Sunds Village

Sundsvall was founded on property in the possession of Sunds village on the southern bank of Selångersån, at a site where the river makes a sharp bend (roughly at the location of Mid Sweden University's Sundsvall campus).

The area had long been inhabited and the population was engaged in agriculture. There was also a State demesne and marketplace. Norrstigen, the Northern Path, which was the most important coastal track passed here, other roads lead inland and the site was also linked to the surrounding world via the Gulf of Bothnia. The rushing waters of Sidsjöbäcken provided waterpower. Farmers, tradesmen and blacksmiths became the first residents of this modest urban centre with its roughly thirty blocks surrounding a central square. A church and cemetery were established in the south-western part of town. There were approximately 200 residents and despite being town dwellers they supported themselves to a considerable extent through agriculture and fishing.

Town Moves

Roughly 25 years the elevation of the land posed problems for the town. At this time the riverbed of Selångersån had collected so much sediment that the port no longer functioned. During the reign of Queen Kristina the town was ordered to move to its current location closer to the mouth of the river. The move was executed 1649 to 1650.

The leading architect of the day, Nicodemus Tessin, planned the site in accordance with the fashion of the time: a strict grid system with nine blocks surrounding an existing small lake. This first town plan remains the basis for Sundsvall's road network. The present Storgatan follows the same route as the original Stora gatan and has for centuries served as the town's main road. The main square, on the other hand, was previously situated farther to the north-east between Storgatan and Sjögatan, roughly at the site of the Jupiter block. The eastern part of the original small lake was at the present location of the central park, Vängåvan.

A map from the 1690s shows that after fifty years the town was fully built with a church, town hall, school and over ninety lots with buildings. It is estimated that the town now had around 400 residents. The town hall, with its dome-shaped tower, was situated at the square. Housing was presumably simple, single-storey wooden structures with wooden roofs, i.e. the same type of house found in the surrounding countryside.

A customs wall as prescribed by law enclosed even this town. To the east and west there were proper customs gates with guardhouses inside the wall. On the sea, incoming goods were controlled by a marine customs house off the coast that was dotted with a number of boathouses where the residents stored their goods.

A gallows hill was also situated near the town.

Expansion Westward

During the 1700s the population grew rapidly and the town experienced a period of prosperity. New lines of business were established, for example shipping, shipbuilding and the timber trade.

We know that very early in the 1700s some of the residents moved westward, out of the town again. The town was too crowded, in particular for the tradesmen who required both space and access to water for their businesses. For this reason dyers and tanners were the first to move.

A village grew, bit by bit, west of the town despite the fact that residing outside the town wall was not actually permitted. The residents also built a windmill, the only one in Medelpad. The street name, Väderkvarnsbacken (Windmill Hill) reminds us today of this period.

In 1721 Sweden was at war with Russia and Russian troops reached Sundsvall. The town dwellers fled inland and soldiers under the command of Major Fiandt attempted to defend the town but without success. (There is a memorial stone located at Videsbron.) All of Sundsvall, with the exception of the church and bell tower, was burned to the ground by the invaders. The residents of Sundsvall now faced the task of building up the town for the second time in its history.

When a new church was planned it was decided it should be located on a ridge just west of the town. The church was built of stone and was inaugurated in 1753. Following the Great Fire of 1888 the Gustav Adolf Church was raised on the same site.

By the middle of the 1700s the town had grown to such an extent westward that the area required new planning regulations. Surveyor Johan Törnsten produced a new town plan but this work was not completed until 1776. It was also during this brief period that Sundsvall was county capital and home of Governor Örnsköld. The street name Önskölds-allén serves as a reminder of this epoch.

Sundsvall now had its elongated form following the banks of Selångersån and Storgatan, with an extension along the highway to the west, was sanctioned. The newly planned but undeveloped blocks in the western part of the town represented an area appropriate for expansion that would be useful well into the 1800s.

Disastrous start to the 1800s

In 1803 Sundsvall suffered yet another disaster: a new major fire devastated the town and the residents once again faced daunting rebuilding work. The war between Russia and Sweden also had consequences for Sundsvall from 1808 onwards. A field hospital was established to attend to the needs of hundreds of injured soldiers. The town was ordered to build armed sloops, provide accommodation for troop transports and establish a territorial militia.

To add to the misery the town was struck by several smallpox and cholera epidemics at the beginning of the 1800s

Trading Rights 1812

Until the beginning of the 1800s there were no quay facilities in the town. The banks of Selångersån and the shores of Sundsvallsfjärden were lined with a multitude of boathouses crowded closely together. Aside from these, there were only a few docks and landings.

In 1812 Sundsvall was granted the long sought after right to trade directly with foreign countries. The town had had a harbour master since 1808 and had begun to construct a harbour basin and quays to accommodate the increasing maritime traffic.

During the 1830s and 1840s an entirely new neighbourhood grew up along the north bank of Selångersån where fishermen and seamen established over thirty homesteads. The district of Norrmalm was born.

Centre of Industrial District

At the opening of the 1800s there were a sizeable number of shipyards, ironworks and water-powered saws that had long been operating in Medelpad and residents of Sundsvall were increasingly involved in shipbuilding, trading in beams and maritime activities.

It was however in connection with the advent of the steam-powered saw era that Sundsvall grew to be a big city by Swedish standards of the day. The first steam-powered saw was built at Tundadal in 1849 and from an historical perspective this event marks the beginning of what was to become one of the world's largest sawmill districts. At its zenith during the 1890s the district had over forty steam-driven saws.

Karlsvik steam-driven saw at Alnö in 1890´s

Sundsvall was the centre of this industrial district. From the mid-1800s a host of businesses were launched including breweries, workshops, banks, hotels, entertainment establishments, and these enterprises were dependent upon the surrounding sawmill communities for their existence.

The Freedom of Trade Acts of 1846 and 1864 facilitated the establishment of new enterprises within industry and crafts. From 2,837 residents in 1850 Sundsvall's population grew to 9,116 in 1880.
New Neighbourhoods Develop

A process that took place in all Swedish cities during this period was the establishment of new neighbourhoods and in Sundsvall this development was particularly pronounced. Both Stenhammaren (now known as Södermalm) on the steep slope of Södra Berget and to the east, Stadsmon (Östermalm), became "suburbs" of Sundsvall and home to workers and tradesmen.

The Great Fire of 1888

It occurred on Midsummer of 1888: the event that has left an indelible impression in the history of Sundsvall. Fire ravaged the old town centre and destroyed everything except Norrmalm and a few stone buildings. The devastation was absolute. Help in the form of food, clothing and money poured in from all over Sweden.

The high fire insurance values, a well-developed banking system and the favourable business climate for commercial and industrial activity in the region meant however that a new and lavish town centre could be built very rapidly. Among the architects called from Stockholm to Sundsvall were eminent practitioners like Sven Malm, Gustaf Hermansson, A. E. Melander, Knut Gyllencreutz, and N. Källander. Master-builders, bricklayers, labourers, sheet-metal workers, carpenters and plasterers arrived from all over the country to ply their trades and test their fortunes during the construction of the new town.

Storgatan (the Main Steet) i Sundsvall, about 1900

Three and four-storey stone buildings were raised to form the core of the town and an impressive main square opened directly onto a park, Vängåvan: the two separated only by the broad boulevard cutting through the town. The first town of stone in northern Sweden rose like Phoenix from the ashes left by the Great Fire of 1888. During the 1890s Sundsvall was graced with the big city appearance befitting a sawmill metropolis.

The population had continued to climb and in 1900 Sundsvall had 14,831 residents.

The Sundsvall harbour about 1900

After the Turn-of-the-Century

The middle of the 1800s until the end of the century witnessed the building of the exclusive Stadsbacken neighbourhood, on the south slope of Norra Berget. The homes were often expensive structures richly ornamented in a range of the popular styles of the day, for example Swiss and the National Romantic style. Just to the south the newly built city of stone became the site of a number of elegant homes in stone or wood, surrounded by shady, decorative gardens.

Between the heart of town and the "suburban" communities of Stenhammaren and Stadsmon there were still areas of undeveloped land that were used for grazing and agriculture at the start of the 1900s.

In the area around the stream Grevensbäcken a number of Sundsvall's leading families had their country homes, for example consul Kihlbaum's Hasselbacken and consul Edström's Fridhem (thereof the street name Fridhemsgatan). In 1913 a new zoning plan was adopted for a residential area at Grevensbäcken. The area was given the name Hasselbacken and wooden, two-storey, multi-family dwellings were built. During the 1920s more wooden homes were raised and the neighbourhood expanded into the land between the old neighbourhoods of Stadsmon and Stenhammaren. This expansion included housing for employees of the Postmaster General's Telegraph Service (Televerket) and the East Coast Trunk Railway Line (Ostkustbanan).

During the twentieth century's first two decades the environs of Bergsgatan and the rural Sallyhill area just east of the Nacksta crofts were urbanised with small-scale, single and multi-family wooden housing. Around Oskarsgatan, lots were made available for owner-occupied homes to accommodate the employees of the mechanical engineering company Sundsvalls Verk-städer.

Sundsvall's growth was interrupted by the economic slump of the 1920s and 30s. At the middle of the twentieth century municipal amalgamation began, first with Skön and Selånger, followed by Alnö and finally with the municipalities of Njurunda, Matfors, Stöde and Indal-Liden.

Old & New

The splendid stone warehouses for colonial products located at the harbour are now known as Kultur-magasinet (literally, The Culture Warehouse) and house the city library's main branch, museum, archives, open pre-school, café and rooms for a variety of activities. Kulturmagasinet has been awarded the "Nobel Prize in Architecture", the Europa Nostra Prize, for its beautiful and carefully preserved architecture.

The trees along Esplanaden and in Vängåvan have almost grown as high as the buildings in the Stone City and Folkets Hus/Hotell Sundsvall is now taller than all of the impressive stone buildings in the heart of town. The old Norrmalm neighbourhood, which consisted of numerous of wooden buildings, was demolished at the start of the 1970s and is now occupied by telecommunication company Telia's regional office, a multi-storey car park and an office building.

In spite of all the changes the structure of the old city that began to take form during the 1600s, that expanded westward during the 1700s and subsequently to the south and east during the 1800s, is still fully evident in today's Sundsvall.

The division into blocks in the Stone City are essentially the same as the old wooden town. Storgatan remains the city's most prominent commercial thoroughfare and the stately Stone City that was raised following the fire of 1888 is largely intact. You can still admire

the double-spiral staircase of Hotell Knaust, take pleasure in the paintings adorning the facades and the abundance of "gingerbread work" of metal and brick.

The ornate homes remain on Stadsbacken. The wooden buildings of Södermalm and Östermalm still include the old neighbourhoods of Stenhammaren and Stadsmon respectively as well as the wooden structures of later decades. The areas where Sundsvall's more well-to-do once enjoyed summer leisure activities remain in the form of parks along the banks of Grevens-bäcken and Sidsjöbäcken.

Although the north bank of Selångersån is no longer graced by the Tivoli summer restaurant the former site remains as parkland alongside the old water reservoir. Farther to the west however, Folkets Park remains.

Original text from City of Sundsvall