The small one-storey suburban house was built in 1879. It is the only house on Supeluse Street that is currently owned by the same family. 

The earliest known owner of the plot was Michel Schneider (1831-1870), who was born as Mihkel Kingsep in Halinga and settled in Pärnu as a young man to seek a living. He got married here in 1866, but suddenly died. This was also noted by the Perno Postimees, which, while emphasising the recent departure of several young men, did so as a cautionary tale through verse: “He who is healthy today, will die ill tomorrow“. One of these recently departed was surveyor apprentice from the city of Perno, Mihkel Schneider. 

His young wife Marie inherited the plot on Supeluse Street, and after remarrying only a couple of years later, became Marie Pajo (1845-1927). Marie was born in Pärnu, in Riia Village, as the daughter of Hans Dietrich Schmidt’s miller apprentice Peet Tomson from Tori. The young widow soon married Jakob Pajo (1843-1930), a carpenter and joiner from Tõstamaa, with whom she had two children, in addition to a daughter from her previous marriage. 

In 1879, Marie Pajo built a small wooden house with a façade facing Baade Street on the rather large property she had inherited, which at that time extended as far as Sääse Street. The original construction drawings of the house have not survived, but a subsequent plan from 1880 has, in which Marie added a small glass veranda to the seaward side of her wooden house. 

In 1899, probably due to the booming resort town’s need for summer apartments, the Pajo family had their outbuilding converted into a residential space with two apartments. Having moved into a courtyard house themselves, they rented out a house on the street to earn a living. 

Marie Pajo died in 1927, and her husband, an elderly man who became the owner of the house, died a few years later. The heirs were their children – Eduard, who learned to be a goldsmith, and daughter Martha Maria. 

Eduard Pajo (Est. Paju, 1873-1951), a goldsmith, moved to St Petersburg in 1911 and married Johanna Raadik from Sindi in the Estonian congregation there. While living in Pärnu, Eduard defined himself as a ‘former goldsmith’ due to his incapacity for work, and his main source of livelihood remained the income he got from the renting out the premises on Supeluse Street. In 1928, Gustav Tölp, an enterprising confectioner from Pärnu, reached an agreement with the owner of the house, wanting to open a bakery in the house and a summer café in the courtyard. 

Gustav Tölp and the summer café Silvia 

Gustav Tölp (1892-1947), born in Tori, established a bakery with six employees in the old town of Pärnu, first at Nikolai 5 and later at Nikolai 11, after World War I. In 1924, a war of words with his older competitor Damkmann broke out in the pages of the newspaper, who bluntly stated that “Tölp is not a trained confectioner as he claims, but a simple baker.” In the next issue, however, Tölp demanded an apology and said that his skills and high standards were confirmed by his large number of customers and the high places he has won at confectionery exhibitions, “which a competing confectioner can only dream of”. Tölp was indeed an award-winning confectioner, and when the Pärnu Bakers’ Society was founded a few years later with almost fifty members, Tölp was also elected to its board. 

In 1928, he got permission from the city to open a summer café in the courtyard of Supeluse 19. Based on a design by architect Soosaar, a cosy garden was created, with small pavilions with tables and a larger “fun hall” with space for a dance floor and orchestra. The “Silvia” summer garden opened on Saturday, 26 May 1928, and for years became the most popular place to spend time in the beach area. 

In the mornings, one could buy freshly baked coffee buns, as well as fine bread, sourdough bread and rye bread. Tölp’s ambition was evident by the fact that the following year, he acquired the right to run a diner in the Endla Society House for a million cents. He had big plans here too – establishing a restaurant called “Silvia”, hiring a black jazz band and building a winter garden. 

The plan, as it was, didn’t work out. In 1932, he fell out with Eduard Pajo, the owner of Supeluse 19. The following summer, “Silvia” was operating in Blumenfeldt’s house at Supeluse 13. However, the case continued with the previous landlord in court – Pajo accused Tölp of stealing a fence from the yard and Tölp accused Pajo of physical violence. 

Later, cafés and eateries were run in the building at Supeluse 19 by various tenants, the last being Irene Chaplinsky in 1939. The Soviet authorities requisitioned the living spaces of the house on the street in 1941 to house Red Army soldiers. 

Deported for religion 

Eduard Paju and his wife were deported to Siberia on 1 April 1951 as part of the deportation operation “Sever”. It was a “purge” based on religious belief, during which Jehovah’s Witnesses, who were considered anti-Soviet, were deported from their permanent residences. Around 300 people from the Estonian SSR, and around 9000 in total from the Baltic states, Belarus and Ukraine. Eduard died on the way and was buried in the Sverdlovsk Railway Cemetery. His wife Johanna was deported to the Tomsk and Karaganda oblasts. She was released in 1957. 

The ownerless houses at Supeluse 19 were taken over by the city’s housing association and managed by the local housing authority. There were five apartments in the two buildings, but since some of them were shared apartments, a total of 7 households lived here. As the buildings were by then quite old, dilapidated and “not up to Soviet standards”, the housing department undertook a major renovation in the 1980s. The building was connected to the water and sewerage systems, the window openings were enlarged, and the rusty sheet metal roof was replaced with asbestos cement. The exterior of the houses was painted yellow. 

In 1993, the house was returned to its rightful owners, Eduard Paju’s grandchildren, who have now restored the house in an exemplary manner, having removed the layers of the major Soviet-era renovations. In 2005, the house won the top prize in the “Colours to the City” competition for its bold façade colour.