The December evening darkens into night. Briskie the Christmas elf roams quietly on Kauppakatu street. In his electronic notebook, he has collected notes and gift wishes for Santa Claus.
Briskie has stopped at the corner of Brahenkatu and Kauppakatu streets. The street names were Pakkahuoneenkatu and Brahenkatu during the era of sailing ships when Briskie began his career as a Christmas elf working as an apprentice with elf Slightbrisk.
-Those were good times, he sighs. Together with elf Slightbrisk they used to go on scouting rounds. One would peek through windows while the other took notes in a notebook. Elf Slightbrisk retired at the young age of 700.
On the corner lot number seven stood Johan Sivert Lundberg's (1813-1895) house, and it's still there today. Lundberg obtained his merchant's rights in 1833 and became a partner in Fellman's shipping company in the 1830s. He became a new correspondent-shipowner for Fellman's company, and he changed the business name to Lundberg & Company. T
The era of sailing ships in Raahe gradually declined and ended. The property changed owners, and in the wing building of the house, a pharmacy operated from 1924 to 1999. After that, the city of Raahe acquired the collection and opened the pharmacy museum, Wanha Apteekki.
More information in Finnish
Eero Sovelius-Sovio: Ihmisiä laivojen kaupungista
Ahti Nokela: Apteekkiemme aarteita
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