Katajanokka was originally a cape covered in dense forest. In the seventeenth century, a brickworks was already in operation and in the eighteenth century the area featured shoreline granaries and a Russian hospital. It was not until the 1840s that the canal was dug. Back then, the area was still just a shanty town; and the houses that survived the great fire of 1808 were small with turf roofs. Grassy paths zig-zagged between them and broken down fences somehow kept domestic animals in the yards near home. Since the land was rocky and uneven, estate prices were low and this is why the poorest inhabitants built their houses in Katajanokka. There were also fields in the area where cows belonging to the city folk were put out to pasture during the summers.
     Many of the inhabitants were sailors and fishermen.

Russian soldiers, shop keepers and their widows also lived in the area. Families were large and many even rented out rooms in order to make ends meet. Katajanokka was the most densely-inhabited part of Helsinki and had a shady reputation. It was infamous for its clandestine pubs.
      Most of the shacks were pulled down in the 1870s and people had to find someplace else to set up home in Helsinki. Katajanokka's town plan was completed around the mid-1890s. According to this new plan, the houses were built adjacent to one another so as to use land as efficiently as possible. The only green spot, the park between Rahapajankatu street and Kanavakatu street, came about quite by accident. The space was originally reserved for customs and shipping quarters which ended up being built elsewhere.