The mayor's house

The mayor’s House is one of the oldest buildings in Gammelstad. Its position in the bourgeois district of the time and certain features of the main building indicate that it was erected no later than in the early 1700s.

The house acquired its name after two owners who were both mayors of Luleå New Town around 1800. The most recent of them, Södermark, the organist, was the ancestor of the present owning family. The family has run the estate for twelve generations.

The Mayors were not just officials, they were first of all self-supporting land owners who kept horses, cows and sheep and also had a small herb and hop garden within the old town. The well-preserved cowsheds on the Mayor’s and neighboring estates are important reminders of a time when most families produced their own food.