’s work coat also caught fire and he ran at record speed to the beach about 100 metres away and threw himself into the water. Curiously, Olin, like Sourander who played the main role in the fire during Jurvelius’ time, also bought the First Pharmacy in Pori.

He was the owner of the pharmacy until 1926, when it passed to his eldest son Ernst Sandlund.

According to Berggårdh in the book, Strandgatan was sidelined after the “long bridge” was built over Norrfjärden and therefore Ernst moved the pharmacy to the upper square in 1930.

Building history

The building history of the pharamcy house is described in the insurance letters from 1867 and 1902; the letter from 1867 is more detailed and essentially corresponds to the one from 1902.
Buildings 1-5 in the plan below were in 1867 as follows:

1. Main building constructed of new timber in 1819, panelled and painted with yellow oil paint under a shingled roof (replaced with asphalt felt before 1902). The length towards the street is 28.50 metres, the width is 9.80 metres and the average height is 9.80 metres. In 1867 there was no glass veranda facing the courtyard, which means that it was built later in the 19th century and the entrance to the house was via the external staircase that is now located north of the veranda. There are 11 rooms with a total of 9 tiled stoves and a kitchen stove, while in 1902 the number was increased to 13 rooms (one of which was a pharmacy) with a total of 12 tiled stoves and a kitchen stove (in addition to an attic room with a tiled stove).
2. At an angle to the main building and connected to it by a terrace-like staircase, a combined residential and storehouse building, built in 1819 for the residential part and 1822 for the storehouse, size 25.3 x 6.7 x 6.7 metres, boarded and painted with yellow oil paint under a shingled roof. There were 5 living rooms with a total of 3 tiled stoves and a kitchen stove, while the storehouse had three compartments.
3. This house is partly built in 1828, partly in 1845, measuring 21.2 x 5.2 x 6.7 metres, boarded under a beaded roof and painted with yellow oil paint. The house comprised a combined farmhouse and bakehouse, a chamber and a laboratory (with a brick floor), the rooms containing a total of 2 tiled stoves, 1 large baking oven and a large stove in the laboratory.
4. Finally, closest to the shore is an ice cellar built of timber in 1864 with double log walls and the space between filled with sawdust and coal dust. It measures 13 x 5.8 x 6.3 metres, is painted in yellow oil paint and has a beaded roof.
5. Along the south side is a long outbuilding built in 1819, boarded and painted with yellow oil paint under a shingled roof. In 1867 the house was recorded as 37.3 metres in length, 5.5 metres in width and 5.2 metres in height and comprised a shack with a vestibule, a hay barn, a storehouse, a dunghill, a stable and a shed. By 1902 this outbuilding had grown to 64.3 metres in length and comprised an arched stone cellar, a wood shed, a stable, an outhouse with a dunghill, a shack with a vestibule and a feed barn, 3 store rooms, a wagon shed and a boathouse (the latter demolished in 1992-93).

The entrance gate was painted with light oil paint and the height of the garden fence was 1.5 metres and was painted with yellow paint. Towards the waterline there was a large landing bridge for boats.