---
type: Place
title: Old Customs House
description: A Port Ilvess harbour-board building that became the Institute's first
  home.
tags:
- kelvarra
- port-ilvess
- the-institute
- tidal-survey
resource: raw/a-life-at-the-water-line.md
timestamp: '2026-07-16T14:52:05Z'
citadel_version: 0.3.0
---

# Old Customs House

The Old Customs House is a building in [Port Ilvess](port-ilvess.md) owned by the harbour board, which became the first home of [The Institute](../organizations/the-institute.md).[^s1]

The harbour board could not afford to heat the building and let [Maren Aldervane](../persons/maren-aldervane.md) use its two driest rooms on a handshake.[^s1] In the spring of 1949, she carried her trunk of instruments up its stairs and screwed a brass plate to the door, founding the Institute there with no ceremony beyond "a plate on a door, a barometer on a wall, and a woman with a kettle."[^s2]

By the [Kelvarra Almanac](../objects/the-kelvarra-almanac-1998.md)'s account, the Institute kept its offices in the Old Customs House for its first decades before removing in 1988 to the purpose-built campus on Corran Hill.[^s3]

In 1987, the Council of the Institute received the [Brann Tidal Survey](../projects/brann-tidal-survey.md)'s season report there;[^s4] it was submitted on 30 October of that year, shortly before the Institute's move to Corran Hill the following year.[^s5]

Clockmaker [Tomas Ferrick](../persons/tomas-ferrick.md) kept his workshop at a bench by the window there from at least 1961 to 1963, the years his own day-book records him building the harbour tower clock.[^s6]

## See also
- [The Institute](../organizations/the-institute.md)
- [Maren Aldervane](../persons/maren-aldervane.md)
- [Port Ilvess](port-ilvess.md)
- [Brann Tidal Survey](../projects/brann-tidal-survey.md)
- [Tomas Ferrick](../persons/tomas-ferrick.md)

## Sources
[^s1]: [raw/a-life-at-the-water-line.md](../../raw/a-life-at-the-water-line.md), lines 26-27 — ownership and the handshake agreement (ingested 2026-07-04)
[^s2]: [raw/a-life-at-the-water-line.md](../../raw/a-life-at-the-water-line.md), lines 27-31 — founding of the Institute there, spring 1949 (ingested 2026-07-04)
[^s3]: [raw/almanac-of-kelvarra-1998.md](../../raw/almanac-of-kelvarra-1998.md), lines 47-49 — the Institute's tenure and its 1988 move to Corran Hill (ingested 2026-07-04)
[^s4]: [raw/brann-tidal-survey-1987.md](../../raw/brann-tidal-survey-1987.md), lines 3-4 — the BTS report prepared at the Old Customs House for the Council of the Institute (ingested 2026-07-04)
[^s5]: [raw/brann-tidal-survey-1987.md](../../raw/brann-tidal-survey-1987.md), line 57 — the report's submission date (ingested 2026-07-04)
[^s6]: [raw/ferrick-workshop-notes.md](../../raw/ferrick-workshop-notes.md), lines 1-4 — Ferrick's workshop day-book, kept at the bench by the window, Old Customs House, 1961-1963 (ingested 2026-07-04)
