History Stories

A Life behind the narrowest door of the village or the history of the Eura Chemist's and the House of Hamms

A red and white painted neo-renaissance baulk house was built in the beginning of the 1890's and nowadays it is known as a house of Hamms. In the very beginning there were acted a different kind of offices for a vet, a local police and post officers in the main building and a large workshop for carpenters in the outbuildings around the courtyard.

Olga and Frans Ansio bought the plot with the buildings in the beginning of the 1900's. Frans founded a carpenter's workshop there and designed as a master of carpenter pieces of furniture and he hired workers, too. Olga opened the first fashion shop there in Eura at the 12th of May in 1936. Her youngest daughter Meri founded the first chemist's in the Eura district.

Meri Ansio (after marriage Hamm) opened the narrow doors of the Eura ChemistÕ' and started her business. She thought the history of the house and the shop as a reflection of the whole history of Finland, from the time of Czar through the time of coup d' at and war till modern times, and so she maintained products, equipments and advertisements from the different decays. Now these items are exhibited in the shop. A furnishing is authentic and designed by Frans Ansio who made them for his daughter.

Meri Hamm was born in the 21st of January in 1910. She was 26 years old delicate and unmarried lady founding the chemist's, a rare and very modern shop in the provinces in those days. There were only a few wholesale firms in Finland at that time, so Meri, who knew German, ordered cosmetic products directly from the big film studios form Berlin. These were the same companies who made up Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich, too! Before the Second World War and especially after that Meri produced by herself ointments, lotions and a different kind of herbal dissolutions into customer's own containers. For this purpose she had to get special permit from the county administration allowed to produce these items. Nobody else was licensed to do this in Eura expect Meri Ansio and pharmacists.

Meri Hamm took care of her store and book-keeping by herself till the day she died (10th of April 1994). Founding her shop this radical lady raised a confusion and even disapproval in the village. But business is still running on, this time by her artist daughter.

There is Pirjo Hamm-Hakamäki's atelier in the next room from the shop, the same room where her grandmamma Olga Ansio kept her clothing and fabric store. There is still the same furnishing in the room, but a fabric desk is changed to the drawing table and pigeonholes of the old post office are now filled with materials of artist.

You can buy Pirjo Hamm-Hakamäki's little paintings, cards, jewelleries and of course cosmetics of the day, perfumes and bath products over there. The Eura Chemist's is widely known of a large choice of sweet smelling fine soaps of the good old days. It has been soaked a lovely scent of the perfumeria into the wall of the chemist's.