Recently, a wooden freezer that was built next to the Whale Museum's building on the north side was demolished. As is well known, the Whale Museum's building housed for the longest time the slaughterhouse and freezer of Kaupfélag Þingeyinga, and the building was completed in 1931, and at that time it was considered the most handsome building and a productive slaughterhouse.
The appearance of the building has now changed considerably
This extension, which was demolished recently, was in excellent condition, but was neither part of the original building of KÞ nor part of the future organization of activities in the building. It turned out that the floor tiles were in incredibly good condition and were used by farmers in Útkinn. The ammonia pipes that were in the ceiling and walls and were part of the building's refrigeration system were also offered for use, and horsemen from the surrounding areas came and sawed down pieces of pipe to use in stable repairs. However, most of the material in the building was torn down and disposed of. Steinsteypir ehf was responsible for the demolition.
A remarkable story
The first cell has a remarkable history. It was built much later than the house, or in 1955, and was therefore 63 years old when it was demolished. The book "Aldarsaga Kaupfélags Þingeyinga 1882-1982" by Andrés Kristjánsson tells about when the extension was built. It says verbatim in the book on p. 350:
"In the fall of 1955, it became clear that the freezer would not accept the meat of all the animals that had to be slaughtered by the company. An extension built in 16 days was attacked without warning and 10 meat carcasses were taken into cold storage. This prevented the slaughter from stopping in the middle of the bran".
It is clear that this unannounced decision to build a freezer in just sixteen days due to special conditions on the meat market has not prevented the work from being done. The extension stood for 63 years and only two years ago the freezers in the building were turned off.
The following article about the case appeared in Tímanum on September 29, 1955.
