SPARVIN HOUSE, 1861
The Sparvin House was renovated from 2016–2017 and was originally built by carpenter Anders Sparvin’s widow, Maria Sparvin, in 1861. The building is the oldest residential building in central Jyväskylä that still stands on its original plot.
The plot of the current Toivola Old Courtyard had belonged to Anders Sparvin from 1844, but was transferred to his widow, Maria, after his death. Anders Sparvin’s son, the carpenter, skipper and merchant John Sparvin redeemed ownership of the plot from his mother in the early 1860s.
Sparvin House was painted soon after completion using home-boiled Falu red paint. The sources of heat in the chambers were tiled stoves, and there was a stove in the kitchen. Planks were used for roofing, in accordance with the regulations of the time.
The residential building was thoroughly renovated in 1892 by the next owner, Herman Toivola, who was Johan Sparvin’s son-in-law. The previously unfaced building was given facing, as was fashionable at the time, and painted with oil-based paint. The old six-paned windows were kept, and in 1874 the roof, which had been converted into a shingle roof, was covered with asphalt felt.
In 1863, Johan Sparvin built another small residential building on the plot, but it was demolished in 1893. During Sparvin’s time, the oldest building on the plot, a small log cabin built in 1840, was also in a habitable condition. It was left in place on Cygnaeuksenkatu street until the 1910s.
