The villa at Supeluse 23 is associated with one of Pärnu’s wealthiest families in the 19th century. In 1896, a 3144 m2 plot was separated from the large Oscar Bööcke property and bought by Carl Heinrich Ammende, a Pärnu merchant and heir to a large trading office. 

The Ammende family

The family in Estonia was founded around 1794 by Christian Ludwig Amende (1767-1848), a master carpenter who had moved from Pomerania in Germany to Pärnu. His younger son Jacob Diedrich Ammende (1811-1898), after graduating from the local county school, gained experience as an apprentice with merchants in Tallinn and Riga, returned to his hometown at the end of 1836 and established his own commercial enterprise. By trading successfully, he rose to become a merchant, a member of the city council and an alderman of the Great Guild. His business was located on the edge of Pärnu’s old market square, which, after he acquired most of the medieval buildings around the square over the years, was sometimes called Ammende Square. 

One of his sons, Carl Heinrich Ammende (1831-1901), opened a colonial goods store on the corner of Rüütli and Nikolai streets in 1865 (the so-called Young Ammende’s Shop), supplying the urban and rural population of Pärnu with all kinds of imported goods (food, textiles, rubber, leather, etc.). In this way, the son contributed to the Ammende family becoming one of the most wealthy and influential families in Pärnu by the end of the 19th century, with operations stretching from Western Europe to Samarkand in Russia. After the death of the founder of the department store, the elder Ammende, on 5 June 1898, Carl Heinrich took over the entire management of the trading office. 

In 1896, Carl Heinrich Ammende bought a building plot on Supeluse Street from Oscar von Bööcke, commissioned the project of a summer house and immediately started building a magnificent two-storey summer house, with large five-room apartments on both floors, planned with several balconies and verandas. Unfortunately, Carl Heinrich died in 1901. The trading office was inherited by his younger brother Hermann Leopold, and the villa on Supeluse Street passed into the ownership of his widow, Marie Emilie Ammende (née Brempel). The widow, who had no descendants, lived in a townhouse at 9 Nikolai Street with her two spinster sisters. One of their sources of income was renting out apartments in the summer house. In winter, if no tenant could be found, the house stood empty. 

Summer house burglars 

At the beginning of 1935, the discovery of a shameless crime crossed the news threshold – the villa that had been unoccupied during the winter had been emptied by burglars, probably over the span of several months. Everything of value had been taken from both floors, including furniture, chandeliers, carpets, mirrors, dining sets and bed linen. Five young men aged between 16 and 22 from Pärnu were arrested as suspects and the gang was called “the summer house burglars”. The sentences initially ranged from two to four years in prison for all those involved, but were reduced later by the district court. An old woman accused of dealing in second-hand goods and knowingly buying up stolen goods was acquitted. 

Sanatorium building 

The house was expropriated by the Soviet authorities, as were all the larger villas in the coastal area. On 13 March 1941, Johannes Lauristin, Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Estonian SSR, signed a decree by which the former Marie Ammende villa, along with other buildings planned as holiday homes and sanatoriums across the Estonian SSR, was transferred to the Central Council of Trade Unions. 

The Pärnu sanatoriums would have the building in their possession, not as accommodation for visitors, but rather as staff apartments. A total of 11 apartments with communal kitchens were squeezed into what was once a gorgeous and spacious beach villa. Later, the building was in the possession of the Sanatorium No. 2-4 and its successor, the sanatorium “Rahu”. From 1974, it was on the balance sheet of the united Pärnu Resort Treatment and Recreational Institutions Association. 

Soft wind bar 

At the beginning of 1984, a plot of land was allocated from the property to the Pärnu Commercial Authority Catering Trust for the construction of another dining hall. The project was based on a standard design, which the city architect had redesigned for the sake of ambience – large display windows were replaced by wooden window frames with small sections. 

The Pärnu REV began construction in 1985, but due to the shortage of building materials, the pavilion was not completed until December 1986 and was opened for the following summer season. Catering was provided by the restaurant “Rannahoone” and the diner was called “Briis” (meaning “breeze”). However, locals started to call it the “soft wind bar”, probably as an alternative to the so-called “seven winds bar” that had been operating nearby for years. 

After the restoration of independence, the dining hall was privatised in 1991 and owned by the newly created public limited company Briis. The former villa of Marie Ammende was privatised and sold as apartment properties in 1997. Today, efforts have been made to restore the original appearance of the house as much as possible. Fortunately, many of the original details have been preserved inside the house − the coffered ceiling, original doors and the old staircase.