Tebras (Baznīcas/Curch) Street

Tebras (Baznīcas/ Church) Street around 1910

Tebras (Baznīcas/ Church) Street

Using the opportunity offered by the postcard, let's take a look at Tebras Street.

The old name of this street is Baznīcas (Church) Street. On October 31, 1948, it was renamed Andreja Macpāna Street, honoring the memory of the militiaman of Aizpute 1940-41 and the red partisan who was shot in February 1945 in the Cīrava Forest. In the 1950s, it seemed to the occupation authorities that the former Baznīcas Street was too short for Macpan's name, so it gave him Zvaigžņu (Star) Street, but it did not give Baznīcas Street its old name back either – it was renamed as Tebras Street.

Although Tebras Street still leads to the church rather than to the river Tebra, the Town Council has for some reason still not given it its old name, preferring the one given by the occupying power.

The postcard shows a house on № 1 Baznīcas (Curch) Street. It is known that around 1796 a new residential building was built here by Marshal Sass of Aizpute District, from whom it was bought together with the adjacent plot on № 3 Baznīcas Street in 1797 for 2,875 Talers by the 1st Guild merchant David Halle, who has had a shop here since 1796. After his death (around 1817), the house was inherited by the widow Feige Halle, who in 1818 sold a plot of land at № 3 Baznicas Street for 833 1/3 Rubles to the Town's Alderman Johann David Dietrich Stolz, and a house at № 1 Baznicas Street bought by merchant Johann Burbe for 2,200 Silver Rubles in 1838.

In 1842, the Burbe house had a new owner - it was bought for 2,800 Silver Rubles by watchmaker Meier Kuhn, who sold it for 3,000 to the paper manufacturer Schaul Bernitz in the same year. It is possible that Bernitz built the house shown in the postcard, because when he sold the property to the Court Bailiff (Vogt) Hermann Frey in 1860, he received 6,000 Rubles for it.

In 1868, the house was bought at auction for 5,310 Rubles by Baron von Brinken, the owner of the Renda Manor, from whom in 1876 it was bought for 4,500 Rubles by the merchant Ludwig (Lewin) Danziger, who had a small items shop here.

In 1879, the restaurant of Leopold Tramdach was located here, as well as the workshop of the shoemaker Miķelis Grīntāls.

In 1882, Ludwig Danziger sold the house to his wife Lina Danziger for 3,700 Rubles, but in 1884 he had a pub here.

Siegfried Hass bought the house from Mrs Danziger in 1887 for 5,800 Rubles, but in 1893 it was already the property of Aizpute Credit Union, where Pavel Klave's pub was located, in 1896 - Elisabete Jaunzeme beer shop.

In 1918, the skoemaker Mārtiņš Zuntlers was registered at this address as well as the potter Jānis Vacmanis, who could also be found here later years.

In the early 1920s, a Launerte fulled cloth and a paint shop was in one of the back yard buildings.

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