Enerhaugen, one of Christiania's easternmost suburbs, arose after 1814. During the 1700s a few tenant farmers lived there. The 1801 census shows a few poor families totaling 22 people. In 1815 lumber merchant Jørgen Young bought and parceled out the land. The population in 1833 was 850.
Enerhaugen was considered to be a problem area, known for drunkenness, poverty and crime. Conditions improved after 1850 despite the fact that the population continued to grow. In the 1880s there were 1,800 inhabitants, most of whom lived in small, one-story houses. Most of the houses were made of logs or planks and all were eventually covered with interior and exterior panel.
Many houses had only one room and a kitchen. If there were two rooms, it was customary that one family lived in each room and shared the kitchen. People also slept in the attics, and it was common practice to take in boarders. The buildings from Enerhaugen were largely unchanged from around 1900 to 1960, when they were torn down.
Enerhaugen at Norsk Folkemuseum
House, Johannesgate 12, Enerhaugen, Oslo, ca. 1840
The house originally had two rooms and a kitchen. An another room and a covered porch connecting all the rooms was added later. (The porch is now removed.) In the 1840s and 50s, three families lived in this house. A horse, cows and pigs were kept in the back building. In 1891 the building was owned by the widow Georgine Engebretsen. She was 78 years old and lived with her daughter in the corner room. Her daughter, Elida, was single and worked as a book printer. Georgine rented the room to the right of the kitchen to seamstress Helene Sofie Madsen who was 31 and "legally divorced". The room to the left was rented by the widow Anna Simonsen, 67 years old. She lived there with her son Gustav, a longshoreman, who was 34.
House, Johannesgate 14, Enerhaugen, Oslo, ca. 1840
This house shared the same backyard as Johannesgate 12 and had a kitchen, a living room and a garret. In 1891 journeyman carpenter Johannes Eriksen and his family lived in the house. He was 44 and married to Allette, 43. They had seven children between the ages of one and 14.
House, Flisberget 2, Enerhaugen, Oslo, ca. 1840
The house had a living room, kitchen and chamber and was owned in 1865 by Maren Kristiansen. Maren was 65, and she and her youngest daughter Kaia lived in the living room. Maren's oldest daughter Karen was an unwed mother. Karen and her son Karl, 13, slept in the chamber.
House, Johannesgate 4, Enerhaugen, Oslo, ca. 1840
In the mid-1800s three families lived in this house with a kitchen, living room and garret. In 1891 there were only three people living here; Fritjof Paulsen, 47 and a longshoreman, Nicoline, his wife, also 47, and their 17 year old son who was economically "supported by his father".
House, Stupinngate 10, Enerhaugen, Oslo, ca. 1840
The house is built onto Johannesgate 4 with no exterior wall separating the two buildings. Inside there are two rooms and a kitchen. The Gundersen family lived here for decades. In 1865 Anne Karine, 55, and her husband Nils, 65, lived in one room with their two sons, who worked in a cigar factory, and their daughter Julie. Their oldest daughter was a widow and she and her three children lived in the other room. Her two sons, 14 and 16, also worked in the tobacco industry. In 1891 Anne Karine, now a widow, lived here with one unmarried son. Julie was also a widow and lived here with her children. Julie's daughter worked in the tobacco industry and her 20 year old son Eugen was a carpenter.