Kolbræk farm in Dynge

The oldest part of the house may date from the 17th century and may have stood on one of the first loop farms that were separated from the Hobbelstad farms. These were homesteads that were located down by the river, and

The residents were largely involved in fishing, timber rafting and other river transport, while also raising livestock and cultivating the land.

The first residents we know of were the brothers Amund and Christen Rasmussønner, who were listed as "farmers" in the 1801 census. In addition to the houses, the property consisted of two fields and a herb garden.

Christen Rasmussen married Sissel Engebretsdatter in adulthood, and they had two children – Rasmus and Mari. When Christen died in 1822, Sissel was left with the property as a widow, before selling it to her daughter Maren and son-in-law, Peder Larsen Qverch. However, in 1835, her granddaughter Else Christine Rasmusdatter and her husband, Christopher Nielsen Steenseth from Vestfossen took over.

After Else Christine had become a widow and remarried, the property was sold in 1847 to Lars Larsen, who came from the farm Kolbræk just north of Hokksund. This is how it came to be called Kolbrækgården.

Lars Kolbræk and his wife, Mari Larsdatter, had four children – Maren, Hans Jacob, Borger and NilsAndreas – who were all unmarried and remained living with their father after he became a widower.

In the 1865 census, the sons were timber floaters, while the father had 2 horses and 5 cows and took on "any kind of work."

Maren and Hans were the longest-lived of the children, and in 1873 they sold the farm at auction. The new owner was shoemaker Lars Olsen Sand from Krokstadelva and his wife, Maren Pedersdatter, who had recently been appointed as a midwife in Hokksund. She held this position for over 30 years, so it is perhaps not surprising that many people began to call house no. 89 "Jordmorgården".

Another woman who left her mark on the house was Maren Svendsen, who from the 1930s up until

In the 1960s, she rented out rooms on the second floor. The guests were often artists of various kinds, and thus a kind of "artist colony" arose around Mrs. Svendsen's guesthouse. Hans Bakken has described this in his stories from Gamle-Hokksund:

It is enough to mention the painter Gyda Voss, whose painting from Dynge in Hokksund has been placed in the National Gallery in Oslo, Sveinung Høgslie and Idun Grüner, who both wrote poems and short stories, painted and drew. Høgslie was a childhood friend of Herman Portås, later the poet Wildenvey. When he came to visit Svendsen's guesthouse, there was reading, singing and declaiming well into the small hours. Idun Grüner was particularly interested in perfumes of various kinds, and people close to her referred to her as a walking perfumery. And when Mrs. Grüner walked down Dyngegata with her white poodle on her arm, scented with Viola Rose, Queen of the Night or 4711, yes, the children in Dynge thought they saw a revelation from a place they did not know.

In the picture above, at the bottom right, we see guests being picked up at Hokksund station.