Kategoriarkiv: Places

New in the 1840s: Sidewalks in Stockholm

Klara Norra Kyrkogata 8. Watercolor by Fritz Lindvall.
Klara Norra Kyrkogata 8. Watercolor by Fritz Lindvall.

Augusta’s friend, Lotten Westman, was an orphan. She and her younger sister Clara lived with a Mademoiselle Hellberg in Stockholm. The house was located at the intersection of two streets: Klara Norra Kyrkogata and Mäster Samuelsgatan.

What did the house look like? Would there be any paintings or drawings of the house? Or a photograph – even if it was taken years later?

Stockholm has a nice archive where you can search on street names or topics. I give it a try, entering the names of the streets. The only thing I find is a watercolor of one of the streets, Klara Norra Kyrkogata. I know where it is painted! If the painter had just turned his gaze to the left, he would have seen Lotten’s house across the intersection. For those familiar with Stockholm, the houses in the paintings were demolished and gave way to the large department store, Åhlens.

The painting is beautiful and it shows two kids sledding down the street. It is probably painted in the late 1800s and not in the 1840s when Lotten lived there. One clue is the fact that the man is walking on a sidewalk – I will get to that, but let’s start with Lotten’s description of the same street in 1845.

”This morning when I woke up, I saw through the window a clear blue sky and was told that it was below freezing outside. You know how happy one gets about dry streets after walking in dirt, 2 feet deep. I hurriedly dressed and, accompanied by my lovely Tante Cordier, walked far, far out, admiring and delighting in the glorious nature. Is there anything more lovely than a clear winter day? It made me so happy and it will keep me going for a whole week in case the weather gets dreadful again.” (Lotten’s letter to Augusta, dated 24 November 1845)

A wet hem
A wet hem

I can imagine the winter – snow, horse manure, and dirt freezing and thawing in cycles. Imagine walking in the street, watching out for horses and sleighs and at the same time trying not to get your long skirt wet or dirty. When it froze, it was certainly a lot easier to walk.

But 2 feet deep dirt! Was it really that bad? Were the streets paved? Were there sidewalks?

I find an interesting book about Stockholm, published in 1897. It has everything about the infrastructure of the city and its history. It has a chapter on Stockholm’s streets, sewage system, and parks.

I have found the answers to my questions.

Yes, it was bad. In 1827, a Professor Cederschiöld suggested that

The streets should be built as, for example, in Copenhagen with slightly elevated walkways or so-called sidewalks on the sides of the streets so that the pedestrians would not have to wade in the middle of the dirt and be crowded by horses and vehicles, with a not insignificant danger of being injured or even being run over.”

Potholes on Prince Street, a cobbled street in Alexandria, Virginia, USA

In Stockholm, the law stated that the house owner was responsible for paving the adjacent street with stones. The owner was also responsible for upkeep and repair of the street. There were no standards for the paving and no control of upkeep, resulting in uneven streets and potholes that filled with water. In the middle of the streets, there were sometimes larger stepping stones, so-called Mayor’s Stones (Swedish: Borgmästarstenar). As there were yet no sidewalks, walking on these stones allowed you to stay clear of puddles and dirt.

Street cleaning was supposed to be done on Wednesdays and Saturdays and to be done by the tenants of the house.

In 1845, the year Lotten wrote her letter (above), the city assumed the responsibility for the streets, but the cost was levied by a special property tax. This was the beginning of professionally paved streets using cut stones.

Where Lotten lived, there were no sidewalks, but it was about to change. The first recorded sidewalk was built in 1844 in front of a newly constructed house at Jakobsgatan 5.  It was beautiful and served as an inspiration for building more sidewalks. But the need for sidewalks was also hotly debated. The first entire street to have sidewalks was Regeringsgatan. Slowly, Stockholm was getting sidewalks – at least on the busier streets.

Nowadays, we take for granted that streets have sidewalks and that snow is removed from the streets and that sand and/or salt is applied. Some tax will cover the costs.

"Mayor's Stones" in the middle of the street on which Augusta lived as a newlywed (Lillgatan, Strängnäs,)
”Mayor’s Stones” in the middle of the street on which Augusta lived as a newlywed (Lillgatan, Strängnäs,)

But in my hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska, USA, sidewalks are still private and in older neighborhoods, a sidewalk can suddenly stop because the homeowners didn’t want a sidewalk in front of their house.

I got curious and had to look up the sidewalk policies in Lincoln:

  • Property owners or builders are responsible for constructing concrete sidewalks adjacent to the property.
  • Sidewalk repair is the responsibility of the City of Lincoln
  • Property owners must clear sidewalks of snow and ice by 9:00 am the morning following the end of each storm.

I don’t think I knew that we had to clear snow by 9:00 am, but at least we don’t have to sweep the street on Wednesdays and Saturdays!

Augusta’s friend Lotten and her little cousin Minna in St. Barths

The Swedish colony, Saint Barthélemy (St. Barths)
The Swedish colony, Saint Barthélemy (St. Barths)

Did Augusta know anything about the Caribbean island, St. Barths? Saint Barthélemy, or St. Barths, was a Swedish colony between 1784 and 1878. Augusta’s friend Lotten would have had good reasons to know about the island…

I am still reading the letters from Charlotte “Lottten” Westman to Augusta. Augusta and Lotten had been friends in Stockholm while attending private girl’s schools in 1842-1845. When Augusta moved back to her country home, Loddby, outside Norrköping, Lotten kept Augusta up-to-date on the social life in Stockholm. In the winter of 1845-46, she tells Lotten about the sisters Ulrich.

Lotten and Edla Ulrich

Lotten’s letter to Augusta, Stockholm, 24 November 1845

”…You must tell me in the next letter if you have become acquainted with the Royal Secretary Ulrich’s family and, if so, please convey my heartfelt greetings to them. I sincerely admire them. You must tell me how they are liked in Norrköping. At first acquaintance, the girls appear superficial and pretty unremarkable. But they are extremely good and the older one is particularly dear to me…”

Lotten’s letter to Augusta, Stockholm, 22 January 1846

”…When you meet Lotten Ulrich, give her my heartfelt greetings. I think she will miss Stockholm a lot, as well as all her acquaintances here. She was the one who really grieved the most about leaving Stockholm but she is right in trying to accept her destiny when it cannot be changed…”

Who were the sisters Ulrich and why did the family have to leave Stockholm?

To my surprise and delight, I find a recently published book of the two sisters’ diaries – Systrarnas Ulrichs dagböcker by Margareta Östman.

Lotten Ulrich (1806-1887) and Edla Ulrich (1816-1897) lived at the Royal Palace in Stockholm where their father, Johan Christian Henrik Ulrich, was the secretary to King Carl XIV Johan. When the king died in 1844, the family realized that their status would change and, in April 1845, they received a letter stating that they were now entitled to live at Kungshuset (The Royal House) in Norrköping. Lotten Ulrich was not excited about having to leave the Royal Palace in Stockholm for a house in Norrköping.

Lotten Ulrich’s Diary, Norrköping, Thursday, 12 September 1845 (my translation of the Swedish text, translated by Margareta Östman from the diary’s original entry in French (Östman, 2015).

”In Norrköping. This single word expresses the extent to which my destiny has changed since I last wrote in my diary. I’m no longer in Stockholm, in our dear little apartment in the Royal Palace, I am no longer at Gröndal, our beloved little rural home at Djurgården, these two places where I since my earliest childhood have spent my days; days that, when all is said and done, were happy, peaceful, and quiet No, I’m in Norrköping in The Royal House, eighteen [Swedish] miles from so many people and places that are infinitely dear to me and will remain so. It is here that I will now live my life, it is to this place we have traveled to live among people to whom we are indifferent and who are strangers to us.

And when I think of all the sacrifices that are required of us here, of all the pleasures I forever must forgo because of this move, then my heart breaks and I feel like crying in despair. And nevertheless – do I not have all the reasons to be content with my present situation, especially when I compare with how it could have been without God’s grace and without the grace of our good King Oscar I who gave us a place for retirement here in return for the one we had to leave in Stockholm? My destiny is determined, that is true, but do I not really have cause for despair and for letting my tears flow? …..”

Lotten Ulrich was trying to deal with the family move, her father’s retirement, and Norrköping. On the 6 January 1846, she attended a ball at the city hall in Norrköping. It was a beautiful ball, but Lotten Ulrich was so depressed that she didn’t even enter the ballroom.

I don’t know if Augusta ever did meet the sisters, and Lotten didn’t mention them again.

Ulrichs and Plagemanns

Lotten’s grandfather was the pharmacist Carl Johan Fredrik (CJF) Plagemann. His brother, Conrad Ludvig Plagemann (1784-1842) was a custom’s officer at Saint Barthélemy. He had 14 children born on the island.

The Ulrich sisters’ two brothers served consecutively as governors of Saint Barthélemy. Fredrik Carl (Fritz) Ulrich (1808-1868) was governor until his death in 1868. Bror Ludvig (1818-1887) then moved with his family to Saint Barthélemy and became the new governor.

It is no surprise that one of Conrad Ludvig Plagemann’s daughters, Lovisa Albertina (1815-1899), would marry one of the Ulrich brothers, Fredrik Carl (Fritz).

One of Conrad Ludvig’s sons, Arnold Plagemann (1826-1862) became a famous marine painter. In the late 1840s, he came back to Sweden and stayed with CJF Plagemann in Umeå. Some of his pencil drawings are included in the publication of letters between CJF Plagemann and his daughter Dorothea (Lotten’s “Dora”).

Painting by Arnold Plagemann
Painting by Arnold Plagemann

 

Jungfru Sara by Arnold Plagemann 1848-1850
Jungfru Sara, pencil drawing by Arnold Plagemann 1848-1850

Minna Ulrich

Fritz Ulrich corresponded with his sisters and family in Stockholm. They eagerly awaited his letter with news from Saint Barthélemy. News about the growing family. And sometimes they got packages or sent packages.

John Carlin, Little Girl with Doll, ca. 1854, watercolor on ivory, Smithsonian American Art Museum
John Carlin, Little Girl with Doll, ca. 1854, watercolor on ivory, Smithsonian American Art Museum

Lotten and Edla Ulrich describe in their diaries in 1838 how they buy a doll. It is going to be a present for Fritz’s 4-year-old daughter, Edla Wilhelmina (Minna), and will be sent all the way to Saint Barthélemy. The body, which is 23 inches long, and the head are bought separately. The head has real hair and enamel eyes. The doll will be outfitted with clothes that the sisters and their mother are making. They are very excited about the project.

Little Minna was actually Lotten Westman’s second cousin. How much did she know about her family in St. Barths? Sadly, Minna and two of her younger brothers died in a fever epidemic in 1841. In 1842, another daughter was born and given the same name. Seems like that was not an unusual custom.

Source:

Östman, Margareta. 2015. Systrarna Ulrichs dagböcker – från Stockholms slott, Djurgården och landsorten 1830-1855. Stockholm: Carlssons.   (Translation of title: The Ulrich Sisters’ Diaries – from Stockholm’s Palace, Djurgården, and the Countryside 1830-1855).

A Visit to Löfstad Castle

A while ago, I wrote about exploring Händelö, the first stop on Kerstin’s and my 4-day summer séjour.  What other places did we visit?

Day1. Löfstad Castle

Löfstad Castle
Löfstad Castle

Our second stop, after Händelö, is Löfstad Castle. This castle, built in the 1600s, has been privately owned until it was bequeathed by the last owner, Emilie Piper (1857-1926), to the House of Nobility (Riddarhuset) and Östergötland’s Museum. It is now open to the public.

“I don’t think we can find any link between Augusta and Löfstad Castle. It is so close to Norrköping, but Augusta would not have moved in the same circles,” Kerstin concludes.

I understand why.  The owners were the count and chamberlain Charles Piper and his wife. And when we catch the first glimpse of the castle, I am stunned. This is a totally different world. This is how the very wealthy, old noble families lived in the 1800s.

But we have also decided to visit the castle for another reason. Today is the first day of Löfstad Castle’s historical fashion exhibition – a collaboration between the museum and a friend of ours who creates fantastic Victorian clothes under the name La Belle Epoque.

We park the car and walk up to the ticket office.

“Are you here to guide?” one of the girls in the office asks as we enter the office. Sometimes we forget that we are wearing 1840s dresses.

“Oh no,” Kerstin explains,“ we are here to see the exhibition.

La Belle Epoque Wedding Gown
La Belle Epoque Wedding Gown

The real guide shows up and our small group of 4 or 5 visitors is lead into the castle. It is an amazing tour of rooms, frozen in time from when Emelie Piper would have gotten dressed in her bedroom, with her clothes laid out or hung for us to view and ponder. There are older clothes as well. And there are telltale portraits where the clothes will reveal the time period of when the person was painted. I am always looking for Kashmir shawls in painting.

“Look,” Kerstin exclaims, “on the piano!”

It is pretty dark in the room, but I see it. The piano is draped with a large Kashmir shawl. That is what people did once the long shawls were not fashionable any more – they put them on their pianos.

It is exciting to see that someone in the Piper family once owned one of these beautiful shawls and I tell the guide and the group what I have learned about them.

The La Belle Epoque dresses, made by our friend, are also stunning – especially a beautiful wedding gown. Emilie Piper didn’t marry; if she had, this could have been her wedding gown.

After the tour, we walk around the rose gardens, look at the old carriages, and have lunch in the outdoor garden café.

And then we head for the next stops – Stora Gålstad and Ekeby, two places tied to Augusta’s early childhood.

The Wild Strawberry Patch at Händelö

When Augusta and her mother visited spas in the summer, they referred to their visits as summer séjours. So this year, Kerstin and I decided on a summer séjour where we would visit places with connections to Augusta. It would be a four-day trip, by car, dressed as in the 1840s.

Day 1. Händelö

Hendelö
Händelö

On 26 June, we get in the car – happy that we don’t have hoop skirts. The two layers of petticoats and all the four yards of cloth in the skirts still fill all the space in the front seats. We are really excited to take off on our summer séjour! Every time we travel in Augusta’s footsteps, we meet interesting people and have a lot of fun.

Our first stop is Händelö.

“Did you read about Händelö in Augusta’s diary?” Kerstin asks.

”Yes, I did. ”

But I have to admit that it had not seemed too important when I read it. What I do remember, however, is a seminar we attended in Norrköping last year. It was a talk about historical buildings threatened to be demolished. One of those was Krusenhof, the estate where Augusta’s best friends and neighbors had lived. Another one was an estate close to Norrköping – Händelö. But what was the connection to Augusta?

Augusta’s Diary, Loddby, 1850

“Nothing out of the ordinary has happened here except for the fact that we on the 13th of August traveled to Hendelö where we spent a rather pleasant afternoon in the company of the Theodors.”

Kerstin has done her research and explains as we continue our drive south on the E4.

“The Theodors was the family of Frans Theodor Osbeck. He was the husband of Augusta’s cousin’s daughter, Albertine Schubert.“

“Yes, I remember their engagement.”

”And Theodor’s dad’s sister, Sofia Charlotta, was married to Ernst Fredrik Munck who was renting Händelö,” she continues. “Can you look up who the owner was?”

I search for the history of Händelö on my iPhone. There are several links because there is an interest in saving this estate from further neglect and from the threat of demolition.

“It was owned by the minister of foreign affairs, Baron Gustaf Adolf Stjerneld at Lindö,“ I read. ”There is also more recent history about the place being used as a drug rehabilitation center.”

It is not hard to find Händelö. There is a sign, and we exit. Then we take a turn into what would have been the road up to the estate. I can imagine Augusta and her family in the carriage driving up the same road.

A bouquet of wildflowers
Picking a bouquet of wildflowers

Suddenly we get to where the road is overgrown and we can only guess where it must have continued under the tall trees. We park in the grass and get out. The grass is tall and interspersed with a rainbow of wildflowers – bluebells, red clover, yellow St. John’s wort, and lady’s bedstraw. But all I can think about are the presence of ticks. I do have a well-founded fear of ticks. And here I am in a long dress, 2 petticoats, silk stockings, and fabric shoes. Ticks would have no problem latching on to all this sweeping fabric.

Kerstin, on the other hand, has no fear of ticks. She is busy getting her Nikon camera ready.

“Can you walk slowly towards the house,” she asks.

I look at the sea of tall grass. What can I do? I am just going to take the risk today. I will check all the fabric folds for little hitchhikers once we are back at the car.

Kerstin inspecting the mansion
Kerstin inspecting the mansion

Händelö looks like a painting. A beautiful two-story, yellow mansion under as deep blue summer sky with puffy white clouds. Flanking the mansion are some very tall trees. There must have been a courtyard in front, or at least a circular gravel road where carriages would have pulled up. We walk slowly towards this abandoned mansion; the only sounds are the rustling of our dresses and the chirping of birds.

The Wild Strawberry Patch

Kerstin sees it first.

“Look!” she exclaims, “the strawberries!”

I turn to where she is pointing. On this side of the courtyard, the short grass is dotted with wild strawberries. I have never, ever seen such an abundance of wild strawberries.

The wild strawberry patch
The wild strawberry patch

Wild strawberries (in Swedish, smultron) are nothing like domesticated ones. Wild strawberries are small, with a distinct flavor far superior to that of the domesticated ones. A smultronställe is a patch of wild strawberries, but it conveys something special – a hidden, wonderful place that one stumbles upon in surprise. When I try Google Translate, it suggests that smultronställe could be translated as a hideaway or a favorite spot – close enough, I suppose.

Anyway, we have literally found a smultronställe and now we are both on our knees picking as many strawberries as we can, and threading them onto straws of grass like we used to do as kids. The picture is almost surreal. Here we are, all alone, in our 1840s dresses, in front of a stately, yellow mansion, picking and eating strawberries on what would once have been the courtyard.

I wish Augusta could have seen us! I also wish that we could have been with Augusta on that pleasant afternoon in August in the company of the Theodors.

Hotel Norrköping in Stockholm

Map of Stockholm’s Old Town in 1848. Two houses are marked with red numbers:
Stora Nygatan 8 and Lilla Nygatan 11.

12 March 1851

”Since Saturday evening I am here in Stockholm, our Swedish Paris, the dance-hungry’s Eldorado. Our journey here was miserable; unfavorable road conditions for the sleigh and grey, chilly weather. We ate bad food and slept miserably in cold, unpleasant lodgings, chatted with drunk coachmen, drank mulled wine, and finally arrived frozen and exhausted to our nice and beautiful Stockholm where we took in at Hotel Norrköping on Stora Nygatan. The day after our arrival, we waded through deep dirt to get to our friends on Kungsholmen where we became heartily received, had a pleasant evening, and dreamed us back to winter evenings at Krusenhof.”

 

Even though it is of little importance, I just had to find where Hotel Norrköping was located. Does the house still exist in Stockholm’s Old Town? I had googled and searched old newspapers but this hotel just eluded all my searches. There would have to be better ways to look for this hotel.

A couple of weeks ago, Kerstin and I visited Stockholm’s City Archives and asked for suggestions. Despite their help, we still couldn’t find anything about this hotel. The archivists suggested looking for ads in old newspapers. But I had already searched the digitized newspapers and found nothing.

Then Kerstin and I walked the street Augusta mentioned, Stora Nygatan, and looked at buildings that might have been from this time – just for fun and on the way to Vapiano for lunch. Which house could it have been?

Google map image of the same area as on 1848 year’s map.

Last weekend I visited the Royal Library (KB) in Stockholm. It is the repository for everything that has been printed. It was then that I realized that KB had many digitized newspapers that I had not been able to find in other archives.

Searching for the hotel in KB’s archives actually gave me the results I had been looking for!

Hotel Norrköping showed up in advertisements but depending on the year, there were two different addresses for this hotel. Maybe it moved? The address was Stora Nygatan 8 in 1858 and Lilla Nygatan 11 in 1863 and 1866. The two streets are parallel and the two addresses are very close to each other (see image above). In the late 1860s, the hotel was mentioned as having closed.

At Hotel Norrköping
(Stora Nygatan No. 8) Several well furnished rooms for rent by month or until 1 April for bachelors or travelers.
(Stockholms Dagblad, 10 November 1858)

The hotel was also listed in a travel guide,  published in 1866. There, the address is Lilla Nygatan 11.

I still have not found any pictures of the hotel, but the two houses still exist so, most likely, there would just have been a small sign over the door with the name of the hotel and the rooms would have been ordinary –  probably nothing worth depicting in a newspaper ad.

What have I learned? That there are many archives that are not searchable by search-engines like Google. One has to familiarize oneself with all the different archives and then be very creative in how to search.

Two singers who have not previously sung in here in the city wish to get an engagement. Messages can be left at Hotell Norrköping, Lilla Nygatan N:o 11, rooms 6 and 7. (Aftonbladet, 30 November 1863)

And sometimes one is rewarded by a little luck.

 

 

 

 

Stora Nygatan 8 and Lilla Nygatan 11.