Kalvenes Street Houses No. 16, 14 and 12

Kalvenes Street houses No. 16, 14 and 12 around 1910

Kalvenes Street houses No. 16, 14 and 12 in 2014

The stone house in the foreground, together with the next one - with a wooden house facing the street, is at № 16 Kalvenes Street. In 1837, this plot of land was bought by Friedrich von Fircks for 200 Silver Rubles, who built a house here and sold it to the Supreme Court’s Lawer George Heinrich Kramer in 1840 for 1,200 Silver Rubles. In 1865, Baron Robert von Bolschwing (1836-1903) bought a house from Kramer's heirs for 4,800 Silver Rubles, and from him in 1877, Baron Karl von Manteuffel for 4,750.

Judging by the purchase prices, the stone house shown in the postcard could have been built between 1840 and 1865.

In 1884, the house was bought for the same 4,750 Rubles by Hermann Adolphi, the Mayor of Aizpute, who leased the property to the District School (after the reorganization in 1876, the 3-classes were maintained partly by the state, partly by the municipal and district nobility funds and school money) and teachers' apartments. When, on July 1, 1886, the Aizpute District School had to be reorganized into a fully state-run Town School, in other words, the existing German language teaching had to be replaced by Russian, Adolphi refused to let the first grade of the newly established school into his house. The refusal was motivated by the fact that he has concluded a lease agreement with the Aizpute School Board for renting premises to the Aizpute District School and not to the Town School.

In 1888, Adolphi sold this property for 5,500 Rubles to Franz Knittner. It has not been possible to find out where the new Town School started renting the premises. Judging by Adolphi's correspondence with the Courland Provincial Board, the District School continued to work here until 1888, when those who were transferred to the 2nd grade in 1886 received school leaving certificates.

It is not known to whom Knittner rented the premises.

In June 1898, Aizpute Town Council allowed Franz Knittner to open a beer store on Boju Street in his own house, but in the autumn of the same year - a beer store with hot food sales. He had it still here at least in 1900.

From the autumn of 1904 to the spring of 1915, there was a school here, at first a government school, later a Crown or state parish school, and more later a state 2-grade elementary school for boys and girls.

During the First World War, the former school premises were adapted to the apartments of German military personnel.

Knittner died in 1920, and in 1921 property rights were secured to his widow, Anna Knittner, born Walkasch, from whom doctor Pēteris Liepiņš bought this property on June 8, 1921 at the current № 16 Kalvenes Street for 22,000 Latvian Rubles and lived there until his death in 1938, when it was inherited by his widow.

In 1924, the Liepiņš estate consisted of a stone residential building with 16 rooms and a wooden back yard building with 4 rooms.

In the 1920s, the premises were rented here by Aizpute Methodist Church and photographer Katrīna Celmiņa - 3 rooms for a workshop and an apartment. The district doctor's office had 2 rooms. From 1928 to the second half of the 1930s, the office of Aizpute District Veterinarian Pēteris Zvirgzdiņš was also here.

In 1938, the sports club of the 6th Aizpute Guard Regiment was here for a short time.

On September 1, 1941, Aizpute Jewish Primary School started the school year in the apartment No 8 (presumably in a wooden backyard building).

Nowadays - a municipal residential house.

The plots of land on which the two previous buildings on № 16 Kalvenes Street and also the next two - № 14 and № 12 are located, were once one plot of land, which was separated from Jaunlaža (Neu-Lasche) Manor in the early 19th century and given a plot number with a modern address on № 14 Kalvenes Street. The first of it was separated in 1833 was № 16, in 1866 also № 12.

The first owner of the still undivided plot of land at № 14 Kalvenes Street was a carriage master, Hohmann. In 1804 it already belonged to Herz Simon. At the time of the 1811 census, the house of Herz Simon, a 79-year-old Jew, was here, but in 1825 the owner was the son, Ahron Herz, who in 1828 already had the surname Wohlgemuth. That year he sold his wooden house inherited from his parents, together with a stable and a paddock, to Marcus Krieger for 700 Silver Rubles.

Sometime before 1831, this property was purchased by doctor Friedrich Ernst Hartmann. After Hartmann's death in 1831, an act drawn up in the Aizpute Supreme Court about the legacy states that there is a new wooden house with a tiled roof on the plot, as well as a wooden household building - barn, carriage house and stable, all three under one roof. A new garden has been created, with a gazebo (Lusthaus) built of wood and covered with boards, under which there is a cellar. There is a board fence around the garden and yard, which, like the residential house and farm building, is in the best condition.

In his will, Hartmann had bequeathed the house on Boju Street to his house manager Anna Katharina Funk, Hahn's widow, on the condition that she would not marry, nor did she pledge the house. In the case of her marriage, the property is acquired by Theofila, the youngest daughter of Mondelius, a lawyer at the Courland Court.

Because Funk did not follow the rule and married carpenter Breimer, the house was indeed inherited by Mondelius, but for reasons unknown to us, not by Mrs. Theofila, but by her mother. However, at the end of 1834, Anna Katharina Breimer, born Funk, bought this property back and sold in 1845 for 900 Rubles to the Supreme Court’s lawyer Georg Heinrich von Kramer, who sold the "former Dr. Hartmann's house" in 1849 to butcher Schmuel Feifel Edelberg for 1,450 Rubles.

In 1855, Edelberg sold his property to Johann Gustav Schilling for 1,500 Rubles, with whom Alexander Schröder signed a life lease in 1856. In 1863, there were 3 wooden residential buildings of Alexander Schröder, whose 12 rooms housed 25 inhabitants.

In 1877 the above lease was canceled and Schilling sold the house to Levin Foss for 1,200 Rubles.

The next information found dates back to 1924, when the rights to this property were secured to the heirs of the deceased Leiba Foss - 5 Fosses and Hirschmann.

In 1932, Schmuel and Ure Fosses repurchased their shares from other heirs for 1,020 Lats.

In 1918 and in the 1920s, butcher Ure Foss had registered here. In the 1920s, K. Kļava's locksmith's workshop was also at this address.

Today - a municipal residential house was rebuilt in 1960.

The address of the next house is 12 Kalvenes Street. Among the aforementioned 3 wooden houses belonging to Schröder on № 14 Kalvenes Street was also a house built in 1856, which in 1868, together with the land on which it was located, was acquired by Wilhelm Hartmann for 2,401 Rubles, and a new plot of land with the address № 12 Kalvenes Street was created. In 1878 it was bought by Leiser Brandt for 2,600 Rubles and in 1937 the ownership of this real estate was secured to the heir of Leiser Brandt, who died in 1914, to Mosus (Mausche) Brandt.

As the Brandts confirmed in writing in 1934, the Construction Plan for their house was approved in 1912. However, in that year, the Aizpute Town Construction Committee did not approve the construction plan of this building, but the reconstruction project. The house had 6 apartments: 8 rooms and 2 kitchens.

The Brandts lived here until the autumn of 1941.

Today - a prayer house of Aizpute Pentecostal congregation.

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