The Keyhole House – Arthur Lowell Plaque

DOCUMENTED: Construction 1903 and architects

Nyckelhålshuset stands at Sveagatan 2 (corner Risåsgatan), kvarteret Vaktposten, Kommendantsängen / Linnéstaden, Göteborg. Wikimedia Commons and local estate/heritage descriptions record construction in **1903** after drawings by architects **R. Hanson** and **K. A. Löfmark** (Hanson & Löfmark). It is a residential stone apartment house from the early-1900s expansion of western Göteborg, when Linné filled with freer multi-storey façades influenced by **Jugend / Art Nouveau**.

DOCUMENTED: Architecture and the keyhole nickname

The well-preserved exterior mixes light smooth render, red brick and limestone, with plant ornament, undulating eaves and two prominent corner turrets. The staircase entrance is uniquely **keyhole-shaped** — the feature that gave the building (and Brf Nyckelhålet) its popular name **Nyckelhålshuset**. Stair hall details include ceiling rose and wall ornament; a small front garden with wrought-iron railing sits before the portal. Period apartments retain high ceilings, mouldings and timber floors typical of the era. Later attic conversion added loft flats while keeping the landmark exterior (estate press ~2020).

DOCUMENTED: Linnéstaden context

Around 1900 Linné / Kommendantsängen developed as a dense residential district of café streets, trams and monumental stone blocks near Skansberget — part of Göteborg’s westward growth after the wooden-city era. The house remains a private housing cooperative; the exterior and plaque are the public curiosity.

DOCUMENTED: Percival Lowell (the real astronomer)

**Percival Lowell** (1855–1916) was a real American astronomer whose Mars “canal” maps fuelled popular speculation about intelligent life — later explained as optical illusion / pareidolia. He is **not** documented as a resident of Sveagatan 2. Haunted Sweden found **no verified primary evidence** that Lowell visited Göteborg in June 1909 or stayed in this building. The plaque’s “Arthur Lowell” is a **fictional / playful name** attached to Lowell’s public fame.

Preservation / access

Exterior publicly viewable from the street (corner Sveagatan / Risåsgatan). Active private residence — do not enter. Nearest transit often cited as Prinsgatan (Atlas Obscura).

URBAN LEGEND / PUBLIC ART: The Lowell plaque (not historical monument)

**Plaque wording** (English paraphrase widely published; Swedish façade text equivalent): that the house is haunted by a tall, slim, headless man — the ghost of astronomer **Arthur Lowell**, “discoverer of the canals on Mars,” who stayed in a second-floor apartment **3–16 June 1909**.

Who commissioned it / when it appeared

According to **Atlas Obscura** (and matching secondary coverage), the sign is a remnant of Swedish artist **Thomas Liljenberg**’s **1998** public-art project ***Gothenburg Haunts***: temporary plaques around Göteborg blending real city history with invented stories to make familiar places feel strange again. The Keyhole House plaque was meant to be temporary; it remained, and the fiction took root as local legend. Treat this as the best-documented origin for the plaque — an **art intervention**, not a parish or municipal historical marker.

Why “Arthur” / Percival?

The figure evokes **Percival Lowell**; “Arthur” is almost certainly an intentional twist or artistic error. There is **no verified historical evidence** that Lowell haunted — or lived in — the building. Göteborg & Co / Göteborg.com retell the plaque story in haunted-city guides without claiming archival proof of the stay.

Public reaction

Residents, ghost hunters and tourists have reacted with unease, curiosity and amusement for years. The site appears on official tourism haunted guides and Atlas Obscura — a rare case where **modern public art became urban folklore**.

FOLKLORE / MODERN WITNESS MOTIFS (anecdotal)

Headless tall man near the entrance; unease at the plaque; ghost-walk stop reputation. No controlled paranormal investigation with scientific standing was located. Do not exaggerate: reputation = plaque + tourism storytelling.

Special points of interest

1. **Bronze / metal plaque** — main attraction; source of the legend (art-project remnant). 2. **Keyhole entrance** — unique 1903 architectural feature. 3. **Historic Jugend façade** — turrets, ornament, render/brick/limestone.

Atmosphere, investigation ideas, best conditions

Quiet residential corner, decorative Jugend façade, keyhole portal, one of Göteborg’s best hidden curiosities. Ideas: Who created the Lowell plaque?; fact vs fiction; newspaper-archive search; did Percival Lowell ever visit Göteborg?; history vs urban legend documentary. Best: evening, blue hour, night photography. Respect residents — pavement only.