156-Year-Old Frenckell Brick Becomes Hämeenkatu Window Landmark
A 156-year-old brick from the top of Frenckell's historic chimney was won in a reader raffle and is now displayed in the street-facing window of a beauty salon on Hämeenkatu, where it will be decorated for local celebrations.
According to Aamulehti, a 156-year-old brick salvaged from the top of Frenckell's historic chimney now sits in the street-facing curved window of a beauty salon at Hämeenkatu 1. It was won in a reader raffle and is visible to the thousands who pass between Hämeenkatu and the railway station every day.
Salon owner Ira Maria Suomalainen, a self-described history enthusiast, plans to dress the brick for local celebrations and make it a small landmark. "This is wonderful. Luck smiled on me and I got this brick," Suomalainen said. She and an assistant will change the decoration for events such as Tampere Day and King's Day on October 1, when the city turns 246; the display will be lit and fitted with a crown then.
The Frenckell chimney was refurbished this summer. Workers replaced about 900 crumbling bricks with suitable older or new bricks, reinstalled roughly 200 original bricks and estimate the whole chimney contains between 200,000 and 300,000 bricks, with some 80,000 in the outer layer. Repair work began with scaffolding last April.
Catch the full story over at Aamulehti
