A Pastor, a Fire and a New Beginning: Dating Evidence from 5 Tähtvere Street, Tartu

Abstract

The earliest records of a house and surrounding land where 5
Tähtvere Street now stands date back to the last quarter of the 18th
century, when a large plot of land between Herne, Kroonuaia, Marja
and Tähtvere Streets came into the possession of pastor of Jaani
Church Theodore Oldekop. In the last century 5 Tähtvere Street
has seen many changes. The street is now at a different height than
it used to be (Fig. 1A) due to resurfacing over many decades, and it
was damaged by a Soviet bomb in 1944 (Fig. 1B). Today number 5
is recognised as culturally important and has heritage protection.
In the summer of 2025, the latest renovation of Tähtvere Street took
place. The lower part of the front log wall had been under the rising
street for a long time and was no longer safe, so repairs needed to
take place (Fig. 2A). During these repairs we collected samples of
wood from the decayed logs in the hope of dating them (Fig. 2B). This
was so that we could address the lack of knowledge of the building’s construction date. The aim was to study the early history of the
building (from archive and written sources) with the addition of new
dendrochronological research and to compare the results. Theodor
Oldekop became a pastor at Jaani Church in 1752 and lived with his
family in a house on the corner of Kompanii and Suurturg Streets.
A major fire broke out in the city on the 25th June, 1775, destroying
most of the wooden houses within the city walls, the pastor’s house
among them. His losses were estimated at 4,000 rubles for his house,
his library and other household belongings. In March 1776, Oldekop
requested a reconstruction loan and in April the board decided to
allocate 400 rubles to him. But in April 1777, the board received
a new application. He claimed that he had almost completed the
construction work on the wooden house on his garden plot outside
Jakobi Gate but needed another 100 rubles. Theodor Oldekop died
in 1806, and his widow in 1833. Their heirs sold the property along
with other buildings to pastor Theodor Heinrich Gehewe. A visual
overview of Supilinn in the late 1830s is provided by the plan drawn
up in 1837. Houses and other buildings are drawn within the garden
plots. The house belonging to pastor Gehewe (Gehöwe on the plan)
is depicted as larger than the others (Fig. 3B). The Dendrochronology
Laboratory at the University of Tartu’s Geography Department was
contacted to help resolve the dating question. Dendrochronology is a
very accurate technique that is used to date ancient wood and so the
samples collected from the wall were submitted to the Laboratory for
analysis. A visual inspection of the log samples revealed that they
were all pine and hewn on the sides. A V-shaped groove was cut
into the lower side so that they could be set securely together. This
groove was filled with sphagnum moss. There were lath nails on the
inner surfaces, some of which were hand forged. Finally, there were
black burn marks on the outer surfaces of the logs suggesting they
had been exposed to accidental fire damage. Sample preparation
and subsequent dating analysis took place at the Laboratory. Core
samples were drilled from the under-bark wood surfaces (Fig. 4)
and the annual ring widths were measured (Fig. 5A). The ring width
series were compared with ca. 270 pine reference chronologies from
Estonia and other parts of Europe. The results showed that log 1
dated to 1773 and best matched the pine chronology of the house
at 37 Jakobi Street, Tartu. Log 2 dated to 1774 and best matched the
Estonian pine chronology 3epestcr. The date of log 3 was interpreted as terminus post quem because its surface was missing some of the
outermost rings. An estimate puts it as also being felled sometime
around 1773–1774. Construction timber was usually felled in winter
and used fresh in the following warm season; therefore, assuming
the use of fresh wood, the building would have been erected in 1775.
However, pastor Oldekop only applied for the loan to build this
house in March 1776. Construction probably began in May 1776 at the
earliest. In addition, the ring width series of the logs are dissimilar
(Fig. 6D) with each cross-dating to a different reference chronology.
This suggests that the logs originated from different forests. Logs
from different felling dates and sources could have been mixed when
sold as merchants coped with demand after the great fire. Finally,
the mixture of handmade and machine-made nails found in the
samples suggests a refurbishment took place during which older
nails from previous construction were reused in the replacement of
worn out laths. A nail smith rented property from pastor Oldekop
at the time of the great fire and it is possible that the handmade
nails came from this smithy, perhaps in the initial construction of
the house, although the use of these nails could also have occurred
after pastor Gehewe took up residence. Pastor Oldekop’s original
home on Kompanii Street was destroyed in the fire along with many
other buildings. His response was to relocate his home to his garden
plot outside the city, i.e. today’s 5 Tähtvere Street. A fire and a new
beginning for pastor Oldekop could be seen as important milestones
in the development of Supilinn.