19 Atmodas Street

19 Atmodas Street around 1900

19 Atmodas Street in 2014

19 Atmodas Street around 1900

19 Atmodas Street in 2014

№ 19 Atmodas Street in the second half of the 1930s

The former Aizpute Town Hall and the plot on which it is built, shown on the postcard, has an interesting history.

It is known that in the 18th century there was a Red Pub (presumably the pub building was painted red),  owned by Johann Emmerich von Keyserlingk, the owner of Dižlāņi (Groß Lahne), Lekši (Lexte) and Līgutu (Ligutte) Manors which he pledged in 1798 for 1,100 Talers for 90 years to Lasar Moses and to his wife, from whose child's guardians it was obtained by the innkeeper Schlaume, who already in 1801 pledged his house called the Red Pub with the area belonging to it to District Councilor (Landrat) von Firks.

In 1831, the Red Pub was bought for 1,500 Rubles by Simon Hirschman, who pledged it to his wife in 1844, and less than two months later to his foster son.

In 1849, the pub had almost completely collapsed, and its owner, unable to pay his debts, handed it over to his creditors. However, they did not carry out any repairs, so the property was put up for auction, and in 1851 it was bought by the Bailiff of Aizpute Court Friedrich Lange, who in October 1852 sold his newly acquired property for 1,400 Rubles to Baron Julius von Fircks, the owner of Kalvene (Kalwen) Manor. For this amount, Lange also had to hand over to the buyer all the building materials on the plot, as well as complete the construction of the unfinished barn building.

On November 25, 1854, Fircks sold his newly built house together with barns for 8,000 Rubles to the pharmacist  Carl Lichtenstein (1827-1904), but on May 21, 1864, a Purchase and Sale Agreement was signed, according to which Lichtenstein sold his house to the Aizpute Council for 10,500 Rubles, keeping the right to rent the existing pharmacy premises on the right side of the first floor, as well as half of the warehouse on the left side, the smallest of the three wooden stables and the middle cellar for 200 Rubles until Midsummer's Day in 1865.

It should be mentioned that according to the journal entries of the Council’s Treasury, the Council moved in in the Lichtenstein’s House as early as 1863, but the reconstruction planned and supervised by the architect Otto Dietze was completed in 1865. From 1860, when the old Town Hall was sold for demolition, until 1863, the Town Council rented premises for the Magistrate, Treasury and the Council servant's apartment in the newly built house of the Court’s Bailiff Hermann Frey on the current № 5A Kuldīgas Street.

The most important task given to the Architect Dietze was to set up two shops and apartments on the first floor instead of a pharmacy and a shop, as well as arrest rooms for women and men. Evidence that there were detention facilities in this building could not be found.

Since the beginning of 1865, there has been a tower clock to be winded in every 8-days with a striking mechanism in the Town Hall, as well as an 8-day clock in the hall. A local watchmaker was hired for 20 Silver Rubles a year to regularly wind up, adjust, clean and repair the clocks.

In 1868, Mayor Carl Bellmer bought a painting of the emperor for 26.75 Rubles for the Magistrates' Hall.

A new balcony was built for the Town Hall in 1898, but in September 1919 the Aizpute Construction Commission found that the balcony of the Town Hall was completely rotten and threatened to fall, so it had to be demolished. It is recommended to make a new one from the concrete. At its meeting on March 20, 1920, the Aizpute Town Council, considering the agenda item “On the Arrival of Kārlis Ulmanis on March 25, 1920”, decides to make the necessary repairs to the Town Hall balcony and “decorate it with flags and greens on the day of the meeting” so that the Prime Minister could "give a speech to the people" from it.

In the summer of 1930, a radio was purchased for the Council meeting room, and the Town Council decided to "design the radio in such a way that the apparatus would be in the Chancellery and the speaker could be placed out on the street or in the Council Hall", but at the January 1931 Council meeting, the possibility of listening to radio performances in the evenings by visitors to the town's free reading room and the rest of the public was discussed. At the meeting on 12 May, it was decided "to continue the demonstration of the radio on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays from 8 to 12 at night.. extraordinarily - by order of the Mayor”, and it was already reported at the May 28 meeting that: “new tasks have recently been added to servant K. Stern: cleaning the reading room, monitoring the radio and taking care of the clock”, for which the Town Council has decided to pay him an additional salary of 10 Lats per month.

It is worth noting an informative letter written by VEF (State Electrotechnical Factory) to the Aizpute Town Council on November 10, 1933:

„By order of the Ministry of Education, V.E.F. sends you the employee Alberts Jekste [Latvian radio construction pioneer, film pioneer, actress’s Anta Klints brother] with a radio receiver, amplifier and 2 speakers up to 25x2 m cords for speakers for the November 18 celebration program.

The mentioned employee will arrive at the station Aizpute at 17.33 on November 17 this year.

.. In the place of your choice, please install the antenna with the ground wire in advance and connect the electrical power contact to the device, because our person will not be able to do it due to the lack of time.”

There is no information where and who listened to the radio broadcast of this celebration of the 15th anniversary of the Latvian state.

As for the commercial premises designed on the first floor of the Town Hall, they have been successfully leased, thus supplementing the town's income.

For many years in the 19th century, a small items store of the miller Christoph Neumann was in one of the shops, he also sold flour from his four-lane mill, and the other store - the Johann Rosenbach bakery.

In 1901, the Town Council rented one furnished room with lighting, heating and a servant for 350 Rubles a year to the Aizpute Tax Board from January 1, 1901 to January 1, 1907, as well as 4 rooms with a shop, kitchen, bakery, wood shed, part of the grain barn and barn for a cow to Abraham Sussmanowitsch for 200 Rubles a year. This agreement was extended in 1903 for another 2 years. On the same date, 2 rooms with a shop, a kitchen, a wood shed and part of a granary were rented to Christoph Neumann for 150 Rubles a year, and this contract was extended in 1903 for another 2 years. Neumann sold flour in the shop.

During the First World War, Abraham Sussmanowitsch's bakery was still here, and there was also Hanne Friedberg's flea store.

In 1920, the Town Council decided to rent out “the ground floor of 19 Lielā (The Big) Street of the District Cooperative, which used to be occupied by a “children's - people's kitchen" - three rooms with a bakery room with an oven to be used for a bakery. In addition, there is a basement (under the premises), 1 warehouse in the yard on the 2nd floor and 1 wood shed, respectively.” The District Cooperative rented premises here until 1932. Premises for a bakery and a teahouse have also been rented to the Aizpute Workers' Cooperative.

In the 1920s, there was also a Fricis Lagzdiņš manufactured goods and women's clothing store.

In the early 1920s, there was a book and stationery store by Theodor Kronbergs, and from 1925 to 1934, a book and stationery store by the Aizpute District Teachers' Union.

In the 1930s, premises were also rented for Victor Götz's confectionery and bakery, as well as for Ernests Rimma's manufactured goods and haberdashery store, Ivan Ulanov's dish shop.

On April 6, 1936, the Town Council established the Town Museum, and gave two rooms in its house. The museum was set up and managed by the gymnasium teacher, painter Jānis Audriņš. The grand opening took place on 1 November of the same year.

Already in April, the call was distributed to the residents of the town and the district:

"In order for the museum to truly reflect the ancient life of our district and the town, the Aizpute Town Council kindly asks all residents of the town and the district: administrative persons, guards, teachers, civil servants, traders, farmers, workers, school youth, community leaders, church organizations, societies and every citizen to donate ancient things to the museum or to place them for some time (deposit) in it.”

The following 12 Articles explained in detail what the museum was interested in. As a result, by the end of 1936, 884 items had been donated to the museum, of which 25 were on display, and the museum's working hours were 12-14 on Sundays.

In 1938, due to the narrowness of the premises, it was decided to move the museum to the Old Castle, requesting the support of the Cultural Foundation for this purpose, which was also received. Prof. Francis Balodis, Chairman of the Board of Monuments, Prof. Boris Vipers, Art Historian, Prof. Pauls Kundziņš, Chairman of the Monumental Buildings Foundation, Ludolfs Liberts, Director of the state paper printing house painter and Pēteris Ārends Senior Inspector of the Board of Monuments of the Ministry of Education, arrived in Aizpute to get acquainted with the Town Museum and Order Castle.

The museum moved to the Old Castle in 1939.

Nowadays - Aizpute Art School.

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