Erik Vorm Lind July 29, 1875 – November 1, 1958
Erik V. Lind was an architect who, from around the turn of the last century until the end of the fifties, left his mark on public and private buildings in Skive and the surrounding area and became known as a dairy architect throughout the country.
Growing up
Erik Vorm Lind was born in Nykøbing Mors in 1875 as the second son in a sibling group of 5 boys. His parents were surveyor Janus Balthazar Krarup Lind and his wife Christine Marie née Begtrup.
Both parents came from clergy families and the mother was very academic. She had helped with the education of her own 8 siblings and had helped her aunts run a private school in Fredensborg.
The family moved to Thomsensgade 20, Skive in 1887, where Janus Lind had been employed as fire director – appraiser etc. for a fire insurance company.
Apprenticeship
The mother’s experience benefited her sons and Erik V. Lind was able to take the preliminary exam in Skive after his mother’s thorough education.
The family had a tradition of academic education and his older brother was studying to become a cand. pharm, but Erik V. Lind went out on the training ship Georg Stage. Around 1893, he was apprenticed to master carpenter Kjærgaard in Skive, where he helped build the new church in 1896-1898 during his apprenticeship.
After completing his apprenticeship, Erik V. Lind did his military service in the navy and was on a surveying trip to Iceland.
The year of the nave
Like many other young craftsmen at the time, Erik V. Lind set off with his good friend from Skive, Morten Christensen. The trip took them through Germany, from job to job via Switzerland, Italy and France all the way to Algiers. The return trip was the same and after 22 months they returned home richer in experience in many areas. Lind had tried his hand at both craftsmanship and construction-related tasks.
Back home, the eldest brother Jens had become a cand. pharm and worked at Løveapoteket in Randers. Younger brother Johannes was apprenticed to grocer Kloch in Skive and took courses at the Købmandsskolen. Carl was an apprentice bookseller in Lemvig and later moved to Hillerød and the youngest – Ove, 16 – was soon to become a hardware store apprentice in Viborg.
The family had a large circle of acquaintances among the town’s best citizens, including merchants Harder and Kielgast. Jens Lind later married Hedevig Harder, daughter of merchant Adolf Ferdinand Harder, and Johannes married Vilhelmine Kirkeby, daughter of veterinarian Kirkeby.
Building drawing and first construction in Skive
Veterinarian Kirkeby’s son, Hother Kirkeby, was able to tell Erik Lind about a course he had taken in Copenhagen. In the winter of 1900/01, Erik V. Lind also went to Copenhagen, where he shared a room with Hother Kirkeby and took a course in building design at the Technical Society Schools.
His sketchbook from that period is characterized by the prevailing style of the time – National Romanticism, of which architect Martin Nyrop (Copenhagen City Hall etc.) was a particular exponent.
In 1901, Erik V. Lind was responsible for the construction of the corner property Adelgade 22/ Vestergade for the manufacturer Johan Henrichsen. The building was rendered in ashlar on the ground floor and had a blank wall on the upper floor. The building is still standing, but has been remodeled several times. In 1991, it received Skive Municipality’s building award.
In 1903, Lind traveled to the USA where, in addition to visiting his uncle and his family in Jersey City, he also took an architecture course.
His brother Johannes Lind had decided to try his luck in Siberia, where the opening of the Trans-Siberian Railway had opened up opportunities for enterprising young people and the plan was for Erik Lind to follow.
Own company
A chance meeting in December 1903 disrupted the travel plans.
Erik V. Lind met cattle dealer and master butcher Blom Wiborg at the barbershop. He was building a property on the corner of Slotsgade and Adelgade on the fire site of the restaurant “Børsen”, and the offer to be in charge of this construction was too tempting.
This was the start of the company “Erik V. Lind, Tømrermester og Arkitekt” in Skive, and “Børsen”, which was completed in 1904, became his 2nd building project.
Børsen was a striking building, which, like Adelgade 22, was originally ashlar plastered on the ground floor. On the other hand, Børsen was smoothly plastered on the upper floors of the building and had a characteristic onion dome.
Before Børsen was completed, several projects were underway. Skive Dagblad in Torvegade, and Diges’ large prestigious building on Østertorv – Brogården was underway. Skive Badeanstalt, Krabbeshus, Højslev Kro, several private villas were added, and dairy construction was underway.
The plans for an adventure in Siberia were finally punctured.
The family
At the topping-out ceremony for “Børsen”, which took place at Rosenhøj on June 23, 1904, the architect Pouline Petrea Holm – called Polly – was invited to the table. She was an orphan from Læsø, whose sister in Højslev was a former employee of cattle dealer Wiborg and still a dear friend of the Wiborg family. Polly was employed in a shop in Adelgade, but the master butcher had decided that she should “have his architect” – and so it was after the party at Rosenhøj.
In 1905, they got married and moved into the “Hytten” that Lind had built for them on Odgårdsvej. Four apartments (“workers’ housing”) were planned here, but the house ended up only being home to mortgagee Lydersen and his family, in addition to housing Erik Lind’s family and studio.
Both the studio and the family were growing.
In 1906 came son Paul Janus, the following year John Wilhelm, in 1910 Christian Birger, in 1912 only daughter Gudrun Christine and finally Carl Ove in 1914.
In 1915, Erik V. Lind designed the family’s new house at Frederiksdal Allé 3 – “Lindholm” – with a beautiful view of the river valley in what was then Skive Landsogn. This is where the children grew up and from here Erik V. Lind started his busy business career here.
The dairies
Denmark and the city of Skive were in a period of great growth. Agriculture was booming, the cooperative movement was flourishing and the railroad network was expanding. There were many tasks for a skilled architect in Skive alone, but Erik V. Lind also found a niche as one of Denmark’s leading dairy architects.
The first dairies from the late 1880s had become outdated and too small for the great expansion in agriculture that took place around the turn of the century. Due to exports, the demands for hygiene and rational operation were increasing rapidly.
From 1907 to 1935, Erik V. Lind designed or remodeled 208 dairies.
The start of dairy construction was modest with a small icehouse for a dairy in 1906, but the first actual dairy was built the following year.
Erik V. Lind got in touch with the state dairy consultant for West Jutland Niels Pedersen – Struer, who advocated the use of architects when building or rebuilding dairies, which was not common at the time.
He also encouraged Erik V. Lind to continue being a “dairy architect”, as he was ready to give it all up after the first building and contact with a “petty and distrustful” dairy board (Krejbjerg Dairy in 1907). The following year, Erik V. Lind was responsible for the construction of 3 dairies.
A problem in the previous dairies had been moisture and lack of ventilation. Erik V. Lind designed the dairies with foam halls with high ceilings and ventilation in the roof to avoid moisture and dripping water. To help with the ventilation, he developed a special patented window fitting so that windows could be opened to different degrees. The high room that Lind added across the length of the building became the trademark of his classic dairy.
It became a long list of dairies all over Jutland, especially north of Kongeåen. In total, Erik V. Lind’s life’s work, according to Paul-Erik Lind, included somewhere between 275 and 310 built dairies.
The architecture – Lind and the trends – “without style and foot dragging”?
“Some have claimed that he had no style” (quote from Skive Kommunes historie 1880 – 1940 “De tegnede Skive”) – elsewhere his change of architectural style is referred to as foot dragging (from Historisk Samfunds website). Well – Erik V. Lind’s architecture appears overall with a very diverse expression.
During the period Erik V. Lind was an active architect from 1904 until a few years before his death, several styles succeeded each other.
His first buildings were dominated by historicism. Its hallmarks are grandiose buildings using features from different historical styles with many different building parts and decorative elements – Børsen and Brogården are examples of this.
In the big cities, historicism had been abandoned in favor of national romanticism or Nordic historicism. A style dominated by traditional and – to a certain extent – retrospective trends where Danish/Nordic style elements were found from history and put together in new ways. This could be elements from older building styles combined with, for example, half-timbering and finely carved woodwork with Viking ornaments on windbreaks and dormers.
National Romanticism buildings were mainly built from around 1850 to 1920, with the Copenhagen City Hall built between 1892 and 1905 by architect Martin Nyrop as a prominent example.
In the city of Skive, this style had not yet taken hold when Erik V. Lind built his first buildings.
Presumably, the client’s wishes were decisive, because in the same period Erik V. Lind designed National Romantic buildings such as Højslev Kro from 1905, Villa Ibis in 1911 and several dairies, including Skive Andelsmejeri in Skive. Skive Andelsmejeri in 1912. But even as late as 1923, National Romanticism / Historicism was at work with Garver Thomsen’s house in Nørregade.
Erik V. Lind had also become acquainted with the skønvirke style during his studies. Skønvirke was the Danish version of Art Nouveau, a national romantic movement that was particularly popular from 1900-1930. The design and details of Skønvirke were inspired by nature, with ornaments shaped like flowers, plant vines, animals and the like.
There are examples of skønvirke in Erik Lind’s buildings – the decoration of the bookshop in Nørregade with stylized owls, decoration on the windows and doors of Krabbeshus from 1905 and Købmandshuset in Højslev.
A style period around 1915-1930 is known as neoclassicism. Some of the key features are simplicity, clean shapes, straight lines, symmetrical and harmonious structure. The aim was to create a large and clean architecture after the historicist period, where the buildings had had a very mixed expression.
Among Erik V. Lind’s buildings represent – in line with the times! – Vestjysk Papirposefabrik 1918, FDB’s joint warehouse 1922 and the (demolished) mortuary chapel at Skive Hospital 1926 represent this style.
In other areas, Erik V. Lind was almost ahead of his time.
Around the turn of the century, housing construction in Denmark was largely characterized by master craftsmen who, as the Danish Agency for Culture and Palaces puts it, “paid little attention to aesthetics or architecture”. As a counter-reaction, initiatives arose for drawing help and pattern sheets, and after several years, the National Association for Better Building Practice was established in 1915 by a group of architects based on older Danish building practices with overlaps from neoclassicism.
The buildings were to be characterized by greater simplicity with architectural coherence between the various building parts and possibly outbuildings. Proportions were given greater emphasis and red brick was more often allowed to stand as a material in itself with subdued masonry decorations and whitewashed cornices. The roofs were covered with red wing tiles, the gables hipped and the ridge laid in mortar. The windows were painted white and glazed with small panes, the front doors were finely crafted and the front dormers were flush with the facade.
Bedre Byggeskik ensured that the master masons received an architectural education by providing beautiful type drawings for single-family houses and many other building types with an emphasis on building details such as windows, doors, dormers, stairs, garden gates, etc.
E. V. Lind had incorporated all the characteristics of the style into his dairy architecture early on – even before the National Association for Better Building Practice formulated its “dogmas” – and continued to do so in his characteristic dairy style well into the 1930s.
The Bedre Byggeskik movement influenced Danish architecture until the 1930-40s, when functionalism finally took over.
Functionalism’stight cubist forms and simple facades were an approach that focused on the function of a building’s form and its purpose, rather than decoration and embellishment.
In Denmark, functionalism was seen abroad (modeled after Le Corbusier) with houses that largely broke with traditional Danish building practices (cubist building elements, flat roofs, white facades, experiments with concrete) and a group of architects who sought to combine functionalism with Danish materials and craft traditions (buildings built in brick and with tiled roofs).
From the mid-30s, Erik V. Lind’s studio began to deliver dairies inspired by functionalism: The Fuglsang cooperative dairy and manager’s residence on Vestergade in Holstebro (demolished), Mejeriet Enigheden on the corner of V. Ringgade and Silkeborgvej in Aarhus in 1936 and the dairy in Akureyri in Iceland designed the same year.
In other more technical areas, Erik V. Lind was far ahead of his time. In 1921, he made an early attempt to build with concrete elements that could be manufactured in a factory and assembled on site. It was a one-off experiment – prefabricated construction did not catch on until the 1950s. But the “Reform House” was built and later extended in 1949, and is still there at Frederiksdal Allé 58 in Skive.
1935 – the year Erik V. Lind turned 60 – brought changes to the studio.
Employed architects and partners
Erik V. Lind had employed architects over the years.
Hans Toft Hansen was trained as a carpenter and then apprenticed with Erik V. Lind. He opened his own studio in Skive in 1918 and became another prominent architect in Skive. He designed, among other things. Topps Konditori and built on Thinggade for Skive Børstefabrik.
Other names were Hans Povelsen later Herning and David Thomsen, who later became self-employed in Roskilde and was responsible for many dairies on Zealand.
Tage Hansen was hired on December 16, 1929, and after a few years in Aarhus, he returned as a partner in 1935. Erik V. Lind was now 60 years old and had started to plan his retirement, and after 1935 he gradually scaled down his activities over the years.
Some of the buildings from 1935 onwards still bear the unmistakable mark of one or the other of the partners’ hands. Tage Hansen was responsible for building in the new architectural style of the time – functionalism, as seen in the Vulkan building on the corner of Nørregade/Thomsensgade from 1935 and the Thordal brewery from the late 1940s.
The dairy architecture of later years offered a certain degree of return to the classic dairy, but with more simplified and industrially influenced(modernist) buildings.
After the death of Erik V. Lind’s death, Tage Hansen continued the company with the addition of architect Axel Ritto and even later his son-in-law Svend Sennels.
the “Home Road”
In 1941, the children had left home, Polly was suffering from Parkinson’s disease and Lindholm had become too big.
The couple therefore divided the large plot into 2 parcels with Lindholm at the top by Frederiksdal Allé. On the lower plot, facing the meadow and the river and with access along a gravel road from Frederiksdal Allé, they built “Hjemvejen” – a small gas concrete house with garage. (demolished?) The architectural firm moved to Nordbanevej.
The man behind the architect Erik V. Lind
In grandson Paul-Erik Lind’s book about his grandfather, Erik V. Lind is described as a man with pronounced bourgeois values. He was an authoritarian person – as fathers usually were back then – with old-fashioned bourgeois morals. He was a man of few words, and receiving praise was a great honor. A family member (Polly’s sister – Kathrine’s – daughter-in-law) describes Erik V. Lind as “loved in the family, warm, so cordial with lots of humor, loved and respected everywhere”.
He was a busy father with many travel days, but always home on Sundays. This gave him time to sort out the big picture in the nature garden at Lindholm, where, according to his daughter Gudrun, he had his “church service”. He had – he said – served his “church duty” in the vicarage. Despite this small detail, the values were classic: God, king, fatherland and family.
His social circle was family – his parents, Polly’s sister and her husband, their 6 children and old friends from his youth. He kept in touch with his siblings – the 3 brothers who ended up as farmers in California, the older brother who finished his career as a pharmacist in Viborg, the aunt Eline Begtrup who started the first Danish high school for women in Levring and the cousin who was a farmer in Lemvigegnen.
Erik and Polly Lind had a lifelong friendship with Niels and Mathilde Aagård Nielsen – he was a glass and coal wholesaler, and she had a dental practice in Brogården and was elected to Skive City Council for the Conservatives in 1943. Lind designed Villa Ibis in Fredensgade in 1911 for the couple and later in 1928 a coal farm in the harbor for the wholesaler.
Erik V. Lind could be a joker who played practical jokes on friends and acquaintances. During the construction of Villa Ibis, Aagaard Nielsen discovered a large granite stone with carved runes on the side and a ring-shaped mythical creature biting its own tail.
Aagaard Nielsen was very interested in the Historical Society for Skive and the surrounding area and followed the plans to establish a museum in Skive. He was not, however, an expert in history. He could not interpret the runes on the stone, which were from the older runic alphabet, or recognize that the mythical creature was in the somewhat later Jelling style. Nor did Erik Vorm Lind’s remarks that the mythical creature was a lindorm (lind vorm) arouse suspicion, so the stone was soon donated to the Skive Historical Collection.
Today, the joke has been deciphered, but the stone can still be found in Skive Museum’s park east of the main entrance.
Erik V. Lind was a member of Akademisk Arkitektforening MAA, a member of the Masonic Lodge “Cirklen” from 1915 and a member of the Conservative People’s Party.
In 1934, Erik V. Lind co-founded Skive Naverlaug in “Hulen”, a small hut in Lind’s backyard, which he had designed as a meeting place for the navers. Later they moved to the restaurant “Kilden”, where there was a nave cave, and finally they were housed in the New Citizens’ and Craftsmen’s Association’s property in Frederiksgade. The guild disbanded in the 60s.
Erik Lind also helped found the Skive Marine Association in 1941 and served as vice president for many years. In this capacity, he helped welcome King Frederik the 9th and Queen Ingrid to Skive when they arrived with the Dannebrog in 1951.
Erik V. Lind held positions of trust – he was a representative for Den industrielle Kreditforening’s county districts in Viborg, Ringkøbing, Randers and Thisted – chairman of Kreditforeningens tilsynsråd and a member of Jysk Hypotheksforening’s board of representatives.
He was on the board of the local landowners’ association in Frederiksdal and was – as a person interested in nature and birds – active in the attempt to turn the meadows and Skive river into a bird sanctuary.
In 1953, Erik V. Lind became a Knight of the Dannebrog.
In 1955, he and Polly celebrated their golden wedding anniversary, but in 1957 she died after a long illness. Erik V. Lind scaled back his architectural work even further, but continued with numerous inspections and assessments and visits to the family around the country.
1. on November 1958, he suffered a blood clot and passed away peacefully in “Hjemvejen”.
Erik V. Lind is buried at Skive Cemetery, where his grave is listed as a memorial worthy of preservation.
Examples of buildings in Skive and the surrounding area:
- Adelgade 22 1901
- The Stock Exchange 1904
- Skive Dagblad, Torvegade 11 1905
- Hytten, Odgårdsvej 18-20 1905
- Skive Badeanstalt Voldgade 9 1905 1905
- “Krabbeshus”, Nordbanevej 24 1905 1905
- Højslev Inn 1905
- Højslev grocery store, Viborgvej 227 1905
- Brogården, Østertorv 7 1905-1906
- N. S. Nedergaard’s villa, Aakjærsvej 6 1906
- New Main Building Dølbygaard, Rudemøllevej 1907
- Krejbjerg Dairy
- Skivehus grocery store, Odgårdsvej 34 1907
- Skivehus Asfalt- og Tagpapfabrik, Godthåbsvej
- SIK’s Det Røde Klubhus 1908 – later extended upper floor by Hans Toft Hansen 1919
- Feldborg Cooperative Dairy 1908
- Bonnet Cooperative Dairy 1908
- Stjernholm Cooperative Dairy 1909
- Skive Hospital 1908 – 1937 permanent architect – several extensions – almost all demolished.
- Business property for gardener Maigaard, Søndergade 3, Vinderup 1910
- Villa Ibis for wholesaler N. Aagard Nielsen, Fredensgade 1911
- Skive Boglade Adelgade 16 (bookseller Rybner Pedersen) 1912-13
- Skive Andelsmejeri, Thomsensgade 1912
- Skive Bank 1912-13 (demolished)
- Vium Mill, Jebjerg main building and farm buildings 1913
- Postgården, Sevelvej/Kapelvej Vinderup 1914
- Salvation Army, Nordbanevej / Voldgade 1914
- “Lindholm”, Frederiksdal Alle 3 1915
- Frederiksdal Allé 13, for teacher Jens Hansen 1915 (from 1923 home for Valdemar Johansen mayor 1923-1935)
- Solskrænten, Holstebrovej 23 (for A P Pedersen, Skive Børstefabrik )
- Epidemic department. Skive Hospital 1916 – today Hospice.
- Factory building for Vestjysk Posefabrik by Frederik Schade, Frederiksdal Allé 7 1918
- Consul Kielgast’s villa, Kielgastvej 10 1917
- Coal farm by the harbor for Aagård Nielsen
- Reformhuset, Frederiksdal Allé 58 1921 (later expanded with side wing in 1942)
- FDB shared warehouse, Ågade 16 1922
- Frederiksdal Allé 6 for merchant/consultant Andreas Andersen 1923
- Tanner Thomsen’s house, Nørregade 17 1923
- Nordsalling Cooperative Dairy 1923-24
- Water tower at Skive Hospital 1927
- Fire station, Møllegade 1929
- Vinderup Pharmacy, Nørregade 10, Vinderup 1929
- Skive Technical School, Nordbanevej 6 – extension 1932
- Skive Gasworks, Skive Harbor 1933/34
Examples of works from Erik V. Lind and Tage Hansen’s design studio
- Workers’ Community Bakery Skive 1939
- Erik and Polly Lind’s retirement home “Hjemvejen”, Frederiksdal Allé 1941 (demolished?)
- B&O, Struer 1941 (Schalburgteret but rebuilt with expansion after the war)
- Inspector’s residence at Hjerl Hede for H. P. Hjerl Hansen ?
- New building Nordsalling Andelsmejeri 1951 (now Cirkusfabrikken)
- Kielgastvej 30, Leather merchant Ella Münchow’s house 1951
- Vestergade 16, Arbejdernes Fællesbageri new bakery building
- Porshøjvej 35, Knud Østergård’s house 1957
Local dairies from 1907 – 1935
Brodal, Balling, Borup, Breum, Daugbjerg, Durup, Danelykke (Hem), Ejsing, Fur, Gamstrup, Højslev, Heerup, Jebjerg, Krejbjerg, Kjeldbjerg, Nordsalling, Rødding, Skive, Sparkjær, Saugstrup, Sdr. Resen, Skovlund (Resen), Thejls (Sevel)
After 1935, rebuilding and expansion of Nordsalling, Trevad, Dybbækdal (Thise).
According to an article on the website of Historisk Samfund for Skive og Omegns, Erik V. Lind is estimated to have been the main architect on around 250-60 of Denmark’s approximately 1400 dairies, i.e. on around 17-18% of the dairies of his time.
Sources:
- Paul-Erik Lind: Buildings with soul. Architect Erik V. Lind’s dairies and other buildings 1904 – 1955. Forlaget Hovedland 2021.
- History of Skive Municipality from 1880 – 1940. Skives Museums Forlag 2002. S. 282 – 291
- Historisk Samfund Skive og Omegn : E.V. Linds dairy architecture
- Ministry of Culture, Agency for Culture and Palaces
- The Danish Association of Architects – Preservation guide for better building practice houses
- Danish Architecture Center – DAC.dk /arkitektur-tidslinje