Kalvenes Street House No. 2

The oldest known name of this street is Boju Street, because the continuation of the street was Boju Road, which led to Boju (Boje) Manor. In 1934, Boju Street was renamed May 15, and in 1940 - May 1 Street.

Although in 1941 the Town Council gave the street its old name, in the official forms of the German occupying power, the address of the cardboard factory was “Hasenpoth, 1. Mai Str. 27”, and in the “Address Book of 1944” of Statistics Latvia, the address "Boju (1 May) 19" is mentioned, because in the Third Reich, according to the law of 10 April 1933, 1 May was a Labor Day (Tag der nationalen Arbeit), which from 1934 was renamed the German National Holiday (Nationaler Feiertag des deutschen Volkes).

From October 31, 1948, Boju Street became Komjaunatnes (Communist youth) Street. After regaining its independence, the Town Council gave the street its fifth name - now Kalvenes Street, where time has made corrections both in the construction of the street and in the numbering of houses, which makes it difficult to mark the addresses of houses in old postcards and photos.

„Herzenberg’s House” (№ 40 Atmodas Street) and beginning of Kalvenes Street around 1940

„Herzenberg’s House” (№ 40 Atmodas Street) and beginning of Kalvenes Street in 2014

Since we are now on Kalvenes Street, we have to linger again at № 2, which Wilhelm Groth sold to Ernst Neumann in 1909. It was inherited from Neumann in 1932 by Anna-Ženija Antiņa and sold to Heinrich Dorne in 1937. Since Dorne repatriated to Germany in 1939, his real estate became the property of Latvijas Kredītbanka (Latvian Credit Bank) in 1940 on the basis of the Law on the Takeover of Real Estate of Emigrant German Citizens.

The list of merchants and craftsmen registered in 1884 shows that there were various craftsmen's workshops in № 2 Kalvenes Street: shoemaker Bernitz Jukumson, tinsmith Simon Danne, watchmaker Jankel Schatz, glazier Abraham Rubenson. Abraham Lange, the cabman, also lived here.

When the Mayor of Aizpute, Wilhelm Groth, bought the property in 1899, he built a meat market here at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1903, the Governor of Courland, Dmitri Sverbejev, approved the Mandatory Rules of Meat Trade for Aizpute. The first stated that fresh meat may be sold only by local butchers in the [special] Meat Market in Aizpute or from newly established meat stands, the second that the floors in the meat market and meat stands must be asphalted or cemented, the walls painted 7 feet (2.1 m) high, with oil paints, counters covered with marble slabs or staying with zinc sheets. Then the Mayor also informed the Courland Provincial City Administration that in Aizpute there is a Meat Market at the beginning of Boju Street, which is a separate building with 10 trade spaces with a cement floor and oil-painted walls.

The documents of the Aizpute Town Council in 1923 mention "meat shars" (German der Scharren - meat shop), which was owned by Ernst Neumann. The meat was sold there by butchers: Ure Voss, Schmul (auch Samjuel) Hillelson, Abraham and Moses Goldinger. There was also a Kraul dairy shop, in 1924 also the warehouse of the Workers' Cooperative.

In the same archive fund, we find that in 1927 there was an apartment for a janitor, one shop for [butcher] Ure Voss, two for a workers' cooperative, seven for Ernst Neumann. The workers' cooperative had a butcher shop here.

It is believed that the building shown in the photo acquired its appearance in 1930, because on February 19, 1930, the Town Council did not object to Ernst Neumann's reconstruction plan at Boju Street 2.

In the 1930s, there was a Heinrich Vitols butcher's shop and a sausage shop.

Documents of the Town Council of 1934 show that Anna Antiņa owns 1 commercial and 2 industrial premises, as well as 3 garages on the current № 2 Kalvenes Street, but on August 2, 1940, the Elder of Aizpute informed the Construction Department of the Ministry of the Interior that there is an existing garage for one truck in the current № 40 Atmodas Street for the use of railway vehicles. There are no garages in № 2 Kalvenes Street.

In 1943, there was a mechanical workshop of Otto Alfreds Vītols on № 2 Kalvenes Street.

Nowadays - the building is the property of the municipality and "Aizputes komunālais uzņēmums" Ltd (Aizpute Communal Services) is located in it.

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