Villa
Nøjsomheden is where we live. It was originally rebuild
from a farm into a summer house by the bank director Koppel
of Århus Bank who bought the house from farmer Søren
Johansen 4 April 1872 and thereafter used to stay in the house
with his family and servants during the summer period.
The house
has 24 rooms and lays on a hilltop with a good overview of
the Brabrand Sea.
Originally
it had a large park of 26 "tønder," stretching
from the front side of the Silkeborgvej road and down to the
Brabrand Sea. Koppel imported rare trees and plants from abroad
and had a large staff to maintain the garden which also had
glasshouses with imported ovens from Holland.
The villa
and the park was an attractive place with much wildlife why
people from the area and as far as from Århus would
visit the area in weekends for picnics and walks.
Today
the park is reduced to a garden though. The villa has been
owned by the Overgaard family since 1979. A timeline of the
villa can be read at the bottom of this side.
Villa Nøjsomheden 1996
Main stairway in the house, 2002
Villa Nøjsomheden 2001 just before the original windows
from 1872 was renewed ...
The windows from 1872 was renewed in 2001.
Here it's the large window in the livingroom.
Villa Nøjsomheden 1981 when first
it was snowing heavily, then came the rain and then the cold.
The result was high snow with "a layer of candy"
The family in the garden, ca. 2000
Even it is now only a garden, and not a park, the Villa Nøjsomheden
got the first golf green in 2002. Here Jytte Overgaard is
holding the flag.
Christmas in the villa, December 2002.
New years eve at 1st floor, 2004.
The
Annex:
The annex
housed the animals, mostly horses back in 1872. Later on a
washing house was added and then in the 1947 an apartment
was made for the chauffeur of the Chocolate Producer Clausen
who owned the house then. In the 1980's the apartment was
extended further by four students who then rented it as their
apartment for some years.
After a minor fire in the roof in 1992 the annex was rebuild
and the roof extended so that two floors of the whole annex
was made into an apartment.
The annex ca. 1997
The annex' first floor anno 2002
Office in the annex, August 2003
View from the annex to the lake January, 2003
The
small annex [1998]
In 1998
yet another annex was renovated. A small house in the corner
of the garden to house garden equipment. The plan is to make
a Japanese garden next to the small annex.
The small annex [1998]
The small annex being build 1998 by Leif and Henning.
The
new floor [1994]
In 1994
the floor in the livingroom was changed after we had suspected
that there was a dead mouse below it. So the old floor from
1872 was removed and new one was laid. In the process the
ceiling downstairs in the cellar was also renewed. During
the work that went on for 6 months, it was found out that
the smell did come from a dead mouse, but it was not under
the floor but in a wall ...
The livingroom after the floor was finished
in 1994. On the table the cat Garfield.
Timeline
of Villa Nøjsomheden [1872 - 2003]
? -1872
Farmer Søren Johansen owned what was then a farm
which he had taken over from his father.
1872-1914
M. R. Koppen, founding director of Århus Bank [later
the Provinsbanken that became Nordea in 1990's], bought the
area 4 April 1872 and started rebuilding it into the villa
that is today..
He later on sold off 10 "tønder" (=13.630 acres) north of
Silkeborgvej and 10 "tønder" south of the
railroad [the land between the railroad and the Brabrand Sea].
Koppel and his family used the house for 3 months every year
in the summertime and Mr. Koppel went by his horsecar to and
fro the bank in Århus [6 kilometers] every day. His
horsecar with two black horses had a distinguished sound that
could be heard and recognized from a distance. The Koppel
family often had many guests in the house for dinner, and
the rule was that when the horses could be heard on the road,
family and friends would gather around the dining table, ready
to start dinner precisely when M. R. Koppel arrived ...
The Koppel household consisted of four maids, a chauffeur
as well as staffs working in the garden and the glass houses.
1914
Butcher, Mr. Hasle, owned the villa for a brief period.
1917
Director of Aarhus Dampmølle, Mau Knudsen bought the
villa and had electricity and central heating installed.
1936
Director of Aarhus Stiftsbogstrykkeri, Holmgreen bought the
villa. He had the local furniture producer, Thorsen Møbler,
make a dining table and chairs for 12 persons along with other
furniture for the villa, all of massive oak, so that his 10
children couldn't spoil the furniture.
1943
The dentist Kerting owned the house for a year. He had two
windows in the living room made into one large window (400
x 220 cm) as well as the dark wooden ceiling painted white
so that his wife could get some light.
1944
- 1977 Chocolate Manufacturer Clausen owned the house
and lived here with his wife and two sons. Clausen owned Elvirasminde
Chocolate factory together with his brother, but later founded
a food company at Søren Frichs Vej.
Clausen one day saw an advertisement in the newspaper for
a "large dining table with furniture" which he bought
- and later found out, from the driver who brought it, that
the furniture had originally belonged to the villa (made for
Homlgreen in 1936).
1977
- 1979 Boligfonden Bikuben bought the house and the then
15.000 m2 park with the purpose to tear down the house and
build 20 new houses on the ground. However, after having been
empty and unused for two years the villa was spared, sold
to Jytte Overgaard, and only 15 houses were build in what
had been the park of the villa.
1979
Jytte Overgaard bought the villa for herself and her two sons.
The villa housed her company that sewed curtains, and as the
rooms was renovated one after the other, part of the house
was rented out to tourists via Århus Turistbureau for
few nights at the time. In latter years the rooms has been
rented out to students for longer periods and a large kitchen
with dining area was renovated in the cellar for them [1995].
In 1979 Jytte Overgaard saw an ad on a "large dining
table" in the newspaper and bough it - and later found
out that it was the very furniture that Holmgreen had gotten
made for the villa in 1936 and which Clausen had bought back
for the villa in 1944. Several of the furnitures carry drawings
underneath which has been made by the kids during World War
II, some of the making fun of Hitler.
• 1980 - 1985 the villas cellar housed the comics studio
"Hjelm Påbudt" where Thorsten Overgaard and
four other comics drawers made comics.
• 1985-1989 the villa housed Thorsten Overgaard's advertising
agency and publishing house. By 1989 the advertising agency
had offices on the 1st and 2nd floor, part of the ground floor
and part of the cellar.
• Thorsten Overgaard has lived in the villa 1979-1990
and 1993-1994 and moved back into the annex in 2001. He has
actually had either office, room or apartment in all of the
24 rooms...
• Martin Overgaard has lived in the villa 1979-1987 and
1990-2001.
Things
that go bump in the night and so on ...
• The villa has the "blue room" on the 1st
floor in the north/west corner where "the blue lady"
is said to come back in case the color of the walls are being
changed from blue.
• In the wood next to the villa it is told that a "restless
dog with eyes that light like fire" is living [ca. 1900].
The Blue Room [ca. 1992]
